Celebrating the Dead

Oct. 3, 2009

By Alicia Greenwell

On Monday, the Woodruff Gym at the University of Oregon was decorated with candles, orange flowers and banners of brightly colored paper square cutouts of skulls and dancing skeletons. This was not a belated Halloween party; it was El Día de los Muertos, which means the Day of the Dead in Spanish.

El Día de Los Muertos a Latino celebration that is dedicated to honoring the dead and has been celebrated every November 2 since 1981 by MEChA (Mecha Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), a Chicano student organization at the University of Oregon.

This year’s Día de los Muertos started out with a performance from an Afro-Mestizos group called Los Afro-Mestizos de la Costa, which preformed La Danza del Diablo, the Dance of the Devil.

Following the performance was an Aztec dancing group of four that left most the audience in awe. The consistent beating of the drum mixed with their long colorful feathered headdresses and the rattling shells tied to their ankles gave the dance trance-like emotion. Each dancer constantly looked up throughout the dance towards the heavens.

“We like to remember the persons who already passed away,” said Roberto Ruiz, one of the Aztec dancers. “All the dances we do to celebrate all forms of life.”

Music was also played by La Catrina, a Mexican group, that played Gracias a la Vida, Thank you for the life.

The other essential part of this celebration is the alter. Offerings such as oranges, apples, bread and other types of food are placed on the altar in bowls for the dead. The food present on the alter was not just food — it was their ancestor’s favorite foods, explained Ruiz.

“When I was little my mother made an alter with fruits and food,” he said.

The alter present at MEChA’s celebration was center stage and grabbed the attention of the audience as soon as they entered the room. It was about 10 feet tall and had three levels that were draped with a black cloth.

The rest of the alter was adorned with candles, incense, colorful skull sculptures, pictures of loved ones, offerings of food, water, and vases filled with bright orange flowers called flora de muertos or flower of the dead.

Also surrounding the alter was bright pink, yellow, orange, purple and green square paper with intricate skeleton cutouts, called papel picado.

Armando Morales, the community advisor for MEChA and one of the main coordinators of the event, explained that the papel picado like everything present on the alter represented something.

Morales explained that all the four elements of the earth: water, fire, earth and wind, were also present on the alter. Water is represented by the little bowls of water; fire is represented by the candles; the Earth is symbolized with bread or cornmeal and the papel picado represents the wind, he said.

Even the bright orange flowers have a purpose on the alter. “They are to ward off the bad spirits,” Morales said.

For Morales, El Día de Los Muertos is more than just a celebration — it is a chance to “preserve the roots.”

Morales explained that this year’s Día de Los Muertos was important because it had all the cultural elements that make up the Mexican culture, which he explained is a “cosmic race.” Spanish and the native Mexican culture are what most people know make up the Mexican culture.

Many don’t know that the African culture also plays a role in the Mexican culture. Morales calls the African influence the tercera raíz, the third root.

The third root, as Morales described, was represented by the Afro-Mestizos dance that originated in Oaxaca, Mexico, where African slaves were brought to work alongside the Mexican natives, sharing their hardships of forced labor.

To some like Andrea Valderrama, a political science major at the University of Oregon, El Día de Los Muertos is a time to remember her family.

“It’s a really unique celebration,” said Valderrama. “It reminds me of how important my family and ancestors are.”

Morales described that El Día de Los Muertos is a time to give back to loved ones who have passed on and communicate with them.

“This is the moment when I get to talk to my ancestors. To tell them how I am,” said Morales.

He said his hope is that this tradition will continue. He said he also hopes his efforts in this life will be remembered when he dies and that someone else will be there to honor him on El Día de Los Muertos.