Image courtesy QC Creative Services

From October 28th to November 24th, the Carole A. and Norman Barham Rotunda in Rosenthal Library became home to a Día de Muertos ofrenda (altar). The altar was designed and built by students enrolled in Prof. Sara Hinojos’ MEDST 225: Ethnicity in American Media course. These students first researched the origins and commercialization of Día de Muertos. Their work culminated in five distinct sections of the altar. These sections were dedicated not only to family members but also addressed broader themes such as social justice, personal stories of family immigration, and tributes to cultural luminaries important to Latinx communities.

Image courtesy QC Creative Services

​Día de Muertos is a Mexican holiday where families traditionally gather to pay respects and remember friends and family members who have died. Families customarily build home altars adorned with marigold flowers (cempazúchitl), decorative skulls (calaveras), and the departed’s favorite worldly foods and belongings.

Image courtesy QC Creative Services

The holiday’s origins are debated with some tracing its roots to Indigenous Mexican traditions and others viewing it as a local expression of Christian practices. At its core is a profound recognition of the continuous cycle of life and death. During the late 1960s, Mexican American artists in Southern California began transforming the tradition, turning the ofrenda into a public display of cultural pride, grief, and political expression in community centers, parks, and libraries. Even as Día de Muertos becomes more commercialized in the U.S. context, its spirit makes space for meaningful expression of shared, intercultural experiences of the Queens College community.