Dia de los Muertos Altar Display

Publish Date: Dec. 8, 2022

On October 31, CHC student Franklin Florez and English professor Isidro Zepeda set up a Dia de los Muertos altar display in the Crafton Center lobby. The display was a collaboration between the College’s multicultural club, art department, multimedia program, Latino Faculty Staff, Administrators’ Association, and Zepeda’s Chicano literature class. Both futuristic and traditional altars were featured. Zepeda explained that the two different altars “show the union of nature and technology and how together we can create something beautiful that doesn’t destroy our planet.”

“Depending on how this information is passed down, it takes different interpretations, but the way that I was taught by family is that the altar is a mirror of the spirit,” Zepeda stated. “So, when we are looking at the altar, we are looking at our spirit. And it’s filled with energies, with colors, it’s vibrant, it’s energetic, it’s alive and at the same time, we pay homage to our ancestors who have crossed on into the spiritual form.”

“It’s a mirror reminding us to connect back to their essence, to the planet, to the earth, to the energy, to the elements, to the water that nourishes us and gives us life. That’s what the altar represents.”

“It’s been modernized and evangelized, so it takes a lot of different other components. We include those elements.” Zepeda continued, “the altars displayed are a reminder to honor and keep traditions but also to create a space for the future.”