In honor of former employee Latasha Green, Park University’s Modern Language Club decorated an altar at Mattie Rhodes Hispanic Center. The memorial is in observation of Dia de los Muertos, a celebration by Latin American cultures to remember the deceased.

Latasha Green, assistant director for the Academic Support Center at Park University, passed away June 8. Spanish students and members of the MLC chose to honor her memory with the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration by decorating an altar with colorful flowers, calaveras (elegant skulls), candles, “papel picado” (perforated paper) and a smiling photo of Green.

This annual celebration is mostly observed in Mexico and surrounding Latin American countries. Those who observe the holiday pray for and remember family and friends who have died by building altars, bringing favorite foods and drinks of the deceased as gifts, decorate graves with marigolds and tell stories of the life they lived.

Breanna Webster, president of the Modern Language Club, illustrated the difference of how Hispanic cultures perceive death.

“They hold a different view of death,” she said. “It’s not a bad thing. Instead it’s a celebration of the person’s life. Death is not a final stage; they are still a part of the family. There is more laughter than tears.”

The three-day celebration continues as friends and family of the deceased gather at the gravesite to clean and decorate, leave photos, burn incense and spend time with family remembering their loved ones.

Alexandria Philips, a student who participated in decorating Green’s memorial, said she appreciates how the holiday celebrates an individual’s life and memory.

“When you dedicate an altar to someone you are in a way keeping them alive… I believe it would be so beneficial for us to celebrate the life of the loved one more than we do in our traditional way of dealing with death,” she said.

Philips said this experience expanded her understanding of different cultures and connected her with her classmates who participated in decorating Green’s memorial.

“I’m very glad we were able to dedicate the altar to Latasha Green and celebrate her life. I hope this memorial allowed for other people to recognize the great life of Latasha,” she said.

Green’s decorated altar will be exhibited at the Mattie Rhodes Hispanic Heritage Center through the first week of November. For more information on this memorial, contact Silvia Byer, associate professor of modern languages, at [email protected].