La Voz

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Anna Rendall Tupac Shakur altar

Media Credit: Anna Rendall Altars sit in a row in the Writing and Reading Center

Media Credit: Anna Rendall A painting hangs above the alatrs.

Media Credit: Anna Rendall A student-made altar honors people who have passed away.

Media Credit: Anna Rendall Different members of the De Anza College community can leave items at the community altar in remembrance of loved ones and others who have died.

Media Credit: Anna Rendall A photo and sugar skull are two of the items at the community altar.

The community altar sits in the center of other elaborate altars made by De Anza College Puente and EWRT100 students.

At the community altar dedication, people read in unison from a dedication prayer written by poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez. "The altar is raised, the ofrenda is placed. Let our beloved dead be with us. And also the forgotten," they said.

El Dia de los Muertos is "a day to honor the people who have passed," and to encourage students to remember "the history of people whose stories don't get told," said Marc Coronado, a language arts instructor at De Anza who coordinated the event.

Fernando Sanchez, a Puente student, made his altar in memory of young females from Juarez, Mexico, who are killed on the border between Texas and Mexico. "They go to work and never come back," said Sanchez. Over 200 women in Juarez have been killed, said Coronado.

"They're young, they have so much left to live, they don't get to enjoy what we have right now, so I wanted to do it about them," said Sanchez.

Cindy Martinez, also a Puente student, said that the altar "brings up a lot of emotions, because you think of your family members [who are not with you]." Martinez said the celebration helps students to remember their roots and where they come from. "I think this applies to everyone who is not in their own country," said Martinez.

The Puente program was created to aid first-year De Anza students in choosing their classes and providing them with a mentor in order to help them transfer to a four-year university.

The altars will be in ATC 309 until Nov. 21. Hours are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m - 4 p.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., and on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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