Day of the Dead: a reunion with the passed

Aurora Acevedo/THE RIDER GRAPHIC

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated on Nov. 2, is a time for people to remember loved ones who have passed away.

“Día de los Muertos is more about the celebration of life and those that have passed on,” said Patricia Ramirez-Biondolillo, assistant professor of practice in the department of Teaching and Learning. “Nov. 1 is actually Día de los Angelitos. So, in that time, if there’s any children or little ones that have passed, you celebrate them and remember them.”

Día de los Angelitos, also known as Children’s Day or Day of the Little Angels, is a day to honor and remember all the lives of children who have died. It is believed that on Nov. 1, the souls of departed children return home.

“Día de los Muertos is very special in [my] family,” Ramirez-Biondolillo said. “… It’s my favorite time of year. As a Chicana down here in the Rio Grande Valley, I think it’s really beautiful that we get to celebrate our culture, our tradition, our heritage and all of the indigenous practices that have been passed down from generations to generations.”

Ramirez-Biondolillo celebrates Día de los Muertos every year with her family.

“Every year, we have a little altar here in our home, and we put up all of our pictures of our family [members who have died],” she said. “We tried to get most of the families together. … We would talk about the stories of our grandmothers and, you know, we shared those good times. We prayed together and just really have that shared sense of unity and solidarity.”

She encourages everyone to celebrate and remember their loved ones on Día de los Muertos.

“We want to think about celebrating our culture, our history, our families … remembering them and all the good moments that they have given us within their time,” Ramirez-Biondolillo said. “Time is very precious. That’s why we have to go forward. Appreciate all the moments that you can with your family, friends and always look to the good.”

Ana Peña-Oliva, a senior lecturer of Hispanic linguistics and undergraduate Spanish degree specialist, said that as a Guatemalan she grew up celebrating All Saints’ Day, but when she moved to the Rio Grande Valley she started celebrating Día de los Muertos.

“We celebrate it in a different way, more Spanish style because in Spain they celebrate All Saints’ Day, which is the first of November, and I grew up with that tradition,” she said. “All Saints’ Day is similar to the Day of the Dead, but the altars are not made as they are for Día de Muertos. Families usually get together and go to the cemetery to clean the graves, put flowers and go to church.”

Peña-Oliva said that after the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, she encourages everyone to see Dia de los Muertos in a positive way.

“The reality of life is that we are all going to die at some point,” she said. “I am sure that the people who go ahead of us on the path of life would be happier to see us happy and not suffering because it is something that will eventually happen to all of us.”

The National Honorary Hispanic Society, Sigma Delta Pi, and the Department of Spanish invites the UTRGV community to participate in the Calaveritas and Altar contests in commemoration of the Day of the Dead.

The Calaveritas Contest consists of a poem with a minimum of two stanzas and must be written in Spanish. The use of offensive words should be avoided. It must be sent in a Word document or PDF via email to sigmadeltapi@utrgv.edu by 11:59 p.m. Friday.

To participate in the Altar Contest, participants must send four photos and a two-minute video of their altar to sigmadeltapi@utrgv.edu. The deadline to submit an entry is 11:59 p.m. Friday.

Certificates will be awarded to the first-, second- and third-place winners of each contest. Winners will be announced Nov. 18 during the Sigma Delta Pi induction ceremony. For more information, email sigmadeltapi@utrgv.edu.

The UTRGV Housing and Residence Life Department, Student Union and the UREC will host a dance for Día de los Muertos from 7 to 11 p.m. Nov. 2 in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus. The event is open to the UTRGV community.

Students, faculty and staff will be able to enjoy free food, music, games and much more at the dance. The first 250 students to attend will receive a free Day of the Dead T-shirt sponsored by Pepsi.

“This … is [a] huge traditional event that we are so proud of,” said Nayeli Garcia, housing coordinator on the Brownsville campus. “We did get some food. We have taco boxes. We are going to have a lot of really cool opportunities for them to, you know, take pictures, have fun with it.”

Attendees can pre-register for the event at Eventbrite to receive a VIP package that includes a T-shirt, sugar skull and taco box.

The UTRGV Ballet Folklórico will perform at the event.

“The past couple of years, we have [been] very lucky that our UTRGV folklórico team has been a part of it,” Garcia said. “We are so excited that they are coming back so that way they can have their traditional Mexican dances and really just show everybody the beauty of our Latin culture.”