PCC Holds Day of the Dead Celebrations at Downtown, East Campuses
October 24, 2012
Tucson, AZ – Sugar skulls, puppet theater, live music and more ─ two Pima Community College campuses are celebrating Día de los Muertos on Nov. 1, and the public is invited.
A Day of the Dead event at PCC’s Downtown Campus will include live music, a puppet theater, paper art workshops, sugar skull workshops, a Day of the Dead exhibit and presentations on Day of the Dead customs.
The two-hour event begins at 3 p.m. in the Amethyst Room. The Downtown Campus is located at 1255 N. Stone Ave.
“Día de los Muertos is a tradition that has its roots in Pre-Columbian Mexico,” said Dr. Guadalupe Cruikshank, chair of the World Languages Department at Downtown Campus. “The celebration welcomes the spirits of loved ones who are no longer with us and revolves around playful or elegant images of death rather than scary ones. Special decorations, traditional music and ‘ofrendas’ ─ altars and offerings of the favorite foods, special messages and memories of what they most enjoyed in life renew the connections with those who are gone. The Downtown Campus welcomes all who have loved ones they would like to honor."
Davis Bilingual Magnet School is contributing Day of the Dead art projects for an exhibit in the Campus Center-215 hallway. The projects will be on display for about a month, starting in late October. As part of the day’s events, a couple of classes from Davis will visit the campus for a “future college experience.”
At PCC’s East Campus, Spanish Club students, along with Spanish faculty Dr. Luvy Nuanes, will do demonstrations and talks about how the dead are celebrated with songs, food and art in Mexican culture. The club will set up an altar in the traditional form to honor the dead. In addition, Spanish class students will offer samples of the traditional Pan de Muertos, “Bread of the Dead.”
The two-hour celebration at the East Campus, 8181 E. Irvington Road, begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Library Courtyard patio.
CONTACT:
C.J. Karamargin
Vice Chancellor for Public Information and Government Relations
(520) 206-4850
ckaramargin@pima.edu