Honoring the dead virtually

Paulina Longoria  | THE RIDER

UTRGV students can celebrate the Day of the Dead throughout the week with Lotería and trivia games, and hands-on activities. 

From noon to 12:45 p.m. today through Thursday, the University Library will host its 33rd annual Day of the Dead celebration with the Luncho Libre Series.

Shannon Pensa, the head of Special Collections and Archives for the University Library, said Luncho Libre “is a series that the University Library launched in the month of October as a way to engage students in virtual lunch dates to just talk about whatever pre-planned topic.”

The events are as follows:

–today: Day of the Dead: Ofrendas, a brief presentation on the significance of ofrendas and students’ traditions in their home, such as creating altars

–Tuesday: Crafting Paper Flowers, which are the Mexican or Aztec marigolds used on altars

–Wednesday: Trivia with topics associated with the celebration

–Thursday: Day of the Dead Lotería.

Pensa said each session will have two hosts and prizes like UTRGV Library swag. Each winner of Lotería will earn a prize.

Students will receive an email confirmation on how to log in to the session and a Lotería card to use for the game, which can be printed at home or used on Microsoft Paint. Registration for this event is limited to 30 participants due to the amount of cards that will be sent out.

“Since it is a virtual event, we really do hope to engage with students,” Pensa said. “I know not everyone likes to use their video and microphone features in Zoom, but we hope that they’ll turn cameras on, at the very least microphones on so we can have a little discussion.”

From 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Thursday, First Year Experience and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity and the DREAM Resource Center are hosting the Día de los Muertos Face Off 40-minute contest via Zoom where students can do their own sugar skull makeup.

The event’s VLink states participants should log in no later than 5:30 p.m. as the 40-minute countdown starts promptly at 5:40 p.m.

Natasha Gonzalez is an English junior and guru for First Year Experience at UTRGV. A guru helps freshmen and sophomores transition to university life.

She said FYE is collaborating with the center because they like its mission to make everyone feel included and build the university community together.

“We’re gonna ask our participants to turn on their cameras so that we can interact with them and it’s just gonna be like a fun little makeup competition,” Gonzalez said. “We’re basing it on Día de los Muertos, so we want everyone to create their own version of the sugar skull.”

She said there will be music related to the celebration in the background during the event ranging from the “Coco” movie soundtrack to other Mexican songs.

Gonzalez also said information about the celebration will be provided, and students will have the chance to share their own experiences.

“I feel that a lot of people down here in the [Rio Grande] Valley… probably don’t celebrate it as much as it’s celebrated in Mexico,” she said. “We just want to talk to people, like, hear their experiences and what they know about Día de los Muertos.”

The top three makeup contestants will receive UTRGV swag from the departments as prizes.

Asked what students can expect of the event, Gonzalez replied, “I hope they can come in with the minds that they’re gonna have a good time, they’re gonna practice their makeup skills and if it doesn’t come out well, that’s OK. … We can just come, laugh at ourselves, have a little bit of fun and just talk about Día de los Muertos as, like, a cultural event and see how it plays a role in our life.”

From 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 2, the Campus Activities Board along with the Student Union will host the DIY Day of the Dead event with hands-on activities such as face painting, ceramic skull painting and DIY mouse ears.

Alejandra Santos, a computer science senior and the Cultural Committee chair for the Campus Activities Board, said there will be music from the “Coco” movie soundtrack for students to listen to while working on the activities.

The first 15 students that registered were contacted to pick up the materials and other students will receive an email with the list of the materials they need for the event.

Santos also said she owns Minnie Mouse concha ears that she bought from Epcot at Walt Disney World, so she came up with the idea to host the DIY. 

“Students will be able to expect a fun way to celebrate [the] Day of the Dead and celebrate the people that have passed before us,” she said. “We wanted something tangible for the students to actually hold and something for them to actually do instead of just looking at a screen.”

Santos said it is nice to have those events because Day of the Dead was celebrated on campus for past years by the Campus Activities Board with the ceramic skull painting.

Two students can win $50 in VBucks in a raffle at the end of the event.

Students can register to all the events on VLink.