In the 1960s, Roberto Williams García documented among the Tepehua the practice of placing a cloth over the face of the newly deceased during funerary rituals. For the author, this constituted a type of mask.
Today, cloths appear as pillows for the dead, while masks are now employed by the living to temporarily obscure their identity from the deceased. During funerary rituals, Tepehua gravediggers prepare an infusion of muicle (Justicia spicigera) to offer to those in attendance and to anoint their faces. This purple-colored liquid prevents people from confronting the deceased “face to face.” In other words, people become unrecognizable to the dead; unable to recognize family members and neighbors, the deceased understands that he is alone and may continue on to his destination in the other world.
Deceived by this muicle mask, the deceased is reconciled through a banquet laid out within what was once his home.