Celebrating the Day of the Dead

According to Fred Guajardo, life is basically the point of celebrating Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

Guajardo, a student at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, is putting together the campus’s Tuesday celebration with two of his fellow MEChA ( Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan ) members.

“It’s a time to remember the dead, to honor the dead, as well as to take a reverence in life. Because we’re all running around, we’re all busy with deadlines,” he said.

Guajardo laughed, suddenly aware of the unintentional pun.

“I don’t want to seem to be negative,” he added. “It’s all trying to bring a respect to life, now that it has slipped away, now that it is gone.”

Dia de Los Muertos dates back to the ancient Mayan civilization. When the Spanish conquistadors brought Christianity to Latin America, the festival was adapted to the new religion. The Mayan festival, which commemorated the harvest as well as the dead, occurred about the time of year as the Roman Catholic celebration of All Souls, so it was a natural connection.

The group is working toward making its feast an annual event, pulling this one together with student volunteers, money from fund-raisers and donations.

“As we put it together and have a well-organized event, hopefully the student body will want to support it,” Guajardo said.

Tuesday’s celebration will include two bands: Ley de Hielo (Law of Ice) and Sol (Sun), which will play in the “cemetery” the organizing group is setting up, along with the traditional altars.

“What we want to do is honor different Chicano role models as well as people in the community who passed away in the past year,” Guajardo said.

To that end, as he and his volunteers will set up the decorations on Monday and people on campus will be able to provide names of friends and relatives who have died in the past year. The names will be placed on tombstones and read during Tuesday’s festivities.

Guajardo emphasized that the celebration is not just for Latinos. In fact, a member of the campus Black Students Assn. will give a short tribute to Malcolm X.

“It’s getting us to recognize the value of our culture in our modern world,” Guajardo said.

Everything will be set up on the Miracle Mile section of the campus at 1100 N. Grand Ave., Walnut.

“If we do get rain, we have a student center waiting for us as well,” Guajardo said.

The festivities will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free, but there will be a charge for the food and other goodies. The group is also raffling off tickets to a Culture Clash concert for $1 a chance.