October 9, 2014

UNIVERSITY PRESS A THIRTEEN-TIME ASSOCIATED PRESS MANAGING EDITORS AWARD WINNER

The Newspaper of Lamar University Vol. 91, No. 6

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Homecoming Court applications open LAUREN VAN GERVEN UP EDITOR @thegerven Lamar Homecoming Court applications are now available through 11 p.m., Oct. 16.

To be eligible for Homecoming Court positions, students — except first semester freshman — must have a 2.75 cumulative GPA and attend one of three meetings held 3 p.m., Oct. 14, in 108 Setzer Student Center, 4 p.m., Oct. 15, in 108 SSC or 10 a.m., Oct. 16, in 209 SSC. “Anyone from freshmen to seniors who fall under these criteria can apply,” Kiet Le, associate director of student activities and civic engagement, said. “They also have to be

UP William Jones

AJ Webb and Brianna Blacknell were elected Homecoming king and queen in 2013.

sponsored by a student organization.”

Seniors must have more than 90 credit hours to run for Homecoming king and queen. Juniors running for Homecoming prince and princess must have 60-90 credit hours. Sophomores running for Homecoming duke and duchess must have 30-60 credit hours and freshmen running for Homecoming lord and lady must have less than 30 credit hours. “(The elected students) will represent the student body,” Le said.

“The king and queen will get more face time at our different events and during the parade as well.”

Le said that all the royalty will be on the same float during the homecoming parade, Nov. 1.

Homecoming court voting will be held on Oct. 27 and 28.

“Voting will be online — we’re working with IT this year,” Le said.

“In the past, students would come to the Setzer Center, they would vote and receive a free T-shirt. But, we’re doing it both ways this year, so that the entire student-body has the opportunity to vote, in case some students don’t have the time to come by the Setzer Center.”

Le said that online voting will go through self-service banner.

Students will still have the opportunity to receive a free T-shirt.

“We’re combining the T-shirt giveaway with the cake-cutting ceremony this year,” he said. “It will take place on Monday, Oct. 27, at 11 a.m.”

Le said that voting in the Setzer Student Center will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, visit orgsync.com/22733/forms/120768 Scan the QR code below to access the Homecoming Court online application form

Walk, vigil to promote domestic violence awareness MICHELLE BURDETT UP CONTRIBUTOR Lamar University’s chapter of Bruised But Not Broken will organize its fifth-annual Domestic Violence Prevention Walk, candlelight vigil and reception, beginning 5:30 p.m., Oct. 16. Participants will meet at Mirabeau’s head in the Quad.

“Last year’s walk was an amazing experience,” Taylor Levy, chapter president, said.

More than 500 people attended last year’s event and Levy said she expects attendance to rise for this year’s walk.

Bruised But Not Broken is a national organization, founded six years ago, that advocates for domestic violence victims and all who are affected by domestic violence.

“This walk honors the memories of the lives lost to violence and provides a hope for a future without violence,” Levy said.

A candlelight vigil will be held in the Quad after the walk. The event will include a ceremony which will give participants the opportunity to symbolically let go of their negative feelings, Levy said.

“A galvanized bucket is provided,” she said. “Everyone may write down the name of their attacker or someone they know who has been abused, or an issue that really bothers them — a word that used to represent hate for you, you write it down. We light it on fire, then drop it in the bucket. This symbolizes letting go.

That is the moment of transcendence.”

See WALK, page 2

UP Kristen Stuck

Lamar ambassadors flank President Emeritus Jimmy Simmons, left, TSUS Regent David Montagne, Jon Huntsman Sr., Wayne Reaud, Jon Reaud and President Kenneth Evans, as they break ground on the new Wayne A. Reaud Administration and Honors College building, Tuesday.

Ground broken on Reaud administration, honors building KRISTEN STUCK UP MANDAGIN EDITOR @kristenstuck President Kenneth Evans, along with President Emeritus Jimmy Simmons, broke ground Tuesday for the new Wayne A. Reaud Administration and Honors College Building, located at the corner of Rolfe Christopher and Jim Gilligan Way. “This is a historic day in our history,” President Emeritus Jimmy Simmons said. “Because of your

contribution, Mr. Reaud, and by the way, it’s the largest contribution in our history to this date, we really enter into a completely new era of academic excellence, because this building not only houses the administration, but also houses the Reaud Honors College — that is going to really be a game changer to this university.”

The donation for the new building will help Lamar compete with other universities, Reaud said.

“Today, universities find themselves in competition for students,”

he said. “They have to compete, especially for the best and brightest. I believe this facility, coupled with our honors college, will make us much more competitive than we have ever been before. It will give us the opportunity to really grow and take Lamar to a new level.”

Reaud is a Beaumont trial lawyer and Lamar alumnus. He owns The Examiner newspaper and is one of the lawyers dubbed the “Texas Tobacco Five.”

“He is a man of passion,” Evans said. “He’s a man of passion for edu-

cation and he has been a man of passion for Lamar. And, for all of those passions, we as a community have greatly benefited, and there is no question that Lamar University has.

He is generous, particularly in his support of higher education at Lamar University.”

Also participating in the ceremony was Reaud’s brother Jon, TSUS Regent David Montagne and Reaud’s friend and colleague, Jon Huntsman Sr., who, after giving a short speech, pulled out an envelope with another million dollar donation.

Spanish master’s program to start in spring KRISTEN STUCK UP MANDAGIN EDITOR @kristenstuck A new Spanish Master’s in teaching, a collaboration between Lamar University and the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain, will begin in January.

“Basically, it is a program that is going to help area teachers, and actually teachers all over the state of Texas — it can actually be teachers all over the United States or in Spain — because it is an online program,” Christine Bridges-Esser, director of modern languages and director of Spanish master’s, said. “We work in conjunction with the University of Salamanca, one of the most prestigious universities in all of Europe. It’s an opportunity for people who have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish to continue with their education.”

www.facebook.com/UPLamar

The program will give teachers an outlet for professional development and for them to grow, both in their knowledge and in the classroom, Bridges-Esser said.

“I want to continue learning and developing my knowledge about how to teach and how to make (students’) lives easier in learning a foreign language,” Mariella Guerro, a teacher at Nederland High School and the program’s first student, said. “I know it is difficult. I learned the hard way. I don’t want them to suffer the same thing as I did. (It will) make my life easier when I am doing my job and to expand my knowledge so I can help them.”

It is hard to teach native speakers Spanish, said Guerro, who is from Monterey, Mexico, because they have spent 15 years of their lives, if they are in high school, doing it a certain way.

“It’s kind of sad because they understand that they are wrong and

they’ve been wrong all their lives,” she said. “We just have to refine the language. It’s difficult.”

To correct the problems of native speakers, teachers must have different approaches and methodologies. The program will have an entire class on how one would teach a native speaker.

“It’s entirely different problems, so basically, you’ve got to divide them up,” Bridges-Esser said. “The native speaker has problems with spelling, whereas the non-native speakers are learning it from the ground up, and in a lot of ways, it’s easier.

“You learn where the accents go when you first learn the word, instead of telling them that granny is wrong, and it takes you three months for them to start believing you that it’s not spelled that way. They have to unlearn what they have learned, and then learn it the right way.”

A big draw to the program for stu-

www.lamaruniversitypress.com

UP Kristen Stuck

Miguel Medina, left, Marco Hernandez, Mariella Guerrero, Gicela Trejl, Brittany Birdwell and Javier Flores, discuss their Spanish study abroad trips in the Maes Building Language Lab, Sept. 24. dents is the summer semester spent studying in Spain.

“Ever since I was a child, that was one of my dreams, to visit Spain,”

Javier Flores, Beaumont junior, said.

“This past summer I visited Spain, but See SPANISH, page 2

www.twitter.com/UPLamar

INSIDE Thursday, October 9, 2014 University Press

SPANISH •••••••••••••••• Continued from page 1 not just visited, I was also a student there in the country. It was different from what I am used to. It’s a beautiful university, the professors are really friendly, the list goes on. “I stayed with a host family. It was amazing. I was able to experience the culture a little bit better — their traditions, what a family goes through on a daily basis, how they live their lives. I was able to experience the routine of a Spaniard. Their routine is really, really different from ours.â€?

Flores said his goal is to become a principal or a counselor. “I’ve always been the type of person who wants to help out, so by becoming a principal or counselor, I’d

QUOTE OF THE DAY

NOTICE

“Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.�

The University Press can be read online at www.lamaruniversitypress.com. Advertising rates can be found on the site, along with practically all information that a person might be looking for.

— Alfred A. Montapert

Check out the student handbook at: http://students.lamar.edu/student-handbook.html To download a pdf of the campus safety brochure, visit http://students.lamar.edu/campus-safety/index.html

Page 2

be able to help out the community a little bit more,� he said. “I wanted to become a teacher to help the students, but I want to move up the ladder, I guess you can say. I just don’t want to be a teacher.�

The program will give teachers a chance to be exposed to a culture in a way they may not have been before. “It’s going to be for five weeks that they are going to be in contact and living within the culture,� Norma Zarzosa, instructor of English and modern languages and director of teacher education/ teacher certification in Spanish said. “They will be able to refine their language skills.

They will be able to get to interact with the people from the culture and taste different kinds of food. They might speak Spanish, but it’s a different lifestyle that they have in Spain.�

The courses will be online with light loads in the fall and spring, and heavy loads during the summer, allowing professional teachers to get their master’s. It is a two-year program with 30 credit hours. “This is going to be the first master’s at Lamar University that is going to be international, because it is going to be done between two countries, two universities,� Zarzosa said. “It’s one of the visions that we have at Lamar, to make the students more globally oriented.�

The school’s mission statement states that, “Lamar University is a comprehensive public institution educating a diverse student body, preparing students for leadership and lifelong learning in a multicultural world, and enhancing the future of Southeast Texas, the state, the nation, and the world through teaching,

research and creative activity, and service.�

The new master’s program helps Lamar do just that, Kevin Smith, senior associate provost, said. “The nice thing about the language programs is the university is also strategically committed to global education,� he said. “It’s a decision that we have made in the last few years, and this is a piece of it. To be fluent in another language, including Spanish, gives a graduate in engineering, a graduate in business, a graduate in nursing and many other disciplines a leg up in a global marketplace. “These programs also help us promote study abroad because they allow us to immerse our students in cultures outside of Southeast Texas in study abroad experiences. That is very, very valuable.�

CALENDAR October 9 Credit Score Management Seminar 101 Galloway Business Building 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

October 11 Football: Lamar University vs. Southeastern Louisiana Provost Umphrey Stadium Kickoff at 7 p.m.

October 13 Art Faculty Exhibition Dishman Art Museum 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

October 15 Fall Career Fair Setzer Student Center Ballroom 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

October 16

WALK ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Continued from page 1 Following the vigil, a reception featuring entertainment, refresh-

ments, and an informational session will be held in the Setzer Student Center Ballroom. “We will have vendors and different agencies that can provide information and pamphlets,� Levy said. “People will also be on hand to talk to

about personal situations and to answer questions.�

Representatives from local organizations such as the Family Violence Unit, Beaumont Police Department and the Lamar Health Center will be present.

Participants in the 2013 Domestic Violence Prevention Walk in the Quad. This year’s walk, candlelight vigil and reception will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 16.

Courtesy Bruised But Not Broken

“Counseling and private support groups will be available for anyone on campus who is looking for help and needs to speak with someone,� Levy said. “Everything that is spoken in these support groups is completely confidential.� “We were founded by Mrs. Antoinette Mays, a major advocate of domestic violence, and by former students,� Levy said. “Every college campus you go to, there is a need for people who have been abused to have somewhere to voice themselves, and we do that. “We promote being a survivor not a victim, and teach what healthy awareness is when it comes to relationships, whether it is dealing with physical, mental or verbal abuse.�

Participants are encouraged to wear purple to represent domestic violence awareness. “People should understand that abuse is real and (has been) going on for a long time — but it is something that can be changed and stopped,�

Levy said.

The national domestic violence hotline number is 1-800-799-7233.

Finding Your Strenghts Seminar 101 Galloway Business Building 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Fifth Annual Domestic Violence Prevention Walk Lamar University 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

October 17 AP Fall I 8-wk ends

October 18 Alumni Service Project at Humane Society Humane Society of Southeast Texas, 2050 Beaumont Avenue, Beaumont TX 77705 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Glow Run Relay for Ronald Ty Terrell Track 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

October 18 AP Fall II 8-wk begins To submit a listing, click on the calendar link at lamaruniversitypress.com

54 4&/ 13&

* 1

" %&-5 )" "-1

Y Q N * P 5W

CNF 5QP

T Q H C[ 5GN

0DUPCFS

QN

QN 5Z 5FSSFMM 5SBDL 3FHJ TUFS POMJ OF "%1J (MPX3VO

LAMAR UNIVERSITY

DISTINGUISHED FACULTY LECTURE SERIES SPONSORED BY

EXXONMOBIL PRESENTS

$G Y H U W L V H

\ R X U

R U J D Q L ] D W L R Q Âś V X S F R PL Q J

H Y H Q W V

E \

S O D F L Q J 35(66 D Q

D G

L Q

W K H

81,9(56,7<

DR. JERRY LIN

â&#x20AC;&#x153;CHASING QU QUICKSILVER: UICKSIL LVER: FROM FRO OM AN EMPERORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EMPERORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S O THE GLOBAL EN NVIRONMENTâ&#x20AC;?

TOMB TO ENVIRONMENTâ&#x20AC;?

OCTOBER 20, 2014 7:00 P.M..

LAMAR UNIVER UNIVERSITY RSITY THEATRE BEAUMONT, TEXAS BEAUMO NT, TE EXAS

Mercury

Hg !-)2" 11)&12.2 E:F:K'>=N

&RQW D F W

W KH

81,9(56,7< 35(66 E\ F D O O L QJ

RU E\ H PD L O L QJ D GYH U W L V L QJ#O D PD U XQL YH U V L W \SU H V V

F RP $GV

ZL O O

U XQ H YH U \ V H F RQG D QG I RXU W K 7KXU V GD \

I RU

D

L QF K D G

I RU

D

L QF K D G

3U L F H

SH U

U XQ

3

EDITORAL Editor Lauren Van Gerven The opinions that appear in editorials are the official views of the University Press student management as determined by the UP Student Editorial Board. Opinions expressed elsewhere on this page are the views of the writers only and are not necessarily those of the University Press student management. Student opinions are not necessarily those of the university administration.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Princess proposal

UP EDITORIAL

SUPPORT UNIVERSITY AS IT GROWS Lamar University is bigger than ever.

Last week, the university’s official enrollment numbers were released which indicated a 6.1 percent head count growth over last fall.

In 2013, headcount was down 1.6 percent due to higher admission standards, which makes this year’s growth even more exciting.

There are currently 14,889 students enrolled at Lamar. This is an all-time high. The growth in enrollment can be noticed not just by looking at the amount of students walking around campus on a daily basis, but also by the projects that are currently underway.

Tuesday, the long anticipated groundbreaking for the administration/honors building took place. A softball complex will also be built on that side of campus, off Rolfe Christopher Drive, along with a new entrepreneurship facility.

Apart from the construction of the new buildings, renovations of the Setzer Student Center are also expected to start in the near future.

Lamar’s growing campus also leads to less visible expansions. An example of this is the much needed IT expansion. Within the next couple of weeks it will become much easier to connect to Lamar’s wireless network.

Administration is doing a lot to make Lamar a bigger and better place. It is important that everyone on campus appreciates this. Construction might lead to some temporary difficulties, but in the long run it will make the university look good.

Many students complain that they have to pay fees for things such as the renovation of the Setzer Student Center, though the renovations won’t be completed until after their graduation. It is true that they won’t directly benefit from these things, but once an alumni, people should still have pride in their alma mater. The better Lamar’s reputation, the better it will look on them.

Besides, the facilities they enjoy now were paid for by the fees of past students.

Attendance at home football games is down since the excitement of its return in 2010. This is a shame, because, not only can it be fun to go to the football game, but also a great atmosphere and full stands at home games help attract prospective students.

Be proud of Lamar. Show off that red and white, support the Cardinals and the university as we grow together.

UNIVERSITY PRESS A THIRTEEN-TIME ASSOCIATED PRESS MANAGING EDITORS AWARD WINNER

The Newspaper of Lamar University and Lamar Institute of Technology ©University Press 2014

Editor ................................Lauren Van Gerven Managing Editor .......................Kristen Stuck Sports Editor ..........................Grant Crawford Web Editor ..............................Melissa Conley Staff ..................................Desmond Pickens, ............................................Mallory Matt, ................................. Brandianne Hinton, .............................................Molly Porter, ...............................................Coty Davis, ......................................Elizabeth Grimm, ........................Alan LaNear, Faith Roland Advertising .............................Melissa Conley

www.lamaruniversitypress.com Individuals who wish to speak out on issues should send a letter fewer than 400 words in length to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 10055, Beaumont, TX 77710, or drop letters off at our office in 200 Setzer Student Center.

The writer’s name, address, telephone number and ID number must accompany each letter. Letters received without this information cannot be printed. Letters may be edited for length, grammar, style and possible libel.

Opinions expressed in letters are not necessarily those of the UP student management. Letters by the same writer on the same subject will not be published. Poetry and religious debates will not be published.

UP cartoon by Desmond Pickens

STUDY ABROAD CREATES OPPORTUNITY FOR FAIRYTALE ENGAGEMENT Paris — the city of romance. It’s a great place to experience the perfect proposal.

Over the summer, my boyfriend and I left the United States a few days before we were scheduled to meet our study abroad teacher in Madrid. We wanted to spend some time backpacking in France.

We dined at the most quaint restaurants around the Eiffel Tower and attended Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. Every night, we stayed in hostels throughout the city, meeting the most fascinating people.

My bucket list was nearly complete, but just an hour north of Paris is the tiny village of Pierrefonds. That was our ultimate destination.

Our draw to the northern French countryside was the Château de Pierrefonds, a huge castle right in the heart of the village.

My boyfriend and I adored the TV series, “The Adventures of Merlin,” a show set in the time of the Arthurian legends. I had assumed BBC Productions was using stages, but in fact, they were using this castle.

I booked a room in a local bed and breakfast, L’Ermitage. It was an old twostory Victorian house with vines crawling from the ground to the roof.

The village was so small that there was no public transportation and neither I, nor my boyfriend, spoke any French. We ventured in and out of the shops, searching for someone who spoke English to give us directions to L’Ermitage, which I still cannot

COMMENTARY

by

Mallory Matt

pronounce.

Luckily, we entered into what looked like a grocery store and found a couple of young boys who spoke good enough English. They had just graduated from high school and still remembered everything they had learned.

They said that they would be happy to drive us to L’Ermitage after they had finished grocery shopping. We rode with them in their little car around town as the driver collected fresh bread and slices of cheese.

As he began driving out of the small village, my boyfriend was on high alert since we were in a complete stranger’s car, but we reached the B&B safely — without being kidnapped.

The bed and breakfast sat on a hill, tucked behind acres of trees. The hosts were so welcoming, and they lent us their bikes so we could ride into town for dinner.

After a relaxing night in a big, comfortable bed, my boyfriend and I enjoyed a

three-course breakfast. We packed our things and walked to the castle, my boyfriend carrying my 35-pound backpack and I, carrying his 25-pound backpack.

We visited the courtyard from where King Arthur rides off to his adventures in Camelot, and we climbed the staircase that Merlin runs up and down to complete orders given to him by Arthur.

After my boyfriend and I visited the chapel, he asked to get a flashlight out of his backpack so that we could see in the dark staircase. He dug around the outer pocket and said that he couldn’t find it.

We continued to the corridor where, in the show, Arthur and Guinevere get married. My boyfriend curiously went to the window to see what was outside. I followed him and looked out, asking what he saw.

When I turned around, he was down on one knee.

He looked at me lovingly and held a ring in his hand. He asked me to marry him in a castle in France — a real princess proposal, so, of course, I said yes.

I look back at the photos often and I notice that in the picture I took right before he proposed, he had his hand in his pocket — just waiting for the perfect moment. He couldn’t have chosen a better time.

Study abroad offers a lot of opportunities, some of which are not what one would expect.

Mallory Matt is a UP Staff Writer

Time to panic?

Headlines create fear as Ebola reaches the U.S. Ebola has reached the U.S.!

Even more, it’s right here in Texas!

Last week saw the first confirmed case of the Ebola virus disease in America, when Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, after traveling to Liberia last month.

If one hasn’t really been educating one’s self about Ebola, I can image that this information is rather scary. If headlines and newsflashes are all one has really been exposed to, one has probably heard something along the lines of the following facts: Ebola has made its way to the U.S. There is currently no cure or vaccine for the virus. It is contagious. And, there is a 50-90 percent chance of mortality.

Yes, all of these are facts. But it is important to look at the bigger picture. There are other — less terrifying — Ebola-related facts. Too many people know too little about the virus.

First of all, what is Ebola, and where did it come from?

Ebola was first discovered in 1976, when Belgian nuns — who were doing missionary work in what was then known as Zaire, now the Republic of Congo — became severely sick with what was originally thought to be yellow fever. A blood sample was shipped to Antwerp, Belgium, where scientists came to the conclusion that it wasn’t yellow fever, nor any other known virus.

The scientists named it Ebola hemorrhagic fever after the Ebola River, which runs close to the town of Yambuku, where the first cases were discovered.

Fruit bats, from the Pteropodidae fam-

COMMENTARY

by

Lauren Van Gerven

ily, are the most likely reservoir hosts for the virus, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Primates contract the virus by being in contact with dead bats, or bat droppings. Initial infection in humans is the result of contact with a bat or wild animal carrying the virus.

Human-to-human transmission is only possible via direct contact — via broken skin or mucous membranes — with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids, according to The World Health Organization.

The fact that the virus can only be transmitted through bodily fluids is an important factor in being able to keep it under control.

Yet, since the most recent outbreak, which started in March of this year, more than 7,000 suspected cases have been reported. The reason is that in West African countries such as Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — where most of the cases have been identified — the hygiene standards are far from up to par.

The initial 1976 outbreak was caused by nuns giving pregnant women vitamin shots with unsterilized syringes.

Sadly enough, such situations are still common in West Africa today. People in that area are also very mobile, which makes it hard to track down the infected people. And, since their traditions call for people to be buried in their town of birth, corpses from people who die from the disease are often transported to other sides of the country, all while the virus can still be transmitted.

Professor Peter Piot, who was amongst the scientists who discovered Ebola, stated in a recent interview with The Guardian, that nearly two thirds of the cases in Guinea during the 2014 outbreak are believed to be due to burial practices, and that one of the primary reasons for spread is that the health system in the part of Africa where the disease occurs functions poorly.

In the Western part of the world, health regulations are a lot stricter. Piot also said that an outbreak in Europe or North America would quickly be brought under control.

So, do we need really to worry that Ebola has reached America?

Probably not.

The chance of it spreading uncontrollably and wiping out half of the U.S. population is highly unlikely. Sadly enough, the same cannot be said for countries like Liberia, where the entire country only counted 50 doctors in 2010 — many of who have since died from the virus.

Lauren Van Gerven is UP Editor

Page 4 Thursday, October 9, 2014

University Press

Revamped art lounge includes gallery space EDWARD LONG UP C ONTRIBUTOR The newly opened Student Organization Lounge, in the Art Building, is a place for students to showcase their work, relax and hold organization meetings.

“The new SOL gallery is exactly what the LU art department needs,” Jillian “Gigi” Barker, Warren junior, said. “It provides a comfortable place for art students to relax and hang out in between classes, as well as a place to meet with fellow art students to discuss class projects.

“I’m excited that the lounge is also going to function as a gallery to display students’ work throughout the semester.

I feel the SOL gallery will further aid the creativity and development of Lamar’s art students.”

The art building is an openair facility and the hallways are breezeways.

“The center of our building

isn’t fully enclosed, so waiting for a classroom to be unlocked on a rainy, cold or particularly humid day was never very fun,” Kendall Wilkerson, Sour Lake junior, said. “Last semester, my classmates and I often found ourselves waiting outside in the frigid cold for our professor to open the graphic design lab. Not to mention that the floors of our ‘hallways’ are concrete and the only seating options were dirty park benches.

The openness was also a problem for student sculptures,” Wilkerson said.

“They were subject to lots of dust and grime, and last semester there was even an incident where one melted,” she said. “With the new lounge, not only is student work being displayed in a much nicer and controlled environment, but the students now have a comfortable, clean, and air-conditioned place to go in between classes and during late nights while finishing up projects for finals.”

Photography major Eric

Adams conceptualized the gallery idea for the lounge.

“Last semester, they were renovating our old lounge area,” he said. “I walked past and saw the empty walls, and thought about how neat it would be to have work hanging in there. It is common for universities to have a space for students to display their work, and this now gives us that opportunity. I truly believe the students will be taken back by the work being made by their peers.”

Although the SOL is currently open for students and faculty to gather, there is still work to be done.

“The space has been transformed, cleaned up quite a bit.”

Christopher Troutman, assistant professor of art, said. “The gallery rails are installed, we just need to get rid of the old lockers and finish the installation of the rails, and then we will be able to use the entire space.”

For more information, call 880-8141.

UP Michael Reed

Students relax in the new SOL Gallery, Friday, in the Art Building

Children’s Miracle Network seeks gaming fundraisers FAITH ROLAND UP CONTRIBUTOR Ever y minute, 62 children enter a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital for treatment.

One in 10 children in North America are treated by a CMN hospital every year.

The Children’s Miracle Network is encouraging everyone to register for their “Extra Life” fundraiser, Oct. 25, beginning, at 8 a.m.

Participants pledge to play a game — video games, board games, card games, sports games — for a period of time and raise money through sponsorships.

“You can join the event as an individual or as a group.” Jade Rayburn, CMN development specialist, said. “You register yourself, or group, at www.Extra-Life.org. Once registered you and/or your group pick a day and a goal.

For example — you and your friends decide

that you’re going to play the X-box for 12 hours on Oct. 25, and you guys want to raise $100.

Once your goal is made, find sponsors. Sponsors can be anyone that takes a pledge to donate a certain amount of money if the person or group actually plays the games.”

Rayburn said it is important to register one of the three local hospitals that work with the network — Christus St. Elizabeth, Christus St. Mar y or Christus Jasper Memorial —that the funds raised will impact children locally.

The fundraiser is not limited to one day.

The fundraiser is an ongoing event. “‘Extra Life’ was started in 2008 by a guy named Jeromy Adams,” Rayburn said. “As a radio DJ working on a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital’s Radiothon in Houston, he met a lively leukemia sur vivor named Victoria Enmon.

Though Tori eventually lost her battle,

Jeromy realized that gamers like himself wanted a way to help sick kids — they just didn’t have a way yet. From there, he created “‘Extra-Life.’”

“Extra-Life raised $4.1 million in 2013 and Rayburn said the group plans to double that this year.

“I would like to see more people in our area get involved, especially the students at Lamar,” she said. “The children in our area need to have a good place to go and get medical attention. We’d like to be able to provide all of the things sick children need here, so that they don’t have to go all the way to Houston for specialists. It’s really important that people realize how much of an impact ever y dollar makes.”

Since 1983, Children’s Miracle Network has raised $5 billion for 170 hospitals. Rayburn said that although $5 billion is a lot of money,

it’s hardly enough to cover the expenses for the 32 million treatments across the U.S and Canada each year.

“The Children’s Miracle Network provides funds for specialized equipment for the pediatric and neonatal floor, toys and entertainment for the pediatric patients, and provides expenses for families who can’t afford the treatments their child needs or if they can’t afford transportation,” she said. “But in order to provide all of things, they need to raise funds.”

Rayburn says that she loves the creativity that “Extra Life” encourages.

“You could play checkers with your grandma for a few hours, play basketball with your friends, or have a board game night with your church group,” she said. “You could set up time to play games for a good cause. The possibilities are endless.”

For information, visit www.extra-life.org.

University Press Thursday, October 9, 2014

Page 5

— NOBEL PRIZE ROUNDUP — LED discovery earns physics award Chemists surpass limitations of microscope This year’s Nobel Laureates are rewarded for having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source – the blue light-emitting diode (LED). In the spirit of Alfred Nobel the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind; using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources.

When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a funda-mental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades.

They succeeded where everyone else had failed. Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small company in Tokushima. Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.

White LED lamps emit a bright white light, are long-lasting and energy-efficient. They are constantly improved, getting more efficient with higher luminous flux (measured in lumen) per

For a long time optical microscopy was held back by a presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution than half the wavelength of light. Helped by fluorescent molecules the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2014 ingeniously circumvented this limitation. Their ground-breaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension.

In what has become known as nanoscopy, scientists visualize the pathways of individual molecules inside living cells. They can see how molecules create synapses between nerve cells in the brain; they can track proteins involved in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases as they aggregate; they follow individual proteins in fertilized eggs as these divide into embryos.

It was all but obvious that scientists should ever be able to study living cells in the tiniest molecular detail. In 1873, the microscopist Ernst Abbe stipulated a physical limit for the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopy: it could never become better than 0.2 micrometres. Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 for having bypassed this limit. Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld.

“It’s critical for our understanding of how life works, how our brain works, how we are put together as human beings,” Kenneth Dorris, professor of chemistry said. “Chemistry of life is being unfolded in the scientific world.”

Two separate principles are rewarded. One en-

Shuji Nakamura Isamu Akasaki Hiroshi Amano unit electrical input power (measured in watt).

The most recent record is just over 300 lm/W, which can be compared to 16 for regular light bulbs and close to 70 for fluorescent lamps. As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth’s resources.

Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights.

The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power.

The invention of the blue LED is just twenty years old, but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.

ables the method stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, developed by Stefan Hell in 2000.

Two laser beams are utilized; one stimulates fluorescent molecules to glow, another cancels out all fluorescence except for that in a nanometre-sized volume.

Scanning over the sample, nanometre for nanometre, yields an image with a resolution better than Abbe’s stipulated limit.

Eric Betzig and William Moerner, working separately, laid the foundation for the second method, single-molecule microscopy. The method relies upon the possibility to turn the fluorescence of individual molecules on and off. Scientists image the same area multiple times, letting just a few interspersed molecules glow each time. Superimposing these images yields a dense super-image resolved at the nanolevel. In 2006 Eric Betzig utilized this method for the first time.

Today, nanoscopy is used world-wide and new knowledge of greatest benefit to mankind is produced on a daily basis.

Eric Betzig

Stefan Hell

William Moerner

O’KEEFE, MOSERS WIN MEDICINE PRIZE FOR BRAIN-GPS RESEARCH How do we know where we are? How can we find the way from one place to another? And how can we store this information in such a way that we can immediately find the way the next time we trace the same path?

This year´s Nobel Laureates have discovered a positioning system, an “inner GPS” in the brain that makes it possible to orient ourselves in space, demonstrating a cellular basis for higher cognitive function.

In 1971, John O´Keefe discovered the first component of this positioning system. He found that a type of nerve cell in an area of the brain called the hippocam-

pus that was always activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room. Other nerve cells were activated when the rat was at other places. O´Keefe concluded that these “place cells” formed a map of the room.

More than three decades later, in 2005, May-Britt and Edvard Moser discovered another key component of the brain’s positioning system. They identified another type of nerve cell, which they called “grid cells”, that generate a coordinate system and allow for precise positioning and pathfinding. Their subsequent research showed how place and grid cells make it possible to de-

John O’Keefe

May-Britt Moser

termine position and to navigate.

Edythe Kirk, Lamar University associate professor of psychology, said the scientists’ work has great value.

Edvard Moser

“These folks studied the part of the brain that deals with spatial memory,” she said. “It is the pathway that is affected when people have Alzheimer’s. They’re spatial

memory is really severely impaired. How the cells respond when we are navigating through space is what makes this really important.”

The discoveries of John O´Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser have solved a problem that has occupied philosophers and scientists for centuries — how does the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and how can we navigate our way through a complex environment?

The sense of place and the ability to navigate gives a perception of position in the environment.

Recent investigations with brain imaging techniques, as well as studies of patients undergoing neurosurgery, have provided evidence that place and grid cells exist also in humans. In patients with Alzheimer´s disease, the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are frequently affected at an early stage, and these individuals often lose their way and cannot recognize the environment. Knowledge about the brain´s positioning system may, therefore, help us understand the mechanism underpinning the devastating spatial memor y loss that affects people with this disease.

God’s Economy The key to understanding the Bible... “...in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things nor give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.”

(1 Timothy 1:3b-4)

Bag A Great Deal With an Education First Gold or Platinum Credit Card.

Free & non-credited classes at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday during the fall semester, in room 112 of the Family and Consumer Science Building. Come and join the class!

Sponsored by Christians on Campus

(On all purchase & balance transfers!)

APPLY APPL LY TOD TODAY AY EducationFirstFCU.org Educa tionFirstFCU.org rstFCU.org 409.898.3770 .898.3770 *1.99% APR (Annual PPercentage ercentage Ra Rate). te). Credit restrictions trictions may aapply. pply. Ra Rate te after promotion based on individual dual credit file. 1.99% purchase and balance transfer rate raate applies applies applyy & fund between September 5, 2014 and October 26, 2014.

2014. Please contact a CU representative representative for complete details. etails. to new and existing cardholders. Must apply

Page 6 Thursday, October 9, 2014

University Press

'PPUCBMM 4DIFEVMF

SPORTS UP SPORTS BRIEFS Football

7 Thursday, October 9, 2014

UNIVERSITY PRESS

LU GETS FIRST SLC WIN

Sophomore Juan Carranco has been named College Football Performance Awards National Co-Punter of the week announced CFPA Executive Director Brad Smith Tuesday morning. Carranco shares the honor with Eastern Washington's Jake Miller.

It marks the first time in Carranco's career that he has received the weekly honor.

“Juan had a tremendous game in Abilene,” head coach Ray Woodard said. “He did an excellent job of flipping the field position for us, which is huge against a team as talented as Abilene Christian.We knew he had this kind of ability, and he really came through for us in Abilene.”

The Dayton native averaged better than 46 yards per punt on seven punts, including a long of 54 yards.

He had five of his punts downed inside the 20-yard line, including one on the ACU one-yard line.

Men’s Tennis Lamar sophomore Nikita Lis had to fight his way through a couple of three-set matches to earn a berth in Sunday's Ron Wesbrooks Flight One Singles Championship against TexasPan American's Juan Cruz-Soria. But, for all the drama involved in Lis' path to the finals, the match itself was anticlimactic as Lis dispensed of his opponent, 6-1, 6-1. He finished the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record.

Overall, the Cardinals placed three individuals in the championship match of their respective flights with Lis coming away with a title. Sophomore Juuso Laitinen and junior Steven McMullan advanced to the flight two and flight three championships, respectively.

“I thought we had a good weekend of matches,” head coach Scott Shankles said.“We did really well in singles advancing three guys into the finals. Overall in doubles we did a little better than I think some were expecting us to. If you combine the performances on both sides we had a really strong weekend.”

The Cardinals finished the weekend with a 17-7 (.708) overall singles record, and went 7-4 (.636) in doubles play.

The Cardinals close out the fall portion of the schedule at the ITA Regional Championships.

The regionals will begin Oct. 18, and run through Oct. 20.

Softball The Lamar softball team opened its fall season by splitting a pair of games at the Spring-Klein Tournament, Saturday.

The Lady Cardinals started things off with a 3-1 victory over St. Edward's before dropping a 7-4 decision to Baylor.

Ashley McDowell went 3-for-3 in the win over St. Edward's. Stephanie Meeuwsen and Casey Cromwell added two hits apiece in the victory.

Amie Cisneros picked up the win with two innings of hitless relief.

Starter Annika Seedborg allowed one hit over the first three innings. Shannon Sain picked up the save.

The Lady Cardinals play three games at the LSU Tournament on Saturday. Lamar faces Belhaven at noon, Baton Rouge Community College at 2:30 p.m. and the host Tigers at 7:30 p.m.

Cross Country Senior distance runners Sam Stabler and Leigh Lattimore were named Southland Conference Runners of the Week, Tuesday.

The duo guided Lamar to strong finishes at the Chile Pepper Distance Festival this past weekend in Fayetteville, Ark. Both team finished second overall, falling to only Arkansas in both races.

Stabler finished fourth among 429 runners, clocking a time of 24:10.5 on the 8,000-meter course. Stabler's time was the fastest among all Southland runners at the meet.

Lattimore posted the league's top time among all female runners. Just missing the top 10 with a time of 16:40.1 on the 5,000-meter course.

Lamar’s Mark Roberts, 5, makes a 14-yard catch over ACU defender for the game-winning touchdown, Saturday, in Abilene.

Photo by Jeremy Enlow-ACU

CARDINALS COME FROM BEHIND IN 4TH QUARTER TO BEAT ACU GRANT CRAWFORD UP SPORTS EDITOR @GrantLamarUP The Lamar football team rallied to defeat Abilene Christian, 24-21, Saturday at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene.

The Cards trailed by 11 points with just under 10:30 remaining, but closed out the game scoring the final 14 points to pick up their first Southland Conference win of the season.

The victory propels Lamar to 4-2 (1-1 in SLC), while the Wildcats fall to 3-3 overall (2-1 in SLC).

“Credit goes to our kids tonight,” head coach Ray Woodard said. “Our kids showed a lot of maturity. We had an opportunity to get down and quit, but we didn’t. Our defense kept us in the game until our offense could get going. It was a good team win for us — something we all needed.”

The Cardinals were down 21-18

with 2:30 remaining, when Woodard decided to go for it on fourth-andeight, which ended in senior Caleb Berr y finding Mark Roberts in the back of the end zone.

“If we didn’t have all three (timeouts), we probably would have kicked,” Woodard said. “I thought if we didn’t score the go-ahead touchdown, then we could put our defense out there to get the ball back for us.

At that point our kicking game hadn’t been where I wanted it to be. I thought I’d rather put it in the hands of eleven guys and it paid out for us.

“Mark is a great player. As a coach you tr y and get the best matchups for your players and tonight we had that. Roberts made a great play on the ball. This is a great way to go home.”

Sophomore Kade Harrington rushed for 143 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries. He also totaled 48 receiving yards. This was his second

game back after injuring himself in the season opener.

“We had to run the football,” Woodard said. “His rushing was a huge part of the game and we’re happy to have him back.”

Junior Devonn Brown led all LU receivers with seven catches for 62 yards. Caleb Berr y completed 23 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns. ”Road wins are hard to come by,” Woodard said. “Conference road wins are even harder to come by. It was a see-saw game. We really got outplayed in the third quarter. It was a very satisfying win to watch and be a part of because our players really hung in there and played hard.”

Senior Kevin Johnson and sophomore Xavier Bethany led Lamar’s defense with eight tackles.

The Cards return to the gridiron Saturday to host Southeastern Louisiana in SLC play.

“You get up Sunday feeling good, and then you turn to Southeastern and go ‘Oh boy,’ this is a good football team coming in,” Woodard said. “It’s just the opposite of last week when we couldn’t sit around and think about the loss to Sam. We can’t sit around and think about this win.

We’re just going to have to put this one behind us and move on.”

Southeastern Louisiana is coming off of a 30-22 win against Northwestern State and is 2-0 in conference play.

“They’re going to run and throw it,” Woodard said. “They are not a one-dimensional team, but you just have to make your reads and go out there and play the game. We have a lot of desire, though. People think I’m just trying to promote the team, but this is an easy bunch to coach. They come and work hard every day.”

Saturday’s game at Provost Umphrey Stadium kicks off at 6 p.m.

Soccer bounces back against Southeastern COTY DAVIS UP CONTRIBUTOR Lamar rebounded after a disappointing loss to Nicholls State, Friday.

The Lady Cardinals bounced back with a shutout victory, Sunday, as they defeated Southeastern Louisiana 2-0 in Southland Conference action at the Lamar Soccer Complex.

“Because of how poorly we played Friday night, this is the greatest victory of the year,” head coach Orlando Cervantes said. “We had a certain game plan against Nicholls, but we did not execute at all. However, it’s how you respond in the next game after a upsetting lost.”

Lady Cardinal freshman Laura Parra runs away from a defender, right, during LU’s 2-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana, Sunday.

Senior Kimmy Albeno, far right, scored both goals and was named Southland Conference Offensive player of the week.

UP photos by Coty Davis

With 13:17 left to play in the first half, middle fielder Kimmy Albeno scored the Lady Cardinals’ first goal after receiving an assist from forward Taylor Mitchell.

Albeno put the Lady Cardinals up 2-0, scoring on a penalty kick after she was fouled with 4:37 left in the half.

“It was a different style we played today,” Cervantes said. “Just keeping the ball at our feet was our game plan coming into today’s game.”

Even though the Lady Cardinals had the lead heading into the second half, Southeastern Louisiana had a 1412 advantage in shots, but could not get the ball past goalkeeper Bailey Fontenot, who recorded 13 saves.

During the second half, Southeastern Louisiana came out with more intensity, but the Lady Cardinals’ defense did a great job of preventing them from getting good shots.

Albeno’s two goals gave her 32 goals, 73 points and 10 game-winning goals for her career, while Fontenot set a Lamar record with her 13th career shutout.

The game gave Cervantes his 22nd victory as head coach, tying a school record set by former coach Dewi Hardman.

The win allowed the Lady Cardinals (4-7-1, 2-2-1 SLC) to get back into the conference race, moving them into the sixth and final place for next

month’s SLC Tournament, which will be held at Lamar’s Soccer Complex.

“All of the teams are close together in the standing right now, and this was a must win for us,” Cervantes said. “In the tie against Houston Baptist, we lost two points, and we lost three points after Friday’s loss. So this was a huge win to get us back into the mix.”

The Lady Cardinals will return home Friday night as they take on the conference rival the Sam Houston Lady Bearkats.

8

FEATURES

Thursday, October 9, 2014

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Discovering Santisima Muerte NEW ORLEANS MAN BUILDS ALTAR HONORING FOLK SAINT FOR THE DISENFRANCHISED JARED MCCLELLAND UP CONTRIBUTOR NEW ORLEANS — This is the time of year when many people’s thoughts turn to death. Halloween is just around the corner, as well as Dia de los Muertos, a staple of Hispanic tradition.

In New Orleans, behind the façade of an unassuming house, Steven Bragg has an altar dedicated to Santisima Muerte, a folk saint of death.

Santisima Muerte, who is unrecognized by the mainstream Catholic church, has been honored in secret for hundreds of years in Mexico, Bragg says, predominantly among the poor and disenfranchised.

“The main reason is that Santisima Muerte does not reject anyone,” he says.

“She is a manifestation of death. Death takes everyone. Death does not judge.

Death has no ethical system that will reject anyone.”

Bragg says that the saint appeals to those who feel excluded from the church.

“If you are homosexual, if you’re transgender, if you live a life of crime, if you aren’t, you know, a good Catholic, the church will not be that willing to help you — they will turn you away,” he says.

“Or they will tell you that you are a sinner. That is something that Santisima Muerte will never do. She welcomes everybody with open arms because she knows, in the end, she’s going to get everybody.

“That is one of the main reasons why she has been so popular, and her popularity spread mainly through those communities — the fringe of society, the poor, the beat down, gays, violent criminals, whatever. She’ll welcome them, she’ll work with them. She’ll work for anybody. It doesn’t matter.”

Bragg says that he discovered Santisima Muerte when he was forced to evacuate New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

“I found myself up in the Boston area, Massachusetts, and spent four and a half years up there,” he says. “While I was up there, I came in contact with a man named Nick Arnoldi, from New Jersey, who had lived in Mexico in 2001. He made contact with a man south of the Tijuana area named Don Hilberto, who taught him how to work with the folk saint.”

She is also known as Santa Muerte, which translates as “Saint Death” or “Holy Death.” Santisima Muerte translates as “The Most Holy Death.”

Arnoldi and Bragg became friends and often discussed religion and different spiritual traditions. However, they never talked about Santisima Muerte.

But in 2009, as Bragg was preparing to return to the Crescent City, he had an experience that would lead him to learn more.

“I was preparing to come back to New Orleans, and I had a dream where this cloaked skeletal figure came to me and said, ‘If you put a statue of me, I will help you with the issue of working with the dead when you get back to New Orleans,” Bragg says. “New Orleans is a city where there is a lot of death, and the spirits are just everywhere here. Since Katrina, there was a lot of dead spirits still wandering around and, you know, very confused, very lost.”

Bragg created the altar as soon as he got back to the city.

“It was about a year after that when Nick and I connected through email, and I sent him a whole bunch of pictures of the altars and shrines that I had at the time, and he saw the picture of the Santa Muerte statue and said, “How do you know her?” Bragg says. “I said, ‘I really don’t know her.’ And that’s when he told me that he had lived in Mexico and learned from a local there on how to work with her.

“A couple days later, he came back to me and said, ‘She just came to me in a dream and said she wants me to teach you.’ So he did.”

There are lots of different systems on how to work with Santa Muerte, Bragg says.

“It depends on how she developed in each region, because it was all pretty much underground” he says. “There wasn’t a network where Santa Muerte devotees would talk to each other, because prior to 2001, it was all just word of mouth — family members, friends, whatever.”

In 2001, in the very rough and poor neighborhood of Tepito, inside Mexico City, Doña Queta brought out her lifesized statue and made one of the first public shrines in Mexico, Bragg says.

“From then on out, it became more popular,” he says. “It’s hard to really get a solid number because a lot of people still practice in secret, but so many people have come out with it that now it’s close to about seven to eight million people. Her popularity has sky rocketed.”

Bragg is a Mississippi native and has a regular job, but says his spare time is taken up with clearing and resetting offerings.

He says that he does not recall much religious training when he was young, but from the age of 10, he attended a Pentecostal church for about six years before turning away from the church.

“As I came into puberty, I realized I was much more attracted to men than I was to women, and, of course, that church teaches that that’s a sin, that it’s a demon,” he says. “So it just left a really bad taste in my mouth because I knew who I was, I knew that it wasn’t wrong, and I knew that I wasn’t bad and wasn’t going to hell.”

Bragg says he has always been a person who has paid attention to his

UP photos by Jared McClelland

Steven Bragg, top, sits in his New Orleans home with the altar he built to the folk saint Santisima Muerte. The altar is in three sections, including the black, above. dreams.

“My relatives who have died visit me in my dreams,” he says. “I’ve always had dreams to where I will get flashes of future events and future scenarios. So, there has always been that one little thing throughout my teenage years that made me realize there is something more to the spiritual realm than what that church was teaching me.”

Bragg explored many different spiritual traditions, including wicca and Haitian voodoo.

“It wasn’t until Santisima Muerte came in that she sort of put the icing on the cake for me,” he says. “And working with her, she never fails me. Any time I ask for anything, she always does it and she does it really fast. I still practice my other traditions. I haven’t left those. I haven’t given up anything, but she takes precedence in life.”

Bragg has a small group of fellow devotees who gather at the altar in his house to leave offerings and pray to the folk saint.

“Her main fruit offering is the apple,” he says. “It goes back to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Before Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, there was no death in the world. Once Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they were cast out and then that brought death actively into the world. It’s just a symbol and that’s why she gets apples all the time.”

Bragg says other offerings come from Mexican culture, including tequila, dry rice, beans, chocolate, breads and flowers, as well as cigar and cigarette smoke.

“What she does is she takes the life, the living essence from these things, and that’s the energy she uses to help the people in the world,” he says. “You can relate the offerings to the prayers that you have, to whatever issues are in your life.”

There is no standard way an altar should look, as there is no official governing body to set rules. There are three different sections in Bragg’s altarpiece.

“The particular system that I was given is a tri-robed system — Santisima Muerte la blanca, the white; la roja, the red; and la negro, the black. It’s like a holy trinity for her. Whenever she puts on the white robe, she is very good at things such as cleansing, peace, bringing health and getting rid of negative influences. The white one is sort of a heavenly influence.

“The red one — the reason her robe is red is because it’s stained with blood. She deals with everything to do with the world — the physical manifestation of the world. All of us who are living have blood flowing through our veins and that blood is what stains her robe red. That enables her to deal with love, sex, money, court cases, jobs and everything that we deal with on a day-today basis.

“The black one is the underworld aspect. She’s the darkest. She’s black because it’s the shadows she lives in. She deals with the very dark nature of our soul. When we have addictions, when we have things that are going bad for us, when people are doing very bad witchcraft or sorcery — calling up all kinds of evil spirits and demons to send after other people — that’s what she deals with. She’s the one that I work with mostly. When people come to me saying that they’ve got evil curses on them, she can break them.”

The color combination of white red and black is a universal combination,” Bragg says.

“You find this in all kinds of different cultures everywhere throughout history,” he says. “When you have these three colors together, it’s a sign that you’re dealing with forces that make things happen.”

Bragg says that elements of Santisima Muerte can be found in European traditions.

“If you check out the book, ‘Devoted to Death,’ by Andrew Chesnut, he gives a really good historical view on how the Grim Reaper figure evolved in Europe during the time of the black plague, and after that when the Grim Reaper figure came over with the Spanish colonists to Central America,” Bragg says. “In Spain, they had a story of La Parka, the parched one, a female Grim Reaperess. Her whole role was, once you die, she takes your soul to the other world.”

The rise of Santisima Muerte’s popularity may be relatively recent, but she is linked to a long tradition in both Europe and South America. Now she has found a home in New Orleans, behind the doors of a small shotgun house, where one man’s dream led him to find solace in her influence.

And New Orleans seems the perfect home for this folk saint.

For more information, visit www.santisimamuerteneworleans.org.