“They’re, shall we say, recent historically.”
“They are not common,” said Hermosillo’s municipal historian Ignacio Lagarda of such Halloween houses. Over the course of a few hours on a recent Friday, dozens of families came and went to admire the house. “And outside, it started growing, growing and growing, to what you see today,” he said. When he returned to Sonora, he suggested to his sister picking up some of their own decorations, which quickly outgrew the house and spilled out into the yard. In the 1990s, González worked in forestry in Idaho, and in October would marvel at the effort people put into Halloween decorations, which he said rivaled the Christmas light displays. The origin of the unique tradition traces back nearly three decades, and more than a thousand miles north. 3.”Įveryone chips in, but González, an electrical engineer, did all the wiring himself, and the energy intensive display even has its own fuse box. He claims that as many as 1,000 people visit nightly, which is easy to believe given the steady crowd of dozens, with families constantly cycling in and out to enjoy their labor love. “That’a a source of pride for us,” said Juan Guillermo González, who, together with his siblings, has put together the display for now 23 uninterrupted years. “My favorite part is the ….” said a young girl, pausing to give it some thought.
Skulls and full skeletons, witches that share cackling refrains, snaking strands of lights, brightly lit jack-o-lanterns, and countless other All Hallow’s Eve knickknacks.įrom the roof, a giant inflatable spider keeps watch over the sizable stream of admiring families that come and go every October night.
Juan Guillermo González and his siblings have been decorating the house for now 23 uninterrupted years, and says they'll keep doing it as long as they can.ĭusk had almost given way to dark on a recent Friday, and the sounds of the living dead and other blood-curdling ghouls fill the cool air around an otherwise ordinary home in central Hermosillo.īut this time of year, the house is hardly visible through the intricate Halloween display.