La Casa leads OVPDEMA programs in celebrating Day of the Dead

Growing up in Mexico, Dia de los Muertos (“The Day of the Dead”) was a neighborhood affair for Lillian Casillas-Origel. So in 2014, as the neighborhood in which the La Casa Latino Cultural Center is located added a new neighbor, the First Nations Educational and Cultural Center, and another neighbor, the GLBT Student Support Services Office, was welcomed into the Office of the Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Multicultural Affairs (OVPDEMA) family, Casillas-Origel, La Casa’s director, decided to incorporate the neighborhood into the celebration.

“The Day of the Dead celebration started at IU because we wanted folks to understand the culture, that it was not something scary like Halloween, but that it was centered around remembering those who have passed, our loved ones, whether they’re family members or friends,” explained Casillas-Origel, who said the celebration has occurred at IU for multiple decades. “In Mexico, we celebrated it as a communal celebration—not only the family, but with the whole neighborhood and then at the cemetery.”

Casillas-Origel reached out to Doug Bauder, the director of the GLBT Student Support Services Office, about setting up an altar and incorporating his center into the celebration. Additionally, the First Nations Educational and Cultural Center had recently moved into its new location, making the event a way to make the IU community more familiar with the move, as well as connect all three nearby OVPDEMA programs. La Casa’s next-door neighbors, Canterbury House, IU’s Episcopal Campus Ministries, were also invited to participate.

The La Casa Latino Cultural Center, the GLBT Student Support Services Office, and the First Nations Educational and Cultural Center are all OVPDEMA programs, and while all IU students are welcome to participate in their events, obviously each center targets different audiences. The collaborative Day of the Dead celebration, led by La Casa, encourages inclusion.

“We wanted to include as many people as possible, but we really wanted to show that we had something in common. There’s a link. We might be different cultural centers and our focuses might be slightly different, but at the root of who we are, we’re the same. We’re all here to support and learn from each other. We’re a community,” said Casillas-Origel.

“I think the fact that you have four different entities participating makes it unique. One of the things that we tell the students is that we all celebrate and honor people in our own different ways in different cultures. All of us have something and it doesn’t have to be this major tradition, but some of it is very personal and unique to you or to your family. This celebration is just a way of displaying our tradition.”

At this year’s Dia de los Muertos, held on Wednesday, November 2, participants can look forward to learning more about the history and background of the event from Dr. Mintzi Martinez-Rivera, Ph.D., a visiting assistant professor of Latino Studies at IU, then partaking in food and drinks—including tamales, rice and beans, horchata, jamaica, and Day of the Dead bread—and view altars that honor loved ones and creating individual crafts.