As students joined the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos on Friday at Lynn Eusan Park, a six-man band initiated the festivity with live mariachi music. The memorialization not only promoted the music of the Latin culture, but also incorporated the culture’s food, dance styles like merengue and cumbia performed by Sabor Latino, face painting with “La Calavera Catrina,” or elegant skull designs, and games like la loteria to help create the atmosphere of an enlivened event.
Students gathered to enjoy the celebrated tradition as they savored tamales, lemonade and a well-known favorite, horchata.
Biology senior and vice president of the Latin Greek council Yari Clavel refereed la loteria — a game similar to bingo — and announced words like “el borracho,” the drunk man, as players matched pictures with written Spanish meanings below them. The object of the game was to place black beans on card spaces after hearing Clavel announce a card.
“It’s just like the Mexican version of bingo, and the cards are kind of interesting. They’re not numbers and letters; they’re a little darkish,” Clavel said. “It’s just interesting if you look at the card.”
Other members of the Latin Greek Council, like supply chain linguistics senior Alex Amador, were excited about student participation.
“(Friday’s) turnout was a lot more than I expected because it’s a Friday and Halloween weekend. People want to go home to their families,” Amador said. “I’m glad that everyone is coming here to get to know more about the Latin culture.”
Sabor Latino dancer and psychology junior Victoria Celeste anticipated invigorating the crowd’s energy with her performance.
“What we like to do is keep the spirit up because Dia de Los Muertos is about honoring the dead rather than being sad about their losses. We like to keep an upbeat pace,” Celeste said. “By dancing, hopefully we get people ready to dance and have a good time today with our inspiration.”
Organized by the Council of Ethnic Organizations and Latin Greek Council as a way for students to embrace those resting in peace, the Day of the Dead, according to hotel and restaurant management sophomore and CEO office assistant Murietta Flores, is “a way of still holding them with you even though they’re not physically here anymore.”
“This event, for people who don’t know anything about the Day of the Dead, is just to show them that death is not always an ending. You can celebrate the life of the deceased,” Flores said.
Hotel and restaurant management senior Mercedes Morones, one of the face painters for the event, gave the day a symbolic meaning.
“My grandpa’s sick right now and he’s in the hospital,” Morones said. “I wasn’t going to come, but my grandpa is finally (more) stable.”
“It’s all about your memories. It makes you realize you have to spend time with the people that are here.”