Día de los Muertos celebrates life

(U-WIRE) ARLINGTON, Texas —The University of Texas-Arlington's Sigma Lambda Beta chapter is awaiting a visit from its founder.

The setting is an altar in the school's Center for Multicultural Cooperation. Members know it will be a long journey, so they have left bread and water for him in a setting resplendent in purple, one of the fraternity's colors.

Hermengildo "Junior" Garza died two years ago.

"I think he is aware of our actions here," says Armando Alvarez, Sigma Lambda Beta secretary and international business senior. "He would recognize the efforts we went through trying to elaborate the altar."

The three-tiered altar is on display until Sunday for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The Mexican holiday is celebrated at the same time as the Christian holy days of All Saints Day on Nov.1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2.

Latino-based Sigma Lambda Beta, the Office of Multicultural Services and the Center for Multicultural presented their views of Día de los Muertos on Wednesday at the UTA mall. The event included a performance by Ballet Folklórico dancers from Dallas and free Mexican sweet bread, known as pan dulce.

Fraternity members dressed in all-black and painted their faces black and white. They stood together, setting the mood for the program.

History assistant professor Roberto Treviño told about 100 onlookers that the holiday isn't a sorrowful occasion, but a celebration.

"This whole day is to remember a person's life," he says. "It's not mourning. It's more like mocking death."

Treviño also says that many people mistake Día de los Muertos for Halloween.

"Halloween is a scary time. It's a time to go trick-or-treating and to haunted houses and to scare people," he says. "Día de los Muertos is more of a synthesis -- something that has come together by the indigenous people."

He adds that Día de los Muertos, which began in pre-Columbian Mexico, is an example of the Chicano community's solidarity. Participants in the holiday clean their loved ones' graves and decorate them with flowers, bread and candles.

Candles, Alvarez says, are the most important elements placed on the altars. Each represents a family member and beckons his or her spirit.

— Erica Bryant