Red and black posters on wooden sticks were sprinkled along the
Bruin Walk lawn this week to bring awareness to the missing people
of Latin America, the theme of the Day of the Dead celebration
hosted by conciencia libre, a campus group dedicated to social
equality.
Traditionally, Mexicans celebrate and welcome back the souls of
the dead by making calaveras, skull- shaped candy treats, and pan
de muerto, bread of the dead, every year from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.
The Day of the Dead celebration at UCLA included people of
different heritages and carried a social and political message.
Over the weekend, conciencia libre members and jornaleros, day
laborers, created the posters at the Downtown Community Job
Center.
Short biographies accompanied the blown-up pictures of the
disappeared in order to humanize the tragedy.
About 50 students and family members came together at the Fowler
Museum on Wednesday night to take part in workshops, listen to
spoken word and eat together.
The violation of civil liberties of Latin Americans over the
last two decades, along with recent violations of U.S.-born Muslims
and people of Middle Eastern dissent since Sept. 11 was the
unifying theme of guest speakers.
“(Governments) think they can silence (protesters) down
with threats and policies, but that’s not going to happen.
We’re stronger than that,” said conciencia libre member
Blanca Martinez, a third- year political science and international
development studies student.
Special guest Nagwa Ibrahim from the Muslim Public Affairs
Council spoke about the detainment of over 1,000 people, most of
which were of Middle Eastern or South Asian decent, or Muslim,
after Sept. 11 in the United States.
“The war against terrorism has been pursued by this
administration at the expense of civil liberties at home and human
rights of people abroad,” Ibrahim said.
Latin American dictatorships forcibly detained people during the
last two decades, and the same tactics are being used here in the
United States in the name of terrorism, she said.
“It’s a human rights issue that we as Americans have
to care about, either if it’s happening in this country or if
it happened in Latin America,” she said.
The celebration also included a theater performance by
conciencia libre members that educated the audience while providing
comic relief.
One play poked fun at the recent LAX raids of domestic flights
in which passengers were asked for proper identification and
illegal immigrants were deported back to their countries.
“The main message of the event was to stop racial
profiling in the U.S. through comedy but also through straight
facts and political means,” Martinez said.
During the intermission, students ate Salvadorean food and
members of Raza Womyn, a campus service group, sold and displayed
their art.
UCLA transfer students showed they were activists through their
spoken word performances.
“Soy poeta y no me dejo porque no soy pendejo (I’m a
poet and I don’t restrain myself because I’m not
stupid),” said first-year UCLA transfer student Jessica
Grande.
Grande came to the United States from El Salvador when she was
five. She explained her poem was not intended to entertain, but
rather to empower young people and to serve as a testament to the
disappeared, like poets that speak up against the governments that
take away their basic rights.
The cumbia and raggea beats of the Yerba Buena Tribe, an East
Los Angeles band, invited all who attended to get out of their
seats to dance and have fun at the end of a long day of building
political consciousness.
Fifth-year Chicana/o studies student Francisco Zarathustra and
Armando Ibarra, lead singers of Yerba Buena, energized the diverse
crowd with their songs.
“We’re not all from the same origins but we’re
all together celebrating life and death,” said fourth-year
women’s studies and sociology student Cristina Lopez, also a
member of conciencia libre. “Let’s continue to support
each other.”
MEChA de UCLA, LASA, MSA, Amnesty International and the
Community Programs Office, along with others, collaborated with
conciencia libre to organize this year’s Day of the Dead
event.