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A six-horned, papier-mâché demon snarled over professor Regina Corritore’s shoulders as she stood by her desk.
Corritore teaches “The Art and History of Día de los Muertos,” an honors course at UNM which focuses on the Day of the Dead.
Students learn the history of the holiday, while also organizing and preparing for the city’s annual Día de los Muertos parade. The class hosts free and open-to-the-public art workshops on Saturdays throughout September and October.
Corritore first taught the class last fall while she was the art director of the South Valley Día de los Muertos Marigold Parade. Corritore said the class tries to dispel false assumptions of the holiday.
“There’s a lot of misassumptions with the Day of the Dead,” she said. “‘Oh, it’s like Halloween.’ It’s not — people have these assumptions, and we’re just trying to give them correct information.”
Día de los Muertos takes place every year on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. Traditionally, the parade is celebrated with commemorative floats and murals, honoring the lives of loved ones who have passed. Floats give participants a chance to be creative, but murals tend to focus on loved ones, with photos and related items placed by the mural. Corritore said she was surprised when her students last year took to the emotional aspect of the parade.
“I think I’m just teaching an art activity, but people really get into the therapeutic aspect of it,” she said. “With people, you can tell they’re making it with love and the loss of the person — but more, they’re doing something to remember them and honor them.”
Corritore said she grew up celebrating the holiday; she attended church and was raised with a personal altar in her home. Corritore said she now looks at the holiday as a way to reinstate spiritual ancestral relationships.
“There’s a sense that you can have closer connections with people who have passed. It brings these smells, these scents, these memories. I spend a lot of time thinking where my aunts and uncles came from and their struggles; I ask my mom stories that I remember; I think about, ‘well, she doesn’t have much longer on the Earth,’ so there’s certain things where I’m like ‘I bet my mom knows that,’ about my personal history and my family history.”
Parade organizer and class assistant Rusita Avila said the holiday’s spiritual ties can help bring light to an otherwise dreadful topic. Avila’s connection with death is apparent — she helps others deal with grief and loss issues as a mental help therapist.
“Día de los Muertos really lends itself to play and get out some of those issues, to talk about death freely,” Avila said. “When you’re in the community doing this, even doing art workshops, it has a healing aspect to it.”
Although the holiday is associated with personal healing, Avila said the parade’s goal is to achieve community healing. The parade takes place in Albuquerque’s South Valley, an area that Avila said has received unwarranted criticism.
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“The South Valley has gotten a bad rap, so it’s really great to sort of be those ambassadors of the South Valley, to encourage and require them to explore that and embrace it,” she said.
Student Jane Manthei said she took the course last year as a way to participate in community service. Originally from Winslow, Ariz., Manthei said the class helped her connect with the city.
“I ended up learning more about the city I’m living in because I wasn’t really familiar with Albuquerque, with the South Valley, at all before this course,” Manthei said. “It’s one of the most hands-on courses I’ve ever taken, which was interesting because I totally walked into it expecting to not really participate, and by the end of it I was really participating and interacting with the community.”
Papel Picado and other Paper Crafts Workshop
Sept. 8
1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Free
El Jardín Enterprises Studios
803 La Vega Dr. S.W.
