Latin American fall celebrations 

Halloween may have ended but some Latin American countries still have several celebrations. All Souls Day, All Saints Day, and Day of the Dead are three celebrations that take place in the beginning of November. These holidays are celebrated more in some Latin American countries than others.

El Centro freshman student coordinator Ana Garcia remembered how this time of year was important in her home country of Puerto Rico.

“Everyone is majority Catholic,” Garcia said. “And what we celebrate is All Saints Day, rather than the Day of the Dead and All Souls Day.”

She has several memories of the events that took place in Puerto Rico.

“My memory with the day of All Saints is I went to Catholic school and we went to mass that day and fundamentally, I do remember the day of my saints,” she said.

Garcia also said there are strong family and religious ties with these holidays.

“I do remember the day of my saints, and the day of my brothers saints,” she said. “Like my grandmother and my mother would be like, ‘Oh pray because today is like the day of your saint.’ ”

Junior Phillip Rodriguez explained how all three holidays relate to each other.

“I think that all saints day and all souls day and day of the dead all have that correlation with each other at the end of October early November, because they are all kind of relating,” Rodriguez said. “About you know looking at the past, the past year on those who have passed away, and kind of looking back on the year and celebrating those people for the accomplishments that they had here on earth.”

Rodriguez also thinks that it is important to educate other cultures.

 “It would be a great thing for people to know about cultures and that we do have our own celebrations depending on what country we are from,” he said.

To learn more students are encouraged to visit El Centro or visit LASO.