Walking in a pink dress inspired by Mexican folk art with a mermaid-style silhouette, drag artist Ángel Arumir adjusts his flower crown on top of his purple wig as he stepped into a sea of skeletons.

Around him, thousands of people in vibrant costumes and skull-like makeup gathered for Mexico City’s annual Catrina parade, a tribute to one of Mexico’s most iconic symbols of the Day of the Dead.

The holiday begins October 31, remembering those who died in accidents. It continues November 1 to recall those who died in childhood and then on November 2 celebrates those who died as adults.

The Catrina is a skeleton often dressed in elegant clothing that has turned into a symbol of the country’s annual celebration. But Arumir’s collective, Exoticas, is giving their own twist to the Mexican tradition.

Exóticas, made up of nearly 200 LGBTQ+ artists, stylists and designers, was one of more than 40 groups marching in this year’s parade.

"Exoticas is a contingent mostly made up of the LGBT community and is a safe space for us to showcase our talent, makeup, hairstyling, costume making and the parade gave us this space to represent ourselves as a community," said Arumir, 42, who has spent nearly two decades performing in drag.

Other groups represent a wide range of social causes, each adding its own rhythm, color and message to the streets.

They include mothers demanding justice for Mexico’s disappeared, collectives honoring pre-Hispanic traditions and fans dressed to celebrate their favorite music genres.

For Arumir and his fellow performers, the festival offers a rare moment of safety and solidarity in a country where LGBTQ+ people, and especially transgender women, face high levels of violence.

More than 80 LGTBQ+ people were murdered in Mexico last year, ranking second in Latin America and the Caribbean to only Colombia for this community, according to Sin Violencia LGTBQ+, a regional network that tracks such violence.

The Catrina parade is a relatively new tradition.

It began in 2014, when makeup artist Jessica Esquivias gathered friends to celebrate Mexican icons and push back against the growing popularity of Halloween imagery on store shelves.

What started as a small circle of creatives showing off their craft has grown into one of Mexico City’s biggest pre– Day of the Dead events, drawing tens of thousands of participants and spectators downtown.

The Catrina herself was born from satire more than a century ago.

The tall skeleton in a feathered hat first appeared in the early 1900s, drawn by artist José Guadalupe Posada to mock Mexico’s upper class and its obsession with European elegance, a reminder that death spares no one, rich or poor.

As the parade rolled through downtown Mexico City, Arumir and his group danced to traditional Latino pop songs while people crowded the sidewalks, lifting their phones and smiling back at them.