Examining Border Lives on Días de los Muertos

Each day, nearly 300,000 people endure choking smog, long lines and stifling heat crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between San Diego and Tijuana.

They cross the border legally and illegally to earn money to send home. They live and die in two often disparate worlds — dollars and pesos, English and Spanish, work and home.

Professor Norma Iglesias-Prieto

Chicana and Chicano Studies professor Norma Iglesias-Prieto examines the intersection between worlds, and the souls that traverse them. On the first day of classes, Prieto asks her students to create objects and offerings for the department’s altar for Días de los Muertos, originally an Aztec tradition that is also known as the Days of the Dead. The holiday, celebrated throughout Mexico and increasingly in the United States, celebrates and reveres loved ones and ancestors who have died.

But this altar is no ordinary offering to the dead — students are asked to create objects that symbolize the dynamics of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The annual project often teaches students about the grim reality of border life and helps them realize that San Diego is unique in its proximity to Tijuana and Mexico as a whole.

“What makes this project difficult is that (students) think in the tradition of the altar, while also using the context of this region,” Iglesias-Prieto said.

Immigration Debate

These courses also have a sense of immediacy to them, as local politicians, Congressional representatives and U.S. senators are discussing issues surrounding legal and illegal immigration in anticipation of this year’s mid-term elections.

Additionally, the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing is the busiest international border crossing in the world, with 14 million vehicles and 40 million people entering the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry each year.

“I think the project is an opportunity to project our reality — the reality that we are living today,” said Bertha Alicia Zarate, a child development junior taking the course this semester. “It’s about immigration and about all the hard times individuals have to face to migrate to search for the American dream.”

Remembering the Forgotten

According to Iglesias-Prieto, many students create altar objects that honor undocumented immigrants who have died while crossing the border, or the hundreds of violent and grisly deaths of women in Ciudad Juárez, located in Mexico on the Texas-Mexico border.

Depending on the students’ abilities, they’ll create different objects, including poems, paintings with calaveras, or skulls that are popular Days of the Dead symbols, shadowboxes with different elements representing their concept or food created with the elements of the region.

Zarate chose to use a poem and created an object that reflects her theme, which focuses on the death of immigrants, including those that die while attempting to cross the border illegally.

“It is a reflection of how individuals fought to the end for a better life,” Zarate said. “Unfortunately, they’re unable to accomplish it.”

According to Iglesias-Prieto, “all of the objects must have a conceptual support that the student can communicate.”

Bertha Alicia Zarate

Two courses, one examining the U.S.-Mexico border and the other a study of Mexican images in films, currently include a total of approximately 150 students. Because of the courses’ focus, students examine the hybrid culture of border regions, including residents’ bilingual and bicultural lifestyles.

“The class had made me realize things about the border region,” said Jonathan Villalobos, an international business senior. “I have recognized many problems that I did not see before. I have a different perspective of the asymmetry and dynamism between Mexico and the United States.”

For some students the project is easy to understand, as they’re already aware of the region’s dynamics and understand the meaning behind the Days of the Dead. For others, the unique holiday can seem more esoteric.

Understanding the Dead

During Días de los Muertos, celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2, relatives will build altars to ancestors and loved ones who have passed away. Nov. 1 traditionally celebrates children who have died and their families will often include favorite toys or candies in their altar displays honoring them. For adults, oftentimes favorite foods, drinks or other special objects are included in altar displays. Many families throughout Mexico will visit the graves of their loved ones, cleaning the site — a necessity as many graveyards, especially older ones, do not have staff to regularly maintain the areas — and picnicking with their children. While many Westerners may regard this practice as morbid, Mexicans see death, and Días de los Muertos, as a time to celebrate the lives of the dearly departed.

For students in Iglesias-Prieto’s courses, the altar reflects this general theme — they can also include objects that mean something to the people they memorialize, or a general statement regarding the border region.

“Almost a month ago my boss died from a heart attack at work and I am making a piece on his memory,” Villalobos said. “I chose to commemorate (him) because he was a really nice person and a cool guy. I also looked to him as a mentor.”

The altar built by Iglesias-Prieto’s students will contain 30 or so objects created by students in all three courses. The objects are chosen by students in the classes in a popular vote and reflect a multitude of meanings and themes. After the objects are selected, a solemn procession transports the objects to the altar.

Previously, the altar was housed near the old Chicano and Chicana Studies office in Adams Humanities. This year, the altar will be located near the department’s office in the new College of Arts and Letters building. This year’s display will be available for viewing from Wednesday, Nov. 1 to Wednesday, Nov. 8 near the Chicana and Chicano Studies office. The office is located on the third floor of the College of Arts and Letters building.

Related information

• SDSU Special Collections Online Exhibit: Días de los Muertos
• Chicana/Chicano Studies Department
• Día de los Muertos

Credits

• Story by Lorena Nava
• Photographs by Happy Aston, SDSU Marketing & Communications and Tom Farrington, Instructional Technology Services
• Graphics by John Signer and Aaron J. Hoskins
• Calavera wedding sculpture courtesy of Professor Dana Nurge