The Center for Diversity & Social Justice is bringing the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos to Central for a third year, with help from Casa Latina and some Central professors.

Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a holiday centered around honoring and celebrating family members who have died.

This celebration is often done at the grave sites of family members. Families clean their loved ones’ grave sites and decorate them with personal items.

The Día de los Muertos celebration on campus is open to all students, not just those of Mexican heritage.

“We all have lost someone, or will, and this type of event allows us to remember them in a happy way,” Veronica Gomez, diversity officer at the CDSJ, said. “It has a universal message.”

There will be several altars open to students on campus so that they may have a space to pay respect to those they have lost.

Casa Latina will have an altar in SURC 273 on Oct. 29 until the evening of the 31.

Students will be able to go to the sacred space and add mementos and pictures to reflect on their family members who have passed away.

The Museum of Culture and Environment in Dean Hall will have an exhibit to memorialize those who have died crossing the U.S./Mexico border during immigration, and will also have an altar in their memory.

Xavier Cavazos, an English professor, will have poems from his class to add to the altars as well.

Joan Cawley-Crane, an art history lecturer, is helping showcase Central Latino student’s artwork around campus, with artwork focusing exclusively on the holiday and its meanings. There will also be an art display in Randall Hall.

Jason Dormady, assistant professor of history, will give a speech on the importance of the holiday.

There will also be slam poetry, Mexican folkloric dancing and live music provided by Los Nuenos Coyotes de Jalisco.

Free face painting and sugar skull decorating will be available for attendees, as well as Mexican hot chocolate and Mexican bread.

Some students are appreciative of the opportunity to attend an event that they would not usually be a part of because it is outside of their own culture.

“It’ll be a new, fun experience that I’d otherwise never gotten to do,” Charlie Weber, an undeclared junior, said.

Gomez recommends listening to Dormady’s informative presentation at 6 p.m. in order to learn more about the holiday. The presentation will help explain why the holiday is so important and how it can be celebrated respectfully.

“Also, don’t be afraid to ask people why things are happening,” Gomez said.

Marcos Gurrola, senior English education major, said that even though his family does not celebrate in a traditional sense it is still a meaningful time for his family.

Instead of having a three day celebration, Gurrola’s family uses the holiday as a time to reflect upon the dead, to discuss his lost family members and to recall fond memories for a night.

According to Petersons.com, a data-gathering website on colleges, Hispanic and Latino students make up 11.6 percent of Central’s student body.

Gurrola believes it is important for students to learn and understand the holiday due to its cultural roots.

“A lot of non-Mexican students don’t understand [the holiday] because it’s intimidating, being about the dead,” Gurrola said. “It’s important to know it’s not just sugar skulls and face paint. It’s about coming together.”