Sunnyside's Day of the Dead Procession Starts in a Garden That Began as a March

In the early 1990s, parents in northwest Denver walked through their neighborhoods carrying crosses. Each cross had the name of a child who had been killed. According to a 2013 Denver Post account of the garden's history, the marches raised awareness, but the families wanted something that would stay put. In 1993 they founded the Troy Chavez Memorial Peace Garden at 3825 Shoshone St.

This Sunday, Nov. 1, people will start walking from that garden again. The gathering for what the listing calls "Denver's oldest Día de los Muertos celebration" begins there at 4:30 p.m. At 5 p.m. the procession heads for La Raza Park.

The route is short, but it ties together two traditions. One is a memorial garden that started as a march. The other is a Day of the Dead celebration that has marched through north Denver since the 1980s.

Sunday, Nov. 1, Hour by Hour

The event listing on the West Highland Neighborhood Association calendar was shared by the office of Councilwoman Amanda P. Sandoval, who represents District 1. It sets out the evening like this:

The listing invites community members to set up their own ofrendas. It doesn't name performers or explain how to sign up, so the safest plan for an altar is to arrive at the park ready to set up when the festivities start at 5:30. Sunday is also the end of daylight saving time. Clocks fall back that morning, so it will be dark well before the program ends.

A Garden Built Out of Walking

The garden carries the name of Troy Chavez, a 16-year-old from the community who was lost in 1993. The Denver Post reported that community activist Margaret Montano and other northwest Denver parents organized the peace marches. Troy's family later helped lead a newly formed board that created the garden to honor children whose lives had been taken.

The Troy Chavez Foundation's garden page calls it a joint project of the foundation's grassroots group and Parents for Peace. It says the groups had been carrying memorial crosses and wanted a permanent place for victims. The foundation lists Nita Gonzales as its mediator and community coordinator. Her name also runs through the history of the Day of the Dead celebration at La Raza Park.

So when people gather at Shoshone Street at 4:30 on Sunday, they're starting from a place that grew out of an earlier set of marches in memory of the dead.

Four Decades, Several Routes

The procession has moved around over the years. Its main points have stayed the same: a march, a meal or a gathering, and La Raza Park.

1. The 1980s march. In a 2023 interview that Bucket List Community News republished in October 2025, Councilwoman Sandoval said Nita Gonzales and the Gonzales family had hosted Día de los Muertos at La Raza Park since the '80s. Marchers went down 38th Avenue, turned left on Tejon, then right on 32nd, and ended at Escuela Tlatelolco, "and they would feed everyone."
2. Past La Casita. In the same interview, Sandoval said her family owns Tamales by La Casita and that the march always passed in front of it.
3. 2019, toward North High. Westword's 2019 preview said that year's procession would start at La Raza Park and end at North High School. Local nonprofits, North High and Councilwoman Sandoval sponsored it.
4. 2021, garden to park. 9News reported that Servicios de La Raza was helping host the 2021 celebration. The procession left the Troy Chavez Peace Garden at 5:15 p.m. for La Raza Park, with performances and food at the park.
5. The festival format. Sandoval said the parade-style event stopped during COVID. When it came back, Nita Gonzales suggested using La Raza Park's El Kiosko and having the community set up its own ofrendas, "more like a little festival, like you would see in Mexico City." The District 1 office's archive describes a 2022 celebration with music, dancing, storytelling, sugar-skull decorating and mariachi.
6. 2026. This year combines the two. There's a procession from the garden, as in 2021, and then community ofrendas and performances at the park until 8 p.m.

The 1980s route ended at a school where everyone ate. In 2019 it ended at a high school. Now it ends at El Kiosko, where neighbors build the altars themselves.

If You're Bringing an Ofrenda to El Kiosko

There's no single correct ofrenda. In the Bucket List interview, Sandoval described what goes on her own family's altar:

"For people who are making the journey through the veil, it's said that they're thirsty, so you put out water. You put food so that they can have some of their favorite food. You put the marigolds, which represent color; they represent life."

She also said her family adds salt, sage for cleansing, and monarch butterflies. In her words, the monarchs represent ancestors "coming back to visit you on their wings." She said the altar is never the same from one year to the next. She sets out photos, favorite foods and drinks, books, and anything the person "held near and dear." For her father, that included bubble gum, green chili, red chili and homemade beans.

That's one family's tradition. The idea behind El Kiosko is that each family brings its own.

Before and After Nov. 1

Several other events fall in the days before and after the procession.

Today, Thursday, Oct. 29. Denver Public Library's Woodbury Branch is hosting Día de los Muertos: Calaveras de azúcar / Sugar Skulls from 4 to 5 p.m. in its Basement Community Room. It's a bilingual sugar-skull decorating program, and participants take their skull home. That's a handmade piece you could put on an ofrenda by Sunday.

Before Sunday. A 2026 Bucket List roundup of Mexican bakeries lists pan de muerto at Panadería Rosales, 2636 W. 32nd Ave. The roundup doesn't promise daily stock, so it's worth calling ahead. Pan de muerto is a natural thing to bring to a celebration whose 1980s march ended with a meal.

Friday, Nov. 6. Denverite's 2026 roundup lists Museo de las Americas' Cultural First Friday Día de Muertos Celebration at 861 Santa Fe Drive. It starts at 5 p.m. and has no cover. The same evening, from 5 to 9 p.m., CHAC holds its First Friday Opening Baile de los Muertos at CHAC @ 40West, 7060 W. 16th Ave., with RSVP available.

Saturday, Nov. 7. CHAC's free La Llorona Festival, a Tribute to Día de los Muertos, runs from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales Denver Public Library, 1498 Irving St. It includes oral storytelling, music and a heritage workshop.

Through Sunday, Nov. 15. CHAC Gallery's Día de los Muertos exhibition, Blooming Through the Spirit of Cempasúchil, is up at 834 Santa Fe Drive. In the exhibition's description, the cempasúchil is the flower whose color and scent are "said to guide spirits home each Día de los Muertos."

Sunday's procession is the only event on this list that starts in Sunnyside. It gathers at 3825 Shoshone St. at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 and walks to La Raza Park at 5.

If you know someone thinking about a move to north Denver and you'd like them to see the community traditions that go with a home here, Joaquin Avila is happy to talk it through, en inglés o en español. Schedule a Free Denver Market Consultation whenever the timing feels right.