The Southwestern College Education Center at San Ysidro will be honoring the deceased victims of the San Ysidro massacre for Dia de Los Muertos at 9 a.m. to 11 am. on Nov.1.
The World Languages Department will host the event which will include free face painting, displays of ofrenda altar, free pan de muertos and attendees can make a cempasuchil paper flower.
Students in Sarah Heras’ Spanish class are creating altars to display for all of next week. The altars will not only celebrate the life of their loved ones, but will also honor the 23 victims killed victim killed in the San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre 32 years ago.
“It is pretty much to honor all of the family members and friends that we had lost and also to honor the victims because our campus is were the tragedy happened,” she said.
The massacre happened at a McDonald’s on West San Ysidro Boulevard, the site is now home to Southwestern College’s San Ysidro campus.
Heras,33, said she invited filmmaker Charlie Minn, who recently made a documentary about the massacre, to speak in one her classes. She said after promoting his film many students in her class went to watch his documentary “77 Minutes.”
Heras said after watching “77 Minutes” students realized they wanted to honor the victims in another way.
“We realized that the documentary showed too much blood and focused more on the tragedy,” she said. “So we wanted to do the opposite, we wanted to honor the people that passed and show respect for the victims and for the families without showing all these images with blood and people laying on the floor. “
Heras, was born and raised in Spain so as she taught about Dia de los Muertos it also became a learning experience for her.
“In Spain we do not celebrate DIa de los Muertos,” she said. “It is a very sad day for us, we don’t have a tradition to honor and make a celebration of life.”
Heras, who started teaching at SWC this semester, said her students have been working on Dia de los Muertos activities for about a month that include the Ofrenda Altar. Heras is also dressing up as La Calavera Catrina. Students will be graded on their altar and must do an in-class presentation discussing their altar.
Heras’ classes will compete against English teacher James Hiskey’s classes to build and set up altars for Dia de los Muertos. These will be displayed around the center from Oct. 27 through Nov.3.
