Mariachi music echoed from the EMU Fir room Tuesday, as the band La Catrina rehearsed before its performance at an event to celebrate Día de los Muertos. The event began at 7 p.m., the room colorfully adorned with skulls and thin paper cutouts that surrounded an altar and were strung along the ceiling.
Día de los Muertos, the day of the dead, is a three-day Mexican holiday beginning Oct. 31 and ending Nov. 2. The celebration is a time for people to remember those who have died.
“Día de los Muertos has indigenous roots laid in with the Mexican culture,” said Brenda Sifuentez, the internal director of MEChA and a senior ethnic studies and history major.
“It’s a celebration of life. The U.S. has Halloween, but that’s spooky; we view death as a celebratory thing,” Sifuentez said. “It’s a time to get closer to our families and those we’ve lost.”
The celebration was sponsored by the University’s MEChA Club and is the 23rd annual event at the University. This year’s theme was “La Muerte de Carton y Azucar,” the death of carton and sugar, and the featured artist was Jesús Pastor, an art teacher from Guanajuato, Mexico.
Pastor spent the last two weeks working with MEChA club members to educate them about the traditions and customs of Día de los Muertos. He also helped them create the ofrenda, or altar, that was the center of the evening’s event.
The three-tiered altar was covered in picados of all colors, which are thin sheets of paper with cutouts similar to a paper snowflake. There were also candles; fruit; pan de muerto, a bread made especially for the holiday; and pictures of the dead surrounding the altar. A large picture of Caesar Chavez was the focal point at the top of the altar.
“It’s important that there is a continuation of popular traditions and customs, which is the identity of a community,” Pastor said. “This is a community offering so people can remember their own loved ones; as MEChA we are remembering Caesar Chavez, who did so much for the migrant farm workers movement, but this is a community offering.”
Sophomore Lorena Landeros expressed her desire for people to understand what this holiday is really about.
“Día de los Muertos is not a negative thing — calaveras or skulls aren’t bad,” Landeros said. “People should see that everything is colorful and positive, not negative.”
Landeros explained that her family celebrates the holiday throughout the year.
“My mom, all year long, has a candle lit or flower on the windowsill to remember those who have passed,” Landeros said. “We acknowledge Día de los Muertos every year, but because we always have a candle lit, we’re always remembering.”
Armando Morales, MEChA adviser, said he began the event at the University in 1981.
“Every year this event gets bigger and bigger,” Morales said. “We were the first out of all Oregon and Washington schools to celebrate Día de los Muertos.”
The event was well-attended by University faculty and students of all ethnicities.
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