He is the Pied Piper of puppet-y merriment at Fort Lauderdale’s annual Florida Day of the Dead festival, with a dash of Peter Pan, his blond mane streaked with magenta — but the boundless enthusiasm of Jim Hammond finally had found its limit.
As he waded through the receding water from a historic flood, after April storms dumped nearly 26 inches of rain on his downtown Fort Lauderdale neighborhood in a seven-hour period, Hammond discovered the submerged face of his alter ego, a large papier-mâché, sugar-skull head he calls “my Catrina.”
Hammond’s studio had filled with 3 feet of water, and he had lost more than half of the puppets that have been crowd favorites at his family-friendly Day of the Dead celebration for more than a decade. Down the street, the home he shares with wife Shelly Bradshaw was similarly inundated.
But it was the discovery of the Catrina that stirred a unique emotion in Hammond, a singularly colorful character at the intersection of art, community and entrepreneurship in Fort Lauderdale. With a resume that includes multiple tours with Disney’s Broadway musical “The Lion King,” Hammond has known many puppets, but this one had become a special persona. He had worn the Catrina to hundreds of local events in recent years.
“She was that alter ego, you know? We all wander around this world and wear different masks. I’m fortunate enough to be able to literally wear a mask that I can embody as part of myself sometimes. And me going to these events as Catrina so helped me understand myself better,” Hammond says, with some emotion in his voice.
When he found the Catrina, her halo of marigolds had turned to mush and her bright red lips were gone. So was the passion for his signature festival, which has been listed among the best Día de Los Muertos celebrations in the country by the Travel Channel, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.
“I picked her up and she just crumbled. That, at the time, said to me Day of the Dead was gone. We were not going to have Day of the Dead again this year,” Hammond says.
But a funny thing happened on the way to its cancellation: Hammond began hearing from sponsors, supporters and local residents who read a South Florida Sun Sentinel story about his experience in the flood.
Jarred John, co-owner of Damn Good Hospitality Group, which operates Revolution Live, Backyard and Stache, has helped organize Florida Day of the Dead for a decade. He reminded Hammond of how special the festival’s mix of entertainment, education, history, culture and all-ages fun has been.
“It really brings the community together. It’s personal. I said, ‘Listen, Jim, we’ll do whatever we have to do to keep the event alive,’” John says.
John reminded Hammond that even at the height of the pandemic in 2020, they held a smaller, socially distanced Florida Day of the Dead, with Hammond’s puppets waving from flatbed trucks.
“Gosh, I love the guy. He’s an artist, and he’s a very passionate person. But I do understand where he’s coming from. I do understand the hard times people endured. The storm really affected a lot of people. But (Florida Day of the Dead) is definitely a tradition that we can’t let pass. It’s like a torch you never want to let go out,” John says.
A turning point came when Hammond took inventory of his puppets and found many had survived, including those that had been stored at Miami Brewing Co. in the Redland.
For the past three years, Hammond and the Homestead-based Mexican American Council have organized separate Day of the Dead pop-ups in the Redland, the farming community south of Miami with a large Hispanic population, storing some larger puppets at the brewery, with its high ceilings and air conditioning.
With Hammond’s studio still being renovated, brewery owner Peter Schnebly invited him to use a large room at the facility as a workshop to do repairs in what Hammond calls “the puppet graveyard.”
As life settled down — it would be more than four months until he and Bradshaw could move back into their home — Hammond reconsidered, and the show was back on.
The 14th annual Florida Day of the Dead festival and parade will return on Saturday, Nov. 4, in a new location at Esplanade Park.
From 3 to 7 p.m., the park will be ringed by Latin-themed food trucks, crafts booths and kids’ activities, with artists on hand for sugar-skull face painting. The Folklorico Stage will showcase more than 100 performers offering indigenous and traditional folk dance and music from Mexico and across Latin America.
Across the street, the atrium of the Museum of Discovery and Science will have selfie opportunities with puppets from Hammond’s Puppet Network and the Puppet Guild of South Florida from 3 to 5 p.m.
At 6 p.m. is the celebration’s iconic Skeleton Processional, a costumed stream of Frida Kahlos, sombrero-topped skeletons, masked luchadores, mariachis, marigolds and Hammond’s iconic puppets. Think of it as a community art piece, open to anyone who wants to jump in. There also are volunteer opportunities at DayOfTheDeadFlorida.com.
The stroll ends with the traditional street party in front of Revolution Live and Backyard, a family-friendly gathering of music, vendors and more food trucks until 10 p.m.
Somewhere in the revived planning of the event, Hammond made peace with the loss of his alter ego.
“It’s a conversation about what Day of the Dead is about,” he says. “That Catrina puppet was me losing a friend. That Catrina puppet was the death of part of me. And that’s what Day of the Dead is about. Not mourning the loss but figuring out a way to celebrate the life, and what you’ve got from your experience with that energy while they were here on the planet.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Florida Day of the Dead
WHEN: 3-10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4
WHERE: Downtown Fort Lauderdale, beginning at Esplanade Park, 400 SW Second St., and concluding with a street party outside the Revolution Live complex, 100 SW Third Ave.
COST: Free
INFORMATION: DayOfTheDeadFlorida.com
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.