On Tuesday, November 1st from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm, an event was held by the Spanish Honor Society (SHH) to celebrate the Day of the Dead or Día de Los Muertos in Morton West’s Freshman Center Great Room.

Many activities were going on throughout the room like lotería, flower making, sugar skull decorating, and a movie playing with conchas and champurrado. Morton West students also got to display their ofrendas around the room to remember their loved ones. Adeline Vega, Senior at Morton West High School and President of SHH stated, “We really wanted to have something that suited everyone and also showcased our cultures. People who wanted to come to the event but weren’t too comfortable in the crowd could enjoy the movie with some conchas and champurrado, and there were games for anyone feeling competitive. The activities allowed our members to be involved in the event and interact with the community.” There was something for everyone at the event, and it allowed the community to come into the building and celebrate with us. Ms.  Dulcinea Garcia, a modern language teacher at Morton West and sponsor of SHH stated, “It’s one of the events that our school throws where the community can come into the school, it’s not just for the students and I think that’s really beautiful to be able to do many different things with people of all ages.” The event brings the Berwyn and Morton communities together to enjoy the festivities.  In addition, there was plenty of entertainment.

Morton students gave outstanding performances during the event. The performances included vocalists Maddie Silva, Zoe Alvarez, Nayeli Hernandez, Maritza Castaneda, and East Mariachi and Folklorico. The performers did a great job of displaying their talents. They were very courageous, and their talents radiated to the crowd. Jimena Bautista, a Senior at Morton West High School stated, “The performances were amazing, everyone was so talented. The fact they volunteered to perform at our event was really sweet of all of them, they did so good!” The student performances highlighted their talents and their Latino culture as well. Senior Adeline Vega said, “It’s so important that their talents are showcased and appreciated since they’re a way to keep our culture alive and pass down our traditions, especially the mariachi and Folklorico dancers.” The performers displayed student talents while also expressing Latino culture.

At the end of the event, there was a raffle for gift baskets that were donated by local Latino businesses, which is something that has never been done before. Garcia said, “Also, We reached out to 20 Latino-owned businesses and they donated things for us to raffle, which I think is cool because we were able to incorporate Latino businesses’ into the event which has never been done before.” The raffle was a great success and allowed the club to include Latino-owned businesses in the event. This event could not have been possible without the contributions of the community and the clubs of Morton West. Latino Club, Tinkering Tainguis, Black Culture Club, the Modern Language Department, Tapestry, Universidad de la Comunidad and Morton teachers contributed to the event’s success.

SHH worked so hard in promoting the event, and Vega added, “We promoted this event through our social media accounts, especially Instagram (Lauren was pretty great about that!). We had posters everywhere around the school and the community, and we even shot a promo video with Mr. Moriarty” Even though SHH was in charge of organizing the event, several other clubs contributed to its success. According to Ms. Garcia, “SHH puts the event together and takes the lead on organizing the event and we invite more and more clubs to join us. This year we had Latino club, Tinkering Tianguis, Black culture club, the modern language department, tapestry, Universidad de la Comunidad, Morton teaches as well as many others.” The Morton West community was able to unite for this event. The success of this event was mainly due to the efforts of both the Berwyn and Morton West communities. Many teachers also contributed to the event.  Garcia said, “Ms. Mendez from the Tinkering Tianguis really helped out for example,  this year we had sugar skull decorating which is something we haven’t had before.”

Overall, the celebration had a fantastic turnout with lots of Morton students in attendance.  Vega said, “I think the turnout was pretty great! The Great Room was definitely filled, we had people everywhere enjoying all the activities and the snacks in the cafeteria.” The club was happy and appreciative of all the people who were at the event. Senior Jimena Bautista said, “We were hoping that people would show up and make the event successful. At the end of the day, we got a tremendous amount of support from people in the community and had an amazing turnout. We hoped for that amount of people but we were for sure surprised when a lot of people came out to support.” The Berwyn community participated as well as many Morton families and SSH hopes that this event continues for many years to come.