El Día de (Los) Muertos is an old Mexican tradition that dates back to the 1500s, combining the Aztec celebration of ancestry on All Souls’ Day, a holiday that the Spanish brought to Mexico. This holiday is a two-day celebration on Nov. 1 and 2, honoring and remembering the deceased while also celebrating life and death, not mourning. Last Saturday, the city of Logansport celebrated the Mexican tradition at Riverside Park.

Mayor Chris Martin brought this event to life with the help of Eduardo Luna, executive director of a nonprofit organization called Arte Mexicano En Indiana. This organization’s goal is to spread Latino/Mexican culture, such as art and music, through collaborations with Hoosier cities.

“I attended an event down in Indianapolis,” Martin said. “They had a Q&A session, and I attended down there to represent the city of Logansport. And after the presentation, I was approached by Eduardo as I was leaving the building. He and I had a conversation about what cultural wars we were having, ultimately, across the state and across the country, and I explained to him that I wanted to make our community feel safe and protected and that everyone in our community should know that we are going to celebrate everyone’s cultures and differences because that’s what makes a community whole.”

Both Luna and Martin were looking to collaborate and help each other. With Martin wanting to spread inclusivity and Luna working under an organization aiming to promote Latino/Mexican culture, they felt that it was the right thing to do.

“I felt that he was pretty open to working on the idea of maybe hosting something in Logansport because he told me that there was nothing happening this year to celebrate the Hispanic-Latino community,” Luna said.

Junior Yoslen Robaina Santana was one of the students who showed up at the event. There, Santana would help out by greeting guests and offering them warm refreshments.

“The way that I found out about this event was from the mayor,” Santana said. “The mayor has had this event in planning for a while now. Before October, it was just ‘Hey, a group from Indy is probably going to come down and talk about [the event].’ But then, actually communicating with the group from Indy, we’ve been able to have a great Día de Los Muertos celebration.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

Molly Hunnicutt

In the moment, freshman Amber Garfias sings with the mariachi band for the crowd.

One of the foods offered at the event was Pan de Muerto, which translates to “bread of the dead.” This pastry is a soft, light and sweet bread that usually has bone-shaped pieces on top. This was served alongside a Mexican brand of hot chocolate called Abuelita.

“I have 2 favorite [things from the events],” junior Jesus Baltran-Bustos said. “The first one is the hot chocolate. It was so fire. I had to get three cups, and my second favorite is the live mariachi band that was there.”

Martin’s reasoning for wanting a cultural event was not just about celebrating the culture, but also to spread love and show support for others.

“[This] is extremely important now more than ever,” Martin said. “Anybody looking through a lens right now, we’ll see that the world right now is literally falling apart, and so the last thing that we need to do is spread hate. So, events like this, regardless of how people may feel about a certain culture or the differences, at the end of the day, we’re all humans. One thing that I try to explain is that attending these events is a show of not only support, but a show of love. When things are getting hard, when we come together in events like this, that’s when you start to really show the community that you have a heart and that we’re going to continue to move forward.

Others, like Santana, also think it’s important for communities like Logansport to celebrate cultural events like El Día de Muertos.

“I think it’s important because it shows the culture of the community,” Santana said. “If you have no events of culture, you’re never really gonna be able to expand. And what’s really cool about Logansport is that we’re so diverse. We have all these opportunities. So it’s just a great opportunity for us to have that voice.