News

An altar for the Day of the Dead in the student lounge has become an important focus for the CIIS community, as person after person has added an item of significance to the offering.

“It’s taken on a life of its own I didn’t expect,” says Professor Sandra Pacheco, who began the altar as an experiential learning opportunity for one cohort of students in the Bachelor of Arts Completion program. Other students, as well as faculty and staff, have spontaneously contributed photos of departed loved ones, mementos, and food and drink to the altar. The assemblage now includes everything from a bowl of pomegranates, to multicolored corn, to a box of Silver Patron tequila, to a Nina Simone CD case. The altar includes the names of many departed loved ones, some who passed away since the offering was built only a week ago.

There are also numerous grinning skeletons and images of calacas, the Mexican equivalent of the Grim Reaper. “These symbols aren’t scary like Halloween skeletons,” explains Pacheco. “The idea of Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is to mock death, recognize that death is part of life, a continuum, not something ghoulish.”

The celebration of the Day of the Dead may go back as far as the Olmec civilization that flourished in Central America before the Common Era. “The Spanish were horrified when they arrived in Mexico and saw indigenous people ‘mocking’ death and performing rituals that included images of skeletons and skulls,” says Pacheco. “But Día de los Muertos is light-hearted, not solemn. It’s a celebration for the ancestors, to invite them back. That’s why we burn copal incense and include orange marigolds and sweets, to entice loved ones to return.” That’s also why the altar includes very particular foods and drinks, such as the Jarritos soft drinks from Mexico that Pacheco’s grandmother loved.

The custom of building an ofrenda for the Day of the Dead has changed over time.  “Some altars now include items of political significance,” says Pacheco, pointing to a photo a student left on the altar of a recent demonstration to honor and bring attention to sex workers who have been killed.

Given the outpouring of response, Pacheco plans to have another Day of the Dead celebration at CIIS next year. “I hope to make it even more public, to invite local musicians and dancers and involve the larger community,” she says. “It’s important to me, on multiple levels, that this be is an ofrenda, an offering.”

Support for the Día de los Muertos altar was provided by Cohort Z of the Bachelor of Arts Completion (BAC) program, the Student Alliance, the Dean of Students, Craig Parton, Jeff Franklin, and BAC program staff and faculty .

view all news >>     RSS news feed >>