The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, located at the University of Oregon, hosted a viewing for el Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) from Nov. 1st and 2nd in honor of the holiday and as a way for the student body to participate in its celebrations.
The MEChA student group, or Chicanx Student Movement of Aztlán, a student group that helped promote culture and education behind the event at the museum, said they planned to honor the Day of the Dead with las ofrendas, food, music, and art. The group encouraged students to bring pictures of passed loved ones to place on las ofendas displayed to honor and celebrate their life.
Honoring el Día de los Muertos celebrations is a very important task for MEChA’s Program Director Diana Rendon-Chavez, as well as the students involved. They believe that celebrating the holiday is important for the student body to experience.
“It’s exposure to culture that some might not have, especially in the United States,” Rendon-Chavez said. “It’s very important to see it and see the culture behind it, especially the las ofrendas that we put up; you can honor the people who have passed away.”
For an event with so much meaning and historical and cultural significance, Rendon-Chavez and all the other MEChA students and staff put in endless effort to make this celebration a reality for the students and community at UO.
The organizers stressed that las ofrendas themselves took two full days to set up, and Rendon-Chavez had been planning this and other Day of the Dead events before school had even started.
Armando Morales is another event organizer who has been helping bring traditional Latin festivities to Eugene since 1978. When he started working these events, he had no idea the number of people and attention they would come to have.
In previous years, MEChA and the staff would host el Día de los Muertos celebrations at the EMU, but after the museum reached out, they started extending the Day of the Dead celebrations there.
“Now we are a part of the museum; now we feel the museum is open to our community,” Morales said, making a point to acknowledge that JSMA and the Dia de los Muertos ofrendas were open to everyone in UO’s community, from the convenience and ease of the museum’s location on campus to the inclusivity of the celebration itself.
This year’s celebrations also brought up the topic of how important culture is to make a difference in the Eugene and UO community.
“The best way to stop racism is culture,” Morales said. “You don’t like something sometimes; you don’t like your neighbor sometimes; I don’t like my neighbor. But I don’t have any right to go and paint his house, to throw garbage outside his house just because I don’t like him. Everyone has their own beliefs (and) their own culture; the only thing we need to have is respect.”
The students and staff believe that experiencing different cultures and seeing each value and belief can be a key to creating a more inclusive world, and for this event specifically, also to honor those who have passed. Within el Día de los Muertos, death itself is a character with a deep and beautiful meaning that contradicts the basic idea of death being something to fear.
“Death is the most democratic character,” Morales said. “Death doesn’t have race. Death is death; it doesn’t have any color.” Each MEChA and staff member put in endless effort for el Día de los Muertos celebrations to connect the people at UO through the honoring of the universal idea of death.
“It’s very beautiful,” Rendon-Chavez said to encourage visitors, as a simple yet consistent statement describing the wonders of las ofrendas in the museum. Eugene’s celebrations of Dia de los Muertos kept people’s memories alive, and at the same time, educated and made a valuable change to the Duck community. “We believe that for you to stay forever or to stay on this earth,” Morales said, “someone needs to remember you.”
