In October 1987, a Spanish teacher named Manuel Castro volunteered to help build a haunted house at the Pickleweed Community Center in San Rafael. While he was working, he noticed an empty room down the hall and asked whether he could use it. According to The Pitch, the student paper at Archie Williams High School, he built an altar there and hosted a small Día de los Muertos gathering with about ten people.
On Saturday, November 7, the city's Day of the Dead celebration returns to that same site, now the Albert J. Boro Community Center at 50 Canal Street, from 3 to 9 p.m. Since that first evening, the event has added a car procession and altars in downtown shop windows. Its center has stayed in the Canal neighborhood, at the park where it began.
A room borrowed from Halloween
Castro told The Pitch why he started it. In his words:
"I was a new immigrant, and there was nothing here for Latinos to celebrate Día de los Muertos. I needed to honor my relatives who passed on."
The same article dates Marin's yearly celebration to 1988, the year after Castro's first altar. Over the following decades it grew into a volunteer-run community event at Pickleweed Park. Castro also described how his own family observes the holiday. In the days before November 1 and 2, they gather things their loved ones treasured, such as food and candles, set tables with flowers and candies, and spend the time around the altar sharing memories.
The public event still follows that pattern. People still build altars and share memories. The main change is the number of people who now come to see them.
Why the procession walks Canal streets
As attendance grew, the organizers kept the procession in the surrounding neighborhood. In 2018, the Marin Independent Journal reported that the walking route had been changed to cover more Canal streets. Steve Mason, a City community-services supervisor, told the paper the event was rooted in the Canal community and welcomed people from outside it.
Behind the scenes, it is run by a committee of neighbors and local organizations. Pacific Sun described the 2020 organizing committee as artists, business owners and community members. Catherine John chaired it that year, and Douglas Mundo represented the Multicultural Center of Marin. By 2023, the Marin Independent Journal named the Multicultural Center of Marin as lead sponsor and Karina Ramirez-Cortez as event chair. It also noted that Mason had served on the organizing committee for 15 years.
The City's recap of the 2025 celebration credits the work to several partners: the City of San Rafael, the Multicultural Center of Marin, the Canal community, volunteers and local organizations. No single institution owns it. It runs on volunteers who return year after year.
What the pandemic added, and kept
In 2020, Pacific Sun reported that the celebration went online. In 2022, Catherine John told Pacific Sun that the event had continued in a semi-virtual form in 2020 and returned in person in 2021. During that period, organizers added two traditions people could enjoy while keeping their distance: a car procession through San Rafael and altars displayed in downtown storefronts. Once in-person gatherings returned, both stayed.
As a result, the observance now spreads across more of the city and more of the calendar. The official event site lists the car procession and storefront altars alongside the Pickleweed gathering. The car procession has not always been on the same day as the main event. In 2023, the Marin Independent Journal reported it took place October 21, two weeks before the evening at Pickleweed.
The storefront altars bring the holiday to Fourth Street. The organizers' altars page has listed downtown hosts including the Multicultural Center of Marin on Fifth Avenue, Sapori Restaurant at 869 Fourth Street, Bank of Marin at 1101 Fourth Street, Cooperfields Book Store at 1200 Fourth Street, Youth in Arts at 1337 Fourth Street, Art Works Downtown at 1325 Fourth Street and the San Rafael Public Library on E Street. That list may not match this year's hosts. The altars page says 2026 locations are to be announced, and the Downtown San Rafael Día de los Muertos page says 2026 displays are planned for October and November, with a map coming soon. Check both pages for the current map before setting out.
Even with these additions, the procession and the evening celebration still take place at Pickleweed Park. The storefront altars and the car procession point people back toward the Canal community center where the event began.
Saturday, November 7, from 3 to 9 p.m.
The City's 2026 event listing lays out the evening at the Albert J. Boro Community Center:
- 3 p.m. Doors open with family art activities, music, face painting for children, food for sale and altar viewing.
- 6 p.m. The yearly walking procession leaves for the Canal neighborhood.
- After the procession People return to the community center for live music, traditional food and cultural performances until 9 p.m.
Admission is free. If you want to go once, plan to be there at 6 p.m. Everything before that builds toward the procession, and everything after it celebrates its return.
For a sense of the range of performers, the Marin Arts calendar listing for 2024 included Pan Rafael, Canta con Arle, Enriching Lives Through Music, Mariachi Dinastia Torrez, Danza Azteca Mixcoatl, Ballet Folklórico Netzahualcoyotl and Los Bahianatos. Expect a mix of mariachi, Aztec dance and folklórico, though this year's names may differ.
Shuttle and parking details have changed from year to year, so check dayofthedeadsr.org shortly before you leave. If you want to do more than attend, the organizers' volunteer page asks people to sign up by Saturday, October 31, and volunteers get a meal.
Walking it as one evening
Because of the pandemic-era additions, you can make a full afternoon of it. Start on Fourth Street in the early afternoon and walk past whichever storefront altars are on the current map. Then head east to the Canal before 3 p.m., when the community center opens. Spend the late afternoon at the altars inside, and stay for the 6 p.m. procession through the neighborhood streets.
If you caught Novato's first car ofrenda display on the Civic Green, San Rafael offers a look at the same holiday in a much older local form. This one started in 1987, when a teacher asked to use an empty room. For more on San Rafael beyond this one Saturday, see our San Rafael neighborhood page.
At the Kristie Martinelli Team, we keep track of these community dates all year. If you are thinking about where your family fits in Marin, we are glad to share what we know about San Rafael's calendar along with its homes. Work With Us.
