Celebrating The Dead

The Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities continued to gather family and friends to remember, celebrate, and honor loved ones who have passed away.  The celebration took place on the Wignall Patio on Nov. 2.

The celebration was brought alive by a performance from the campus Jazz Band.  Some students and faculty member sat around enjoying the music, while others browsed the various booths that had been set up.
Pan dulce (Mexican sweetbread) was provided for students to decorate with frosting, and face-painting was done by Michelle Bierman, theatrical make-up instructor, as well as some of her students.
“This is a good event. The face painting is pretty cool,” Andrea Ortiz, Spanish Club member, said after getting her face painted.
As part of the Day of the Dead tradition, the Spanish club created a community altar in honor of Pancho Villa. The altar was filled with candles, pictures, and other decorative ornaments. All students were welcome to bring a picture of a loved one to set on the altar.
“The altar is an honoring to call back the spirit of the dead,” said Michelle Bernardino, Spanish Club member.
The Puente Club also created their own altar, which they decorated with traditional Mexican ornaments: sugar skulls, religious candles, and empty liquor bottles.
Margaret Sosa, a special guest, demonstrated her art for the event — papel picado. Papel picado is the traditional Mexican art of perforating paper, which can then be used as colorful banners to adorn the major holidays. A 23-year veteran at papel picado, Sosa shared her craft throughout the celebration.
Baked goodies including brownies, Mexican wedding cookies, skeleton sugar cookies and donuts were all available for purchase from the Radiology Program. For those who didn’t have a sweet tooth, bracelets were sold as well.
The Car Club also came out to support the event. The club members made themselves some skeleton masks and handed out some free candy and fliers, but unfortunately were unable to reprise their ball game that had been popular at last year’s event; it was stolen from the auto shop.
The Dia de los Muertos celebration was primarily sponsored by the Wignall Museum and ASCC, with contributions from other clubs. This is the third consecutive year the event has taken place on campus.
“Dia de los Muertos is a perfect time to stop and remember those who passed away. It’s a way to bring them back at least for a minute” said Pedro Munoz, Puente Club president.