Starting yesterday, our ancestors walk the earth visiting loved
ones, feasting and having a raucous time.
Gilroy
Starting yesterday, our ancestors walk the earth visiting loved ones, feasting and having a raucous time.
This week, while many residents stitched up costumes and gorged on M&M’s and other confections in celebration of Halloween, other residents assembled multi-colored boxes in remembrance of the dead and cooked up candy skulls in anticipation of the two-day Mexican festival called “Dia de los Muertos” – Spanish for Day of the Dead. Celebrated Nov. 1 and 2, the festival is an opportunity to remember the departed, the spirits of which some people believe return to Earth. The holiday is observed mainly in rural Mexico, where it originated, but also in some Latin American countries and immigrant communities in America.
However, many people – even those of Mexican heritage – have little awareness of the festivities, said Victoria Salas, art teacher at Gilroy’s public charter high school, El Portal Leadership Academy.
Halloween is “pop culture – that’s what’s hip, that’s what’s now,” she said. And “it’s a marketing gold mine, so of course some other cultures’ holidays get pushed aside.”
To help students get in touch with their roots, Salas and school staff spent the past week educating students on the Day of the Dead rituals. In art class, students made alters – boxes decorated with tissue-paper flowers and pictures of a dead person – and candy skulls – sweet confections adorned with rainbow-icing facial features.
In history and English classes, students learned how rural Mexicans traditionally go to graves during the two-day holiday, bearing the deceased person’s favorite dish and marigolds – the pungent smell of which is supposed to lead the dead back to Earth. On occasion, families would also hire mariachi bands to play songs for the spirits.
The holiday struck a chord with students, most of whom have lost family members or friends.
“I think it’s nice because we’re remembering the people who passed away,” said 17-year-old senior Victoria Gaucin.
Sprinkling glitter over a wallet-sized picture of a friend named Betnaly – killed by carbon monoxide poisoning last December – the third-generation American said she wants to bring holiday celebrations home to her parents.
“I want to teach them because there are other people in our family who have passed away that I want to be remembered also,” Gaucin said.
The school’s lessons also shone a light on those relatively new to America, like the family of 17-year-old senior Lizette Diaz.
“It’s a part of who I am and where I come from,” she said.
The first-generation American is a part of an Aztec dance troupe performing today at an after-school festival. Tonight at home, her family will cook mole – a rich sauce made with bitter chocolate and one of her dead grandmother’s favorite foods – to offer to the spirits. The family will eat any leftover food Friday.
In addition to teaching students about their heritage, school staff hope the day will bridge gaps, cultural and generational, and make the school feel like a family, Salas said.
“Our whole goal is to create a positive school culture,” Principal Tom Hernandez said. “When there are things that unite people, the small (differences) tend to disappear.”
