DRAKE STUDENTS entertained children through the use of a Spanish puppet show. English subtitles helped non-Spanish speakers follow along. Photo: ANN SCHNOEBELEN
Hundreds of people visited the Des Moines Art Center Nov. 1, making the ninth annual Day of the Dead celebration a lively place.
The streets around the museum were lined with cars for nearly a half a mile as families and community members gathered to enjoy the Día de los Muertos festivities. People of all ages and backgrounds wandered through the exhibits, as music from the Mariachi Zapata band drifted through the air, swirling with aromas of tacos and traditional Day of the Dead bread.
In one studio, students from Drake University’s World Language and Culture (WLC) program and Latin-American student organization La Fuerza Latina (LFL), teamed up to host activities for children and their families, like making story booklets and students of Drake’s WLC program also put on a puppet show in Spanish.
Eduardo Garcia, an assistant professor of Spanish at Drake and one of El Día de Los Muertos’ community advisors, handed out the booklets to children as they walked past.
“Here, this is for you,” he said to a little girl holding her mother’s hand. “Do you want to make a book?” He chuckled as she gazed up at him apprehensively and hid her face. “Every time I ask someone to make a book, I scare them,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the sombrero or what.”
Garcia said that he felt that the Drake-led activities benefited both the visitors and the students. This was the second year that Drake students were involved in the Día de los Muertos event, but the first time the puppet show was presented.
“Last year, I decided to participate and try to give an opportunity to the [Drake] students to use experiential learning,” he said. “Not to only study the language in the classroom, but outside the classroom.”
Students from LFL said it was a positive thing to get involved outside of campus.
“So many times when you’re at Drake you just study and do whatever there,” LFL President Sam Li said. “But coming out here, you see more people and share Drake’s name actually. We tell people that okay, yeah, Drake is here.’”
Though the crowd couldn’t see them hidden behind the brightly-colored painted scenery, puppeteer juniors Meredith Lamberti, Lena Thompsor and Emily Sibigtroth along with sophomore Lisa Myers said they enjoyed being a part of the event.
“It was a lot of fun to interact with the crowd and to use our Spanish to do that,” Thompson said.
Eduardo Garcia, assistant professor of second language acquisition at Drake, helped coordinate the event. Photo: ANN SCHNOEBELEN
The event also proved to be educational for both children watching and the WLC students.
“There are things I didn’t know about the Day of the Dead that I learned through the puppet show,” Myers said. “I always knew there was something like a table with things on it, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant. Now I know that they’re things to welcome the dead and for the dead to eat.”
English subtitles helped non-Spanish speakers follow along, and the show encouraged people to talk and sing with the puppets. LFL member and WLC instructor junior Stephanie Sanyour played the guitar and led the singing as the audience hummed along to the traditional day of the dead song, “Chumba la Cachumba.”
ABOVE: WLC AND LFL STUDENTS helped children put together story booklets at the Day of the Dead event at the Des Moines Art Center this past Sunday. Photo: ANN SCHNOEBELEN
LFL member and WLC instructor junior Raquel Nogueria said the puppets were a good way to help children understand the Day of the Dead.
“We just want to explain what it is about,” she said.
Nearby, a little boy waved his storybook with his illustrations in his mother’s face yelling, “¡Mira! Look!”
Glancing over, Nogueira smiled. “It’s been really fun,” she said.
HOW TO CELEBRATE DAY OF THE DEAD
In Mexico, people typically visit a cemetery and decorate the gravestones of their loved ones. Dead children receive toys, while adults receive bottles of tequila as well as marigold flowers and candles. Families sit on picnic blankets next to the stones and have a meal that has the favorite food of their loved ones. Some families choose to stay at home for a family meal and build small shrines in memoriam of those who have passed.
In Poland, All Saint’s Day is celebrated where specially made candles are placed on or near graves. The candles have been created to burn safely for long periods of time, with the idea of guiding spirits through the night. When the evening approaches, hundreds of candles can be seen glowing in cemeteries.
