The Ethnic Studies Department hosted their fourth annual Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) event at Stan State’s Art Space in Downtown Turlock, which was recently reopened after a yearlong hiatus, last Thursday. Students and families were able to experience social injustice altars and live performances to commemorate the holiday.  

Stan State’s Art Space will serve as a blank canvas for students, alumni and faculty with different exhibitions to present to the community. This is the second of eight art exhibitions that have been scheduled for this academic year.
The altars created by Stan State students called attention to issues around the world such as: deaths of transgender women in the United States, no disaster relief funds for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, immigrant’s deaths (from the Mexican-American border), war on drugs (in the Philippines) and violence against native women.
Julien Manjarrez (senior, Ethnic Studies) and his group created an altar for the injustices committed by border security officials against two LGBTQ+ transgender women at the United States border.
“Roxana Hernandez had arrived from Honduras  and Victoria Arellano had arrived from Mexico. Both transgender women died while in custody of the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) due to medical negligence,” Manjarrez said.
Manjarrez added that Hernandez and Arellano both died from complications associated with HIV from the lack of provision of medical care they faced while in custody.
“Because they died from not getting the medication by government officials, we put bottles of pills that will help them in the afterlife,” Hernandez said.
Kyrie Inglessi (junior, Chemical Engineering) said, “There has been a total of 22 transgender murders so far this year.”
Las Muertes de migrants group constructed an altar for honoring immigrants who have died crossing the Mexico-United States border, which follow the states of South California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The altar had offerings like gallons of water that symbolized the dehydration and malnutrition that occurred during the crossing of immigrants.

The celebration continued with performances.

A dance with indigenous Aztecs, who wore elaborate decorated garments, performed a ritual that called ancestors to be awakened from their eternal sleep to come and celebrate with their loved ones.

The celebration also included family-friendly fun like face painting, food and drinks and traditional icons of the holiday to remember departed loved ones.

Berta Cervantes (senior, Chemistry) performed, along with Teatro Los Hijos del Campo, a comedic sketch commemorating the traditions of the Day of the dead (Dia de los Muertos).

“Our sketch provided our audience with laughing and crying from beginning to end in honoring our loved ones on this day,” Cervantes said.  

The Ethnic Studies Program Director, Dr. Xamuel Bañales, ended the event by encouraging the Turlock community to be open and celebrate this holiday for the people of the community to be exposed to different cultures.

To learn more about Stan State’s Art Space hours of operation, go here.