Calendula flower, essential in Mexican altars

Prepared with its characteristic scent and color to guide souls during the Day of the Dead, the marigold flower has already begun the harvesting process to reach the altars of Mexican homes.

In the municipality of Atlixco, in the central state A Mexican from PueblaField workers arrive from early morning with machete or sickle in hand to cut the stems of each flower.

With the love that this city shows to this plant, cutters choose the best in order to provide customers with the highest quality, with the goal of preparing their altars to receive their family, friends and acquaintances on the traditional Day of the Dead that is celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd.

This endemic flower of the country has a special shape and has an eye 56 species on the whole territory, however, it does not lose its character essence It has more than 20 petals in yellow, gold or orange color, a penetrating fragrance that can be felt only in October and November, and it is so unique that its lifespan is a maximum of four months.

Good production, but a bit of work

Modesta Delgado Juárez, a cempasúchil producer, shared with EFE that this year’s flower production was very good for all producers in the region and revealed that she had achieved three hectares of “flor chinita”, that is, large flowers with many curly petals, which he achieved after combining several seeds.

However, he said the producers faced two problematic: The first is the reduction of the labor force, due to workers migrating to the United States of America, and the second is the rain that hit the state of Puebla last week due to Hurricane Otis, which turned some flowers black.

“The harvest was great, thank God we had it product very good, it went quite well, the only thing was that on the last date due to the rain that came from the hurricane it was a little stained, but that’s something natural, but we had a great production,” he expressed.

He said that in these cut or lift days flower There were few workers and because of that the process was delayed, however, neither the delivery of orders nor their marketing were affected because they work longer in the field.

“There was a lack of labor, there was a lot of production. The production It was the same, what happens is that many relatives “Those who come to help us, who come from the communities of Coyula and San Miguel Ayala, have migrated to the United States and continue to migrate, causing a reduction in the workforce,” he lamented.

He also noted that the price of selling flowers varies, because in recent days, the “suitcase”, that is, large piles of flowers that are arranged on two sides so as not to be damaged, has started to be sold for 70 pesos ($3.88) each, and these days it has reached 150 pesos ($8.32).

Ricardo Cristiano, a field worker, said he supports the logging marigold choosing the best ones so that the customers leave satisfied, to do this they spend more than 13 hours in the field cutting the flower in full sun.

“In order to have a good flower on the altars, they have to choose the most beautiful, there is something right now burned we also throw that one, and (we have to) gather all the best who are on the field”, he explained.

In this place there are about 100 families who are consecrated production of this flower and they estimate they will collect 75 million pesos (about $4.1 million) from the sale of this product during this season, according to data from state and local governments.