Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Celebration Oct. 27 at UW

Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos, traditionally celebrated by people of Mexican heritage, will be highlighted with activities Friday, Oct. 27, at the University of Wyoming’s Art Museum and American Heritage Center (AHC).

The Latin America and Caribbean cohort of UW’s Center for Global Studies will sponsor activities from 4-6 p.m.

Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos honors a cultural tradition from the Hispanic world, including the Latinx communities in the United States. Usually held in late October and early November in Spanish-speaking countries, the celebration is a multiday holiday involving family and friends who gather to pay respects and to remember friends and family members who have died. It is portrayed as a holiday of joyful celebration rather than mourning.

Some activities for UW’s Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos celebration are:

-- Decorating sugar skulls.

-- Creating altars to remember loved ones. To set up an altar, call (307) 766-4177 and leave a name and phone number.

-- Reading of bilingual poems.

-- Noting the “todos los santos” (all saints) celebration around the Hispanic world.

-- Screening of a documentary focusing on the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos.

-- Viewing of “The Wyoming Betabeleros’ News: La Pagina Espanol of The Powell Tribune (1927)” exhibition at the AHC. In the 1920s, The Powell Tribune published a special page entirely in Spanish for its Mexican and Mexican American readers, many who were “betabeleros,” sugar beet laborers in the area. The exhibition is the result of research by Professor Conxita Domenech and Assistant Professor Chelsea Escalante, both in UW’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages.

Other UW sponsors of the event are the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, the Art Museum, the AHC and the School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies. Sonia Rodriguez Hicks, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Modern and Classical Languages, is organizing activities.

For more information, email Rodriguez Hicks at soniahr@uwyo.edu.