High school students put on Dia de los muertos celebration
While Halloween brings out haunts and ghouls, a holiday two days
later celebrates a lighter side of death. Dia de los Muertos, or
day of the dead, is the Mexican celebration of All Soul’s Day on
Nov. 2.
High school students put on Dia de los muertos celebration
While Halloween brings out haunts and ghouls, a holiday two days later celebrates a lighter side of death. Dia de los Muertos, or day of the dead, is the Mexican celebration of All Soul’s Day on Nov. 2.
“It’s a lighter way of looking at it,” said Louise Roy, an art teacher at San Benito High School. “It is about honoring our loved ones.”
Roy and the other art teachers, Louise Toste and John Robrock, have their students create art projects that incorporate the many symbols from Day of the Dead each year. Close to November, the students host an open house where their families and other community members can come out to see the artwork. The advanced art class hand-crafted skulls to place on an altar and some students brought in photographs of loved ones they had lost. This year, the other art classes hung up drawings of skeletons doing everyday things such as walking on the beach, surfing or watching television.
Before members of the advanced class started on their six-week project, Roy showed them videos that explained the culture around the holiday.
“It’s more of a happy celebration than a sad one,” said Sarah Kelso, a junior. “All Mexicans celebrate it, not just a few. It’s kind of like Christmas.”
The students learned that in Mexico, families build an altar to their loved ones which includes favorite foods of the deceased, marigold flowers and photos of lost ones.
“They leave all the doors open so other people can come in and look at the altars,” Kelso said.
In the days before the art opening Oct. 28, some of the students had to scramble to repair their 3-D skulls. In the kiln, some of the clay skulls fractured, and one shattered beyond repair.
“I like history. I love the Greek and Roman ancient stuff,” said Anthony Villalon, a senior. “I thought it would be tight if I could do a Roman helmet.”
Unfortunately, Villalon’s skull and helmet fractured to pieces in the kiln.
“I don’t know what happened, but mine was completely in pieces,” he said.
The students who were able to salvage their skulls with plaster of Paris put them on display for the art show. The classroom altar was decorated in colorful and shimmering cloth over the surface. The decorated skulls were spread out across at different levels. Photos of teachers or family members who had been lost were spread around, along with marigolds and other day of the dead symbols.
Kelsey Russell, a junior, made a skull with a Nike headband and an afro. Her mother went to the art opening with her.
“My mom ended up crying,” Russell said. “Some students came with their families. And many had family members who passed away, too.”
Senior Amy Hernandez entered the class after the semester had started and got a late start on the project.
“I started working on it right away,” she said. “We had to write a story to get an idea of what it should be.”
Her skull had purple tones on it and musical notes along the side of the head, since she came up with the idea of a musician who failed out of high school but went on to be famous.
Her mother attended the opening and they put up a photo of her father who passed away earlier this year.
“I thought it was good to see the pictures of people who passed away and the new artwork,” she said.
The Rev. Rudy Ruiz stopped by the classroom and led visitors in a candlelight remembrance.
