Attendees will enjoy pan de muerto, hot chocolate and other activities during this year’s Día de los Muertos event, scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday in the UTRGV Library on both Brownsville and Edinburg campuses.
In Brownsville, the event will take place in the third floor commons and in Edinburg, in the first floor Special Collections & Archives room.
The event was organized by the staff of the Special Collections & Archives department.
Sean Visintainer, head of Special Collections & Archives, said the purpose of the event is to bring awareness to the campus community about the Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos.
“The purpose of it is to … commemorate family members and friends who have passed on, to remember their legacies and the impacts that they had on our lives,” Visintainer said.
During the event, attendees will also be able to participate in different activities, such as giveaways, coloring your own calavera, papier-mâché flower creation and lotería. Documentaries related to the Day of the Dead will be shown at the event.
It is important to attend this event, said Lisa Huerta, library assistant for Special Collections & Archives.
“Some students are not very familiar with Day of the Dead,” Huerta said. “It’s a symbolism. What it is, is that for them to know that Día de los Muertos is our culture, for them to understand that it’s not a time to cry. It’s a time to celebrate our ancestors that have moved on to the other side.”
The Special Collections & Archives is displaying a Day of the Dead exhibition in the library on both campuses. Deceased family and friends from the library staff, and famous people, are being commemorated in the display.
Also, a traditional Day of the Dead altar is being displayed within Special Collections on the Edinburg campus library.
Visintainer encourages people to take a photo of the exhibitions and share it with the UTRGV Library Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #UTRGVDDM. A photo from each campus will be selected randomly for a prize.
On Saturday, a history harvest will take place in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus as part of the Bazán y Longoria Historical Marker Unveiling. The historical marker in Hidalgo County will be placed to recognize the tragic murders of Jesus Bazán and Antonio Longoria in 1915. The University Library invites the public to present old photographs, letters or other historical items to be scanned. The copy of the item will be archived by the library.
Games Day will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 10. in Room 4.117 of the Edinburg campus library. Attendees will be able to play a variety of board games with campus and community members.
Asked why it is important to celebrate the Day of the Dead in the Rio Grande Valley, Huerta replied, “Not to forget our culture, for the new generation to know what the culture is about, where we come from and to keep those traditions going.”
Visintainer said it is “important for any community to have a time of reflection for family and for friends that are no longer with us. … Because so many of our student body and our community have roots within Mexico, I think it’s a really nice way to tie culture, family and community together.”
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