Hispanic Journalists of Columbia hosted a “Build an Ofrenda” event On Oct. 31 in honor of Day of the Dead. The event took place in the Hokin lecture hall in the 623 S. Wabash building.

Transcript:

0:08: Welcome back to the Chronicle Conversations. 

 0:10: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman. 

 0:12: This week, I am joined by student journalists who are building ofrendas and celebration of Day of the Dead. 

 0:17: Student journalist and president of Hispanic Journalists of Columbia, Sofia Oyarzun provides more insight into the kinds of things displayed at the Building Ofrenda event and why it is an important event to host for HJC. 

 0:30: I have made ofrendas at other events at Columbia. 

 0:33: I’ve never made one myself, personally, my family is from Chile, so at least in our area and for my family personally we don’t celebrate Day of the Dead. 

 0:41: Or make ofrendas, but I’ve learned here through, you know, my friends that do celebrate it. 

 0:45: an ofrenda is an altar that you decorate with photos and other symbolic items that honor loved ones that have passed, and I’ve seen that done with family members, celebrities, dogs, things like that, so that’s why we wanted to put it in our event today. 

 0:58: I think Latin America is so big and there’s so many different countries, and because of that there’s such a variety of celebrations and I think. 

 1:05: This is one of them and I think there’s always a reason to shine a light on that. 

 1:09: I think again, you know, I didn’t grow up celebrating it, but I think it honors from what I’ve heard and seen it honors loved ones that have passed and I think that’s a very beautiful thing personally. 

 1:19: I feel like no matter what culture it is, you know, we all have loved ones that eventually move on and I think we all have different ways of dealing with that and kind of making a shrine for them essentially I think is a very beautiful way to kind of honor them. 

 1:29: Yeah, we’re a mixed group, you know, we come from, you know, all these different nationalities and though personally, even as the president personally though, I didn’t grow up celebrating this. 

 1:38: I think it’s so important to still shine a light on it because we have members and other students who do celebrate it, so we wanted to put that in, especially because it’s coming up the 2nd, 1st and 2nd of November. 

 1:47: It’s Halloween today. 

 1:48: Yeah, I’m all for just giving people an opportunity to celebrate who they are and where they come from, even if it’s not relative to my. 

 1:54: Experience, yeah, so on our ofrenda, our members contributed photos of their family members, that have passed. 

 2:00: Some of them brought whole photo books of them, and I thought that was really beautiful that they had this whole collection ready to go. 

 2:05: Others printed it right now here at the DPC, kind of on the spot, and yeah, they all contributed photos of what mattered to them, and I love being a part of the opportunity to do that. 

 2:16: Senior photography major Lizeth Medina. 

 2:18: Also shares her experiences celebrating Day of the Dead and explains how she discovered the holiday outside of family. 

 2:24: My family actually doesn’t celebrate Day of the Dead. 

 2:27: It was, last year was actually my first year making an offrenda because I really wanted to learn more about the tradition and, you know, honor those in my family that had passed, so I did a little research and kind of looked and see, you know, what kind of things to include in our ofrenda. 

 2:42: But yeah, it was my first time last year and I’m making one again this year but yeah it’s kind of like something that I took upon myself, yeah, so I included photos of my grandfather who passed away, as well as two of my uncles. 

 2:57: I think I love, you know, being a part of this tradition and just having a day or a series of days where I’m able to honor, you know, those that had passed. 

 3:07: By putting up their photos, not just photos but also foods that they like you know asking my mom and my other aunts things about them to include in my ofrenda, and they all passed away when I was really young so getting to set that up for them was a really nice feeling and kind of felt like you know they were still with me. 

 3:24: That’s all for this week. 

 3:25: Make sure to stay up to date with our campus and Metronews and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on Columbia Chronicle.com. 

 3:33: I’m Aaron Guzman. 

 3:34: Thanks for listening. 

Copy edited by Brandon Anaya