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TheCityCollegeTimes
Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017
The Voice of San Jose City College Students Since 1956
Volume 84 Issue 3
The Day of the Dead
Honoring ancestors BY TAMMY DO TIMES STAFF
Skulls and skeletons are appearing on campus, as students and staff at San Jose City College ramp up to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a holiday that originated in Mexico and celebrated throughout Latin America in which the living remember the dead. “It’s a way to commemorate our ancestors. In Western culture, we are taught to fear death, to see death as a bad thing,” said business administration student Jorge Casas. “In Chicano and indigenous culture, we honor the dead.” Typically celebrated over the three days beginning Oct. 31 and ending Nov. 2, the Western Christian days of Allhallowtide, the holidays comes from the mixing of pre-Columbian tradition and Spanish Catholicism. “It might sound a little morbid at first,” student Rosa Ruiz Mena said. “In Mexico, especially when we go back ... death wasn’t seen as a negative thing. It was just a part of life.” Families create little altars at
PHOTO BY MAGNOLIA LONERO/TIMES STAFF
Families create “ofrendas”, or altars, at home or on gravesites where they place “calaveras”, or sugar skulls, food and drink, and other mementos to honor the lives of loves ones who have passed away. home or in gravesites where they lay out sugar skulls, marigolds, little offerings of food and drink, and other mementos of loved ones who have passed.
“It’s the day in which the dead visit the living,” Ruiz Mena said. “You place a little offering. For example, if (the person) loved music, people
will usually place CDs, or music sheets, or even sometimes little instruments.” Skeletons, or “calacas,” are another decorative motif often
seen around Dia de los Muertos with very specific meaning. For example, La Catrina is a skeleton woman who is usually depicted in a extravagant dress and a big hat with marigolds. “(La Catrina) represents the lively spirit of those who have died,” Ruiz Mena said. “She’s just a normal mortal woman who is now a skeleton and every time Day of the Dead comes by, she comes out and parties.” Although her distance away from her relatives makes celebrating Day of the Dead difficult, Ruiz Mena said she still finds the holiday meaningful: “It reminds me of my heritage, my culture ... It’s one of the very few holidays that hasn’t been overly capitalized.” There will be events throughout San Jose to mark Dia de los Muertos, including a festival on Oct. 21 in St. James Park and a free museum day at San Jose Museum of Art on Oct. 29. More dedicated celebrants can join La Ultima Parada, a two day event that features an art walk through Alum Rock and festivities at the Mexican Heritage Plaza on Oct. 28 and 29. On campus, the Art Gallery will put on a student exhibition inspired by Day of the Dead, and MEChA plans to set up an altar to honor the dead as they have in previous years.
Vice mayor speaks at SJCC for Latino Heritage Month Carrasco encourages students to be active in the community BY TAMMY DO TIMES STAFF
Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco spoke about her immigrant background and her goals in representing District 5 on the East side of San Jose on an event at San Jose City College on Oct. 12. “Thirty years have gone by in which the East side has been ignored,” Carrasco said, referring to the length of time since a vice mayor had last been chosen from the neighborhood. “Where the majority of our immigrant population lives ... We have the most gang homicides, the highest rate of truancy, and the highest levels of aggravated assaults.” The event was organized by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de Aztlan (MEChA) club, and intended to mark Latino Heritage Month, which
San Jose Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco poses for a selfie with student and faculty members of Movimiento Estudantil Chicanx de Aztlan, who organized her speech on campus on Oct. 12 to honor Latino Heritage Month.
“We have the most gang homicides, the highest rate of truancy, and the highest levels of aggravated assaults (in the East side of San Jose).”
PHOTO BY: TAMMY DO/TIMES STAFF
Magadalena Carrasco, vice mayor
ended on Oct. 15. Carrasco spoke of her immigrant parents and how they came to the United States from rural Mexico in order to provide more opportunities to their children. She said that it was this background, and her years as a social worker that inspired her to
go into politics. “Most of the Latino people reside on the (East) side,” mechanical engineering and business major Uriel Perez said. “Just knowing that we have someone who knows the history of the East side... I’m just glad to
see there’s her and more Latina people at City Hall helping us.” The city council member’s plans for the East side include getting converted garage units up to code and certified as housing, keeping libraries and communities open after
school and in the summer to serve children, and increasing minimum wage. “Rent’s too high. We don’t have enough programs or school funds,” Perez said, as a resident of East San Jose. Carrasco encouraged students to get involved in their communities, to serve the public with the best that they could and get things done without getting egotistical. “You’re going to die a slow death,” Carrasco said, speaking of the sell-by date of political careers. “You cannot think so highly of yourself because you may not live to see it.”
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