As long as they live in our memories, family members and loved ones who have died remain with us. That’s what is celebrated on the Day of the Dead, an indigenous Latin American tradition that survived both Catholic missionaries and the modernizing state to flourish in recent years, featuring in more than one Hollywood blockbuster. Regina Marchi, a professor at Rutgers University and author of Day of the Dead in the USA, talks us through the origins, evolution and contemporary celebrations of the Day of the Dead.

Explorer, film-maker and writer, Hugh Thomson, picks the best books on Mexico, from the revolution in 1910, to the conquistadors, to gold mines, to the fatalism of Mexico and more.