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CEIS Students Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos
Navarro's Class Alter
The 22nd annual Dia de los Muertos celebration at Cal Poly Pomona gave CEIS students the opportunity to experience a cultural celebration with hands-on participation.

The event was held on Friday, Nov. 4 and featured more than 30 multicultural altars, an Aztec blessing, folklorico dancers, Taiko drummers and more.

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is an annual celebration in Mexico and Mexican culture to remember and celebrate the lives loved ones and help in their spiritual journey. Traditional decorations include marigolds, which are the flowers of the dead, incense, sugar skulls and more.

While alters are traditionally built to honor deceased family members, classes from the Interdisciplinary General Education and Ethnic & Women’s Studies departments each decided on a specific theme to represent.

La Frontera

The Chicano/Latino Experience class titled their alter “La Frontera,” which translates to “Borderlands.” It was set against a background of the American flag and a Mexican flag, with photos on it depicting people meeting at the U.S.-Mexico Border.

“We had just been talking about it [the border] in class. With the election coming up, it was really personal,” said LaVelle Delgado, environmental biology major. “People are trying to defy nature to keep us apart and it’s not natural.”

First-year student Alexandra Vazquez said that she enjoys the class discussions.

“This is my first year, so I’m enjoying learning stuff we hadn’t talked about in high school,” she said. “I’m learning about my own history.”

IGE Alter
Another student-designed alter, titled “Stitching Our History Together,” was built by the IGE 120 class, Consciousness and Community.

Each student contributed a quilt square that honored a deceased family member or historical figure.

“My uncle used to collect Native American artifacts, so my square has a Kachina doll in memory of him,” said first-year student Kurt Bennet.

Richard Navarro, ethnic and women’s studies professor, has been attending the event for years. He offers participating in the event as one of the service-learning options in his classes.

“One of the things I like about Cal Poly Pomona’s Dia De Los Muertos event is that it’s become a university celebration,” he said. “It started out as a small celebration for the Hispanic students thrown by the Cesar Chavez Center at the stables, and now you see more clubs and departments taking part in it.”
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