For the past eight years, Cal State Long Beach’s Romance German Russian Languages and Literature department has brought the tradition of the Day of the Dead — also known as Dia de los Muertos – to campus.
This year’s Day of the Dead took place at the Anatol Center Tuesday from 5-9 p.m..
The RGRLL department organized displays, traditional dances and guest speakers to introduce the holiday to students who are unfamiliar with the cultural celebration. The event sought to connect the historical origins of Dia de los Muertos to students, both in and out of the Hispanic community.
Full time CSULB lecturer Patricia Amécuza wanted to promote this tradition to students, staff and faculty. She says this celebration is important for the Latin American community and also allows them to display their culture to others.
“It’s when we Latin Americans come to remember our dead with happiness, with food, with color, with laughter, with good thoughts — and we believe if we always remember them, they’ll always be present,” Amécuza said.
Dia de los Muertos is a cultural celebration that has culminated in Mexico as well as Central and South America. The holiday focuses on the relationship between the living and the dead and is celebrated heavily in Mexico.
At the event, the RGRLL displayed shelves filled with skull candies and pictures of passed loved ones. Next to these displays was an ofrenda, where pictures of love ones were displayed along with their favorite things.
“[An] ofrenda is where we offer [items]to our dead [ones] — it is believed that our dead had the permission to return to the world of the day of the living — they come and feed themselves with the aroma. In the ofrenda, you place the things your loved ones used to enjoy,” Amécuza said.
The event had three lectures about the origins of the Day of the Dead from the Maya perspective, the Aztec perspective and how it became what is it today. The event also featured traditional dances such as baile folklóricos and the “Danza de los Viejitos.”
This event was introduced eight years ago when Amécuza joined the CSULB faculty. Being from Mexico, she wanted students to connect or reconnect to this tradition. With Hispanic students making up 39 percent of the CSULB student body, Amécuza knew this could be successful.
Amécuza said she has gained more support each year, particularly by the College of Liberal Arts. Additionally, the departments of Religionist Studies and Anthropology help organize the event each year.
The event hoped to connect with non-hispanic people as well by providing them with information about the cultural holiday.
“It’s important for non-hispanic [people] to come, to understand where we come from, what our roots are, what our identities are. We want to show the beautiful aspects of our cultures— how interesting, how deep, how important they are and how to also understand who we are, to know why are we are the way we are today. It’s important for them to know about us, as we know about their history. We would like to invite them to the beautiful aspects of our culture,” Amécuza said.
Dia de los Muertos celebrations will continue today with more music, dancing and food at the USU ballrooms, presented by La Raza Student Association starting at 5 p.m.