Campus Celebrates Día De Muertos

By ROHIT KANTAMNENI, LAUREN KIM, and LEO ZHANG

A mariachi band’s melody vibrates through Grainger Auditorium as students sample South and Central American snacks. While dancers twirl on the crowded floor, students represent their home countries at booths and share cultural snacks with peers.All of this is thanks to senior and Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) proctor Kodi Suzuki Lopez, whose OMA proctor project was introducing the Día de Muertos celebration to the Academy’s community.

Suzuki Lopez has held such a celebration in conjunction with the Academy’s La Alianza Latina (LAL) since his lower year. Featuring booths featuring Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and more, Suzuki Lopez’s Día de Muertos event on Friday, Nov. 4, was a hit amongst students and faculty alike.

The event not only introduced many Exonians to the Día de Muertos tradition, but also gave Latino Exonians an opportunity to engage in their culture away from home. Besides the celebration in Grainger Auditorium, at assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 1, LAL co-heads also presented Día de Muertos’ traditions, origins, and how various cultures celebrate the dead.

Co-heads also set up ofrenda in EPAC, a traditional altar where images of the dead, their cherished gifts, and favorite dishes are displayed.

Whether they attended for the vibrant culture, delicious food, or festive music, students and faculty agree that the celebratory event was a fall term highlight.

Suzuki Lopez reflected on the success of the event. “I think that the event went really smoothly and was really great. I saw lots of smiling faces and lots of students displaying pride in their culture. The food was amazing, and the Mariachi killed it.”

Upper Rodrigo Camaran described the food at the Mexico booth. “I was there for the first half hour or so and they had a lot of sweets and candy, such as tamarindo candy, chicharrones, and Tajín cucumbers,” said Camaran.

Lower Kairene Ramirez shared her experience with the food, salsa dancing, and music. “My favorite moment was when everybody was out on the dance floor. We were all trying to dance salsa, and Mr. Jorgge was out there dancing salsa really nicely. The event, when we first started out, everybody had dinner. They had taquitos and elote, which is corn with cheese in it. Then, we just set up our booths and everybody just went around having snacks from all the different countries that we had,” shared Ramirez.

Lower Matt Grossman added on, “The event was a ton of fun overall. It was nice to have the food around, which was great. The mariachi band was great. The music was generally good.”

In terms of logistics, structure, and atmosphere, this year’s event far surpasses previous years. Suzuki Lopez believed that good planning helped. “The event was really similar to last year’s. Last year, I only had one month to plan the event, and as such, some items did not get ordered and we were not able to get a Mariachi band due to COVID. This year, I was able to get everything the students asked for. We also had many more people come to the event, and I think this is because last year, we hosted the event on a Tuesday,” Suzuki Lopez said.

Grossman praised the atmosphere created by the food and live music. “The atmosphere was better. The fact that we could do it without having to worry about COVID was better. We ordered more food compared to last year. The mariachi band this year was something that we tried to get last year, but we weren’t able to. On top of that, people had more liberties with what was going on inside their booths. All we needed to do was order whatever things we needed on Amazon. They offered us those resources, so it was significantly better than last year.”

“I had never experienced a Dia de Muertos before but everyone made me feel welcome to listen to great music and eat delicious food,” senior Stellan Aalto agreed.

Besides the Grainger Auditorium celebration, Suzuki Lopez described other initiatives organized by LAL.

“Alongside the Día de Muertos festival was the ofrenda in EPAC, a traditional Día de Muertos altar where students could add photos or an LED candle for dead loved ones. There was also an assembly, where senior Ale Murat shared how her family in Mexico celebrated Dia de Muertos. Clubs like LAL or ALES [INSERT ACRONYM] do host a lot of affinity-based events, like the most recent Andover-Exeter Black and Latino affinity dance,” Suzuki Lopez recounted.

Ramirez added, “it’s nice that we were able to set up the ofrenda for a week in EPAC and the events that we have are nice.”

As his OMA proctor project, Suzuki Lopez shared how the idea for the event originated. “I made this event because I felt that, during my prep year, there wasn’t an event in mind that fully incorporated authentic Latino culture. I think that, with this event, Latino culture is more supported at Exeter, but only in the Office of Multicultural Affairs…I have been planning it solo since March, which was promoted by LAL and the OMA office. I’ve done this project every year, starting my lower year. It’s the third year of the Ofrenda in EPAC and the second year of the festival,” Suzuki Lopez said.

At the Academy, students feel like Latino culture is supported; however, some feel more representation is needed. Grossman said that the Academy should reconsider the limits placed on the event. “If we had turned the event into a dance, we would not be able to have it next year. While we’re fine with having those restrictions, people failed to realize that music and dancing are part of Latino culture.

He continued, “Phillips Exeter does a better job than lots of other places in representing Latino culture, especially in an area like New Hampshire. But at the same time, they could really do better and really understand the integral parts of our culture that we would like to showcase and they should not try to suppress that.”

Furthermore, Suzuki Lopez described the challenges regarding holding more cultural events. “In general, I’d love to see more cultural events on campus, but typically these events are student-led. OMA sponsors a lot of these events, but there is only so much that a small office can do throughout the year.”

In the future, Grossman hopes to overcome such obstacles to plan more events. “If there was another one, it would mean a lot. It would be a lot of fun to organize that since it really wasn’t that much effort to organize this. We did a lot of planning, but we had a set space we had, we knew what we needed, and it didn’t take too long. If it’s another event that takes this long, and this much effort, I’d be happy to put my time and my effort into making another one.”

Despite the planning effort needed, Camaran hoped that “when our current LAL co-heads are gone, we will keep the event because it’s a very nice way to share the Latino culture with everyone.”