If at home, nursing senior Lizet Ortega would make an altar with her family and bring them their favorite foods before the Day of the Dead. For her grandfather, it’s coffee and bread. Then on the day of, Ortega and her family would go to the grave, clean it, spend time as a family and bring his favorite dishes. 

"I was so sad, because I wasn't able to go home and celebrate my family," Ortega said. "But I guess, it felt really nice because I had a community with it over here and just to talk to people [and] know that I'm not alone in it."

Since Ortega was on campus throughout the holiday, she turned to an organization she’s a part of called the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). MSU CAMP offers academic and financial assistance to students with a background in migrant or seasonal farm work as they enter an undergraduate program at MSU. The program set up an altar in their office in Holden Hall for the holiday and allowed students to send in photos of their loved ones to be put up. Ortega submitted a picture of her grandfather and has since visited the altar.

"I almost cried," Ortega said. "It's just, again, seeing my family in the picture, it gets sad. But, also just being able to celebrate them and like honor was really nice."

Health and risk communications graduate student Andrea Zacarías Hernández is an international student from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; this is her first semester at MSU. She didn’t have the materials that she would typically use to make an altar so instead, she used cardboard and other things from the MSU Surplus Store to make an altar.

"Because I just arrived to MSU this semester, I didn't have all of the things that I would usually utilize back home to celebrate," Hernández said. "Because I didn't have that, I made a small altar and I don't have any pictures this time, so I just did a symbolic altar for my own family who have passed away."

Along with her homemade altar, Hernández was able to find community at the University Activities Board Dia de Los Muertos celebration held on Nov. 2.

"I thought it was a very well put together event," Hernández said. "I think it was an event to showcase elements of culture to other students who might not be familiar with it, rather than stick to the more traditional way of celebrating it. It was very surprising to see that they even celebrated Day of the Dead at all on campus."

UAB had authentic Mexican food and live folklore dances from Hernández’s home state. Hernández even named it her favorite holiday from her culture.

"To me, personally, it's just a very beautiful holiday in which you can see both the personal connections that you may have with your loved ones, but you can also see the traces from our ancestry portrayed in it as well," Hernández said. "Instead of just focusing on the fact that our loved ones are not with us anymore, we think about it as remembering all of the good memories that we have of them, all of the things that made them happy while alive. The way that the altar works in our tradition is that it becomes a way for our loved ones to come and visit us once a year, at least symbolically."

Outreach and inclusion coordinator at UAB and applied engineering junior Katy Winkler was in charge of running the event. Along with the food and dancing, UAB had t-shirts, stickers and crafts such as frame painting.

"It was just a way that people could bring something home with them and they could decorate that frame to put a photo of a loved one and put it on like an ofrenda or something. So, it was more of a cultural aspect to that as well."

The event had at least 140 students in attendance. As an outreach and inclusion coordinator, Winkler has hosted various cultural events such as Barrio Fiesta in October for the Philipino community and Matsuri Festival for the Japanese community last year. 

"It's been wonderful to learn about these different cultures as well as providing for people on campus," Winkler said. "I'm hoping [this was] an opportunity for students of Mexican descent and the heritage who celebrate the holiday to have a little piece of it here on campus because I know it is a very family-oriented holiday and it's sometimes hard for students to get back. So, I'm hoping that community was able to find some joint solidarity amongst each other. And then on the UAB side, I'm just hoping it's an opportunity for students who might not be a part of the culture to learn more about the culture, because I think it's important to share the beautiful diversity that we have on campus, and that's like part of the reasons why I enjoy my job. I can bring that cultural aspect in fun ways to students to learn more about other people on this campus, just because it is a wonderfully diverse place and I think we need to take advantage of that."

On the morning of the holiday, political science pre-law freshman Megan Lux-Hernandez ran in a Dia de Los Muertos Candles and Calacas 5K on campus hosted by Global Initiatives and the International Engagement Volunteers. 

"I ran with my friend and then we got medals for finishing, then we just ate food, listened to music and there were raffles," Lux-Hernandez said. "There was this program called International Engagement in Mexico and there, I heard them talking about how we should try to do this, because it brings in more money for raising funds for the community. [I wanted] to go for support and also just to have a good time, have fun, go on a run."

Later that night, Lux-Hernandez went to the UAB Dia de Los Muertos event. She doesn’t typically celebrate the holiday but at the event she painted wooden picture frames and watched dance performances.

"I definitely know more about what Day of the Dead means and how a lot of people pay their respects and make alters for their loved ones who have passed," Lux-Hernandez said. "I enjoyed seeing how other people dressed up and like did the full face paint of skeletons and like the traditional Mexican painting and then seeing a lot of the dancing that was going on was really fun."