To celebrate and honor Mexican heritage and culture, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztl\u00e1n (M.E.Ch.A.) at Cal State Fullerton hosted a D\u00eda de los Muertos market Wednesday by the Humanities Building from 1 to 8 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local vendors, artists and student organizations hosted tables showcasing ofrendas, tables full of offerings and photos of passed loved ones. While others offered jewelry, both hand-made and imported from different parts of Mexico, like Oaxaca.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tradition, it\u2019s celebration, it\u2019s formation of a community,\u201d said Nathaniel Lozano, fourth-year\u00a0 Chicana\/o studies major. \u201cTo bring our culture onto campus and to celebrate it and to celebrate our lost ones.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lozano is co-chair of the MEChA chapter and helped organize the event for the community and students who brought their families to enjoy the festivities of Mexican culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Ruiz, third-year psychology major and administrative assistant for Mesa Cooperativa, helped fund the day\u2019s event and helped connect all the Latino organizations on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do cater to most of the Latinx community, but we\u2019re open to all,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vibrant colors of the marigold flower, or cempas\u00fachil in Mexico, drew passersby to the event. Among the displays that caught students\u2019 attention were Frank Cruz\u2019s handmade wooden art tiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great, it\u2019s amazing,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of support here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz, the founder of a group named Good Life Roots, an artists\u2019 collective started in 1998 at East\u00a0 Los Angeles College. After its creation, the group later expanded to concerts, raves and underground hip hop events to display their members\u2019 works.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s made up of about 22 different artists and designers,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWhen we saw the opportunity where we could represent artists and give artists a space, then we went in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since its founding, the collective has built a legacy through almost 30 years of collaboration with different artists and creators. Cruz has made connections with local artists and vendors over the years, showing the vital need for spaces like this to celebrate Mexican tradition and inviting people of all nationalities to celebrate and honor the dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFeeling like you\u2019re a part of the community is important,” said Alex Morales, a fourth-year American studies and\u00a0 business entrepreneurship major and secretary of the Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity. \u201cEspecially when you\u2019re a minority somewhere, everybody needs a place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the table, Lambda Theta Phi had photos of members of the fraternity who passed and people\u00a0 from different CSUs that were like family to the organization, including Art Zola, from the Office of Black Student Success at Cal State San Bernardino, Omar Melgoza Cortez from UC San Diego and Fraternal Father Dr. Cayetano \u201cChaco\u201d Soccar\u00e1s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe music is super lively, and everyone seems to be having such a good time walking around, seeing all the different ofrendas and shopping,\u201d said Ariela Moreno, second-year theatre major. \u201cI feel like these events are just a good way to connect with peers who are like you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreno is part of the Ballet Folklorico at\u00a0 CSUF and was showcasing her group\u2019s ofrenda \u2014 offering their loved ones beautifully painted calaveras, Loter\u00eda playing cards, candy and pan dulce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Latinos that come to events and also if you\u2019re not Latino this is a good way to connect with a different culture that\u2019s not your own,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cI feel like we do a very good job at embracing all of our cultures and showcasing them to our campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to have a good time and to just be louder, be bigger, show that we deserve our space,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cTaking up space here in our Hispanic serving institution and just making sure that everyone knows they\u2019re welcomed here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To celebrate and honor Mexican heritage and culture, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztl\u00e1n (M.E.Ch.A.) at Cal State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,175399,19444,585,198182,198181],"class_list":["post-516100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-campus-culture","tag-da-de-los-muertos","tag-halloween","tag-humanities-quad","tag-mecha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}