THE JAMES BOND MOVIE SPECTRE ACTUALLY STARTED MEXICO CITY’S DAY OF THE DEAD PARADE
It’s simply amazing how much media can impact culture. Usually, we think of that relationship mostly moving in the other direction. But I must say this example to the contrary caught me by surprise. Back in 2015, I remember being pretty happy with the James Bond movie installment of Spectre. It had everything you could possibly want in a contemporary James Bond film. But it will now also stand out for the first movement in the film, which features Daniel Craig hunting a bad-guy target during the Day of the Dead Parade in Mexico City. But little did we know, no such annual parade existed in Mexico City until they mocked one just to make the movie.
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THE ACTUAL DAY OF THE DEAD PARADE BECAME A TRADITION IN MEXICO CITY ONE YEAR AFTER THE MOVIE
So now the Day of the Dead Parade is, in fact, an annual tradition in Mexico City. But the tradition began the year after Spectre came out, in 2016. This is pretty amazing, especially given how I can remember wanting to go to Mexico City for this event while watching the movie, not having any clue whatsoever that the parade itself was fiction. Well, until Daniel Craig’s portrayal of James Bond as a well-dressed and sexy living dead figure abandoned his even sexier Mexican date to go hunt down his Spectre target. He literally walked away from her waiting on the bed and walked out the bedroom window.
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THE DAY OF THE DEAD CELEBRATION WELCOMES ANCESTORS HOME, ONCE A YEAR
But apparently, the visuals of a fictional Mexican cultural event were so convincing that the locals decided to run with it. And now the Día de Muertos, of Day of the Dead Parade is about to have its 9th iteration on November 2nd. If you’re not familiar, it’s an All Hallows Eve celebration that honors dead ancestors and welcomes them home. The whole dynamic of a James Bond film creating a cultural event in Mexico from its own traditions is a perfect example of the “pizza effect,” where the Day of the Dead Parade as an idea goes into another culture, and then goes back into its original, Mexican, culture in another form.
It just might be time to revisit Spectre as a Halloween movie.
