Día de los Muertos
By Cecilia Beltrán
A couple of weeks ago we put together a Día de los Muertos mural with the L100 Spanish class.
Día de los Muertos is an important holiday celebrated by millions of people in Mexico as well as Central and Latin America. In Bolivia, this day is named after Todos Santos; and, just like in Mexico, it is a celebration of life and death, of which the main premise is to remember a loved one who is no longer with us but lives eternally in our memories. For me, talking about this celebration brings me back to meaningful afternoons spent with my aunts and uncles cooking and preparing an ofrenda, the traditional altar with bread and food, and I wanted the class to experience this moment in their own particular way.
Who are they? What is their name? What is their favorite food? These basic questions that we’ve been practicing throughout the Spanish class were also the basis for assembling our altar. For some students, this meant that they had to ask someone at home and learn about their grandparents’ hobbies and passions; and, for other students, it was more of a search for that special picture in the family album.
On this day, everyone prepared a portrait with pictures or drawings of our loved ones and all those things that they liked so much: from food and drinks, to favorite activities and most precious objects. And, since an altar also includes flowers, candles, and colorful decoration, we made sure to honor this tradition including all these goods. For a start, I have to say that the attention to detail and creativity of the students for this activity were fantastic. This activity motivated me to include more projects that can put into practice multiple competencies from a cultural aspect.
As we were working on our portraits, I walked around class asking about who they had chosen to honor this day, and I very much enjoyed learning about their grandparents’ interests. Playing music, dominoes, cards, sudoku, planes, cars, knitting, and many more, were part of the mosaic of memories that we shared together. In other cases, I found it adorable to see how some of the students had brought a drawing or photo of a well-loved pet and had set up their portraits with images of pillows, socks, chew toys and their pet’s favorite treats. How sweet!
Today, in the entrance hallway, you’ll find a mural displaying love and reverence for those family members that came before us. It’s a little journey to the past kept in our present memory, to be remembered for future generations to come.