Day of Dead honors border-crossers

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It’s pitch-black when lights flash on in the auditorium of the MSU Museum and four spirits stand in front of the audience.

“We are a bronze people of a bronze culture,” they all say in unison. “We are Aztlan.”

The MSU Museum’s Day of the Dead performance “Mictlan in Aztlan” on Sunday night featured many small performances such as this, as students donned black clothes and painted their faces to look like skeletons to honor those who have died.

But unlike other MSU Day of the Dead celebrations in the past, this celebration was meant to honor the Latin American people who have died crossing the border into the United States, said Javier Pescador, the organizer of the performance and a professor of Chicano history.

“People who cross the border without proper documents are forced to venture into very wild and inhospitable territory,” Pescador said. “What we’re trying to do is create awareness of these situations.”

The Day of the Dead encompasses the first two days of November and is a celebration of the people who have died. Pescador said families often offer food and drinks to the souls of the dead, and it is believed that they come back to share the offerings with the people they love.

The night began with a traditional Aztec dance known as La Danza Azteca, where performers danced with chachayotes, or hollow shells, around their ankles to the repetitive beat of a drum.

The traditional dance was a way for psychology senior Carla Reyna to connect with her culture, she said.

“I find it as a way to keep in touch with my spiritual roots,” Reyna said. “It’s an indigenous dance and it’s carrying on the culture of the dance and also educating everyone about the Chicano movement.”

International relations sophomore Megan Holland said she always has been interested in Latin American culture but said she has never experienced anything quite like La Danza Azteca.

“It’s a totally different sound,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

After dances and performances from students in the auditorium, audience members moved to the ground floor where people lit candles on the ofrenda, or alter, to honor those who died crossing the border.

Reyna helped present a report that detailed the hardships of those who she said are people searching for a better life. The people are subjected to heat exhaustion, conflict with people guarding the border, wildlife, dehydration and hypothermia, she said.

“(They cross) in the most dangerous spots,” she said. “The way the border is set up it pushes them into the most dangerous spots.”

The group will repeat its Day of the Dead celebration at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cristo Rey Community Center, 1717 N. High St., in Lansing.

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