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Día de los Muertos

Editor’s note:
With Día de Los Muertos just around the corner, MÁS magazine presents some ways you can acknowledge the “Day of The Dead” and honor those special people who have passed away. Remember, it’s not a sad time — this is an opportunity to keep your connections with the dead and to let them know you still love them, even from the living world.

Mother-daughter teaching duo give new life to Day of The Dead

By Lauren Helper
MÁS staff

Mother and daughter Eva and Felisa Patiño are dedicated to keeping the Day of The Dead alive.
And for them, that effort begins not in the cemetery, but in the classroom.
“We like to teach not only the Spanish language, but the culture, and Día de Los Muertos is a huge part of that,” said Felisa, 36, a 14-year education veteran who teaches Spanish at Liberty High School.
“It’s not a gloomy day. It’s a day of remembering the dead and how they were when they were alive,” said Eva, 60, who’s in her 21st year of teaching. After holding positions in West and Centennial High’s Spanish departments, she now teaches at Frontier High School.
“The real death is when your loved ones are not remembered,” said Eva.
She and Felisa both incorporate the Day of The Dead into their class curriculums. Many students — even Hispanic students — are not familiar with the holiday, the pair said.
“To put it in perspective, I compare it to Veterans Day or a 5K run in someone’s memory,” said Felisa of Día de Los Muertos. “Honoring those who are gone, but not forgotten.”
Eva, whose family is from Nuevo León, admits she didn’t grow up celebrating the Day of The Dead. 
As a child, she moved periodically with her migrant farmworking family until settling in Arvin in the the ’60s. After graduating from Arvin High, she met her husband, Joaquin, while attending Bakersfield College and working in a refinery in Lamont. She moved to Fresno with him while he finished college at Fresno State.
After settling in Shafter, where Joaquin took a teaching job and their two children were in school, Eva headed to Cal State Bakersfield. In her senior year, she decided to become a Spanish teacher.
Eva took it upon herself to research the Day of The Dead customs and pass her knowledge on to her students, a tradition she and Felisa continue to elaborate on today. They also hold a special Día de Los Muertos lecture toward the end of October at Cal State Bakersfield.
In class, they present the history behind the holiday — usually in the form of a video — then take a hands-on approach, allowing the students to make and decorate their own sugar skulls.
“Some of the kids don’t understand the concept. They say, ‘The dead can’t see the candy.’ But I tell them, ‘Well, they can’t see the flowers you leave, either,’” said Eva, chuckling.
In addition to the sugar skulls, Eva and Felisa share with students how to construct ofrendas, or altars, built in México and other parts of Latin America in homes and cemeteries on Nov. 1, the day on which children who have died are remembered, and Nov. 2, the day of remembrance for deceased adults.
Last year, students designed their own virutal displays on Web pages.
According to Eva, items symbolizing the four elements of life — fire, water, wind and earth — share space on Day of The Dead altars with food, photographs and religious icons. These include a glass of water — the essence of life — and bright yellow marigolds known in México as cempazuchi, which have a strong scent said to lure souls back from the next world.
Last year, students designed their own virutal displays on Web pages.
Eva also erects ofrendas in her home, honoring her late parents — Margarito and Felipa Guerrero — and brother, Ramon Guerrero, a former principal in Dallas.
“We always put a bottle of Tequila out for Dad — and his wallet. He never let go of it. Even in the hospital, it was clenched in his hand,” said Eva, adding that a sense of humor and playful spirit are essential in remembrances for Día de Los Muertos.
Felisa said celebrating the Day of The Dead and displaying personal ofrendas have allowed her daughters, Alonda, 10, and Citlalli, 6, to know their grandparents.
“It keeps our family connected. Hopefully, my children will carry on the tradition,” said Felisa.

•  The Patiños are involved in putting on a Día de Los Muertos community festival Sunday, Oct. 28 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Mercado Latino in Bakersfield. Families are welcome. Community members are encouraged to construct their own ofrendas to set up at the event. For more information, call Eva Patino at 588-0586.