City College will be paying tribute to the dead this November thanks to students in the Chicano Studies 210 class.

The Chicano Culture class at City is putting together a celebration for Dia de los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, on Monday Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. to remember those who have passed and to highlight Mexican heritage and Chicano culture.

The classes’ instructor, Abel Macias, gave the class a project to put together an altar for Dia de los Muertos and to host an event to celebrate the day. Macias is allowing the students to “take the leadership so they can learn from (the experience).”

Traditionally, the day is celebrated so that those living can honor and remember those who have passed. Altars are created by families so they can display pictures of those deceased, take offerings, and gather to remember. The class is looking at the tradition but the altar has a more modern twist.

“The Chicano Culture class is creating an altar to celebrate one of the most important and ancient features of Mexican culture,” Gabby Gonzalez, a member of the class’ Research Team,” said. “Dia de los Muertos had been celebrated in ancient Mexico for thousands of years before the Spanish conquest, and today it is a point where both cultures (the Spanish and indigenous) meet and the Mexican emerges.”

The class will be unveiling their collaboration of the altar on Oct. 26 in the cafeteria and it will be on display until Nov. 4. There will be a reception that is open to the public on Nov. 2 starting at 5 p.m. in the cafeteria to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Arnulfo Brenes, who is part of the Promotions Team for the project, said he wants those individuals who attend the event or view the altar to “see this aspect of Mexican and Chicano culture that is becoming lost.” He said he feels that “we need to remember our ancestors not just through the altar but also the traditional ceremony.”

Details for this event are being finalized and information regarding the event will soon be posted throughout the campus.