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David Cáceres says he knows it may sound odd, but in some ways he feels closer to his late mother now than when she was alive. He and his brother José grew up selling her pan dulce on the streets of Mexico City, and now use her recipes to bake sweet buns and breads by the dozen at their San Antonio bakery La Panadería. Every day, they’re surrounded by her memory—and her presence is never more palpable than when Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, rolls around.
“I can see her in every guest that comes to the bakery,” David says. Weeks before the holiday, the kitchen ramps up output of its signature pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, as families prepare to welcome back lost loved ones. During Día de los Muertos, observed in Mexico and throughout the diaspora on Nov. 1 and 2, it’s believed that the departed embark on a journey to visit the realm of the living. Sweet and fluffy pan de muerto—usually flavored with citrus zest and orange blossom water, decorated with bone-shaped patterns, and sometimes sprinkled with multi-hued sanding sugars—is served to pay homage to lost loved ones.
With so many local Mexican bakeries embracing the spirit of the season, it’s hard not to come across pan de muerto in San Antonio this time of year. Bedoy’s Bakery has been churning out the loaves for more than 60 years,
