Tulane University
- A.b. Freedman School Of Business
- Administrator
- Affiliated Faculty
- Africa
- African Diaspora
- Africana Studies
- Afro Latinos
- Afro-caribbean Religion
- Afro-cuban
- Altman Program In International Studies & Business
- Amazon
- Ambassador Visit
- Center For Conflict And Cohesion Studies
- Center For Global Development
- Center For Global Education
- Center For Inter-american Policy And Research
- Central America
- Central American Policy
- Centro De Investigación Y Adiestramiento Político Administrativo
- Cepal
- Ceq
- Ceq Working Paper Series
- Chair In Economics
- Chavez
- Cipr
- Cipr And Iad Joint Seminar Series
- Cipr Post-doctoral Fellowship
- Ciprstaff
- Citizen Security
- City
- Colonialism
- Commitment To Equity
- Committee On World Food Security
- Communication
- Communications
- Community
- Cuban & Caribbean Studies
- Cuban-american Relations
- Cultural Rights
- Culture
- Culture And Community
- David Smilde
- Debt Crisis
- Declining Inequality
- Declining Inequality In Latin America
- Decompression
- Democrac
- Democracy
- Diplomat
- Disaster Relief
- Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy
- Discrimination
- Disposable Income
- Diversity
- Indigenous Latin American Languages
- Indigenous Rights
- Indirect Taxes
- Inequality
- Inflation
- Informal Urban Land Development
- Informal Urban Settlement
- Institutions
- Inter-american Court
- Inter-american Dialogue
- Inter-american Relations
- International Programs
- International Relations
- International Studies
- Intra-regional Trade
- Job Annoucement
- Job Announcement
- Job Opening
- Job Opportunity
- Journalism
- Judiciary
- K-12 Cuba Teacher Institute
- K-12 Teacher Workshop
- Kellogg Institute
- Music
- Natural Resources
- Neoliberal Policies
- Neoliberalism
- New Orleans
- New Orleans Center For The Gulf South
- Police Violence
- Policy
- Political Competition
- Political Economy
- Political Institutions
- Political Science
- Political Sociology
- Politicians
- Politics
- Politics Of Migration
- Popular Sector Incorporation
- Populism
- School Of Liberal Arts
- School Of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
- School Of Public Health And Tropical Medicine
- School Of Social Work
- Semester Abroad
- Sergio Bejar
- Speakers
- Staff
- State-society Relations
- Stone Center For Latin American Studies
- Student Funding
- Study Abroad
- (83) Politics
- (59) General Latin America
- (58) Venezuela
- (49) Political Science
- (47) Human Development
- (45) Commitment To Equity
- (24) Ceq Working Paper Series
- (21) Central America
- (21) Social Policy
- (19) Elections
- (17) Sociology
- (17) Costa Rica
- (17) Chile
- (16) Fiscal Policy
- (16) Political Economy
- (14) Latin American Legislative
- (14) Center For Inter-american Policy And Research
- (13) Future Of Cuba
- (9) Research
- (9) Stone Center For Latin American Studies
- (9) Ceq
- (8) Socialism
- (8) Cipr And Iad Joint Seminar Series
- (8) Anthropology
- (7) Fiscal Incidence
- (7) Core Faculty
- (7) International Relations
- (7) Environment
- (7) Literature
- (7) Income Redistribution
- (6) Spanish & Portuguese
- (6) Uruguay
- (6) Cuban & Caribbean Studies
- (6) Puerto Rico
- (6) Study Abroad
- (6) School Of Liberal Arts
- (6) New Wave
- (5) Declining Inequality
- (5) Cipr Post-doctoral Fellowship
- (5) Taxes
- (5) Southern Cone
- (5) Ciapa
- (5) Global Development
- (5) History
- (5) Policy
- (5) Social Justice
- (4) Center For Global Development
- (4) Redistribution
- (4) Undergraduate Students
- (4) Social Inclusion
- (4) Haiti
- (4) Dominican Republic
- (4) Populism
- (4) Guatemala
- (4) Ambassador Visit
- (4) Politics Of Migration
- (4) Hurricane Maria
- (4) Latin American Library
- (4) Imf
- (4) Econoimcs
- (4) China
- (3) Us-mexico Border
- (3) Tulane University
- (3) Education
- (3) Culture And Community
- (3) Neoliberalism
- (3) Declining Inequality In Latin America
- (3) A.b. Freedman School Of Business
- (3) Wacno
- (3) Globalization
- (3) Cooperative
- (3) Developing Democracies
- (3) Tulane
- (3) Cash Transfers
- (3) Voter Behavior
- (3) Extractivism
- (3) Labor
- (3) Environmental Studies
- (3) Violence
- (3) Graduate Conference
- (3) Inter-american Court
- (3) Coronavirus
- (2) Undergraduate Conference
- (2) Tucla
- (2) Social Equity
- (2) School Of Social Work
- (2) Social Inequalities
- (2) Migration
- (2) Tuscla
- (2) Reforms
- (2) Language
- (2) Comparative Politics
- (2) El Salvador
- (2) World Bank
- (2) Language And Culture
- (2) Public Policy
- (2) Police Violence
- (2) Ethno-racial Divide
- (2) Reading Project
- (2) Social Work
- (2) Award
- (2) Doctoral Program
- (2) Afro-caribbean Religion
- (2) Natural Resources
- (2) Oecd
- (2) Administrator
- (2) Job Announcement
- (2) Nora Lustig
- (2) Critical Race Theory
- (2) Public Opinion
- (2) Publications
- (2) Indigenous
- (2) Immigrants
- (2) Sergio Bejar
- (2) Mobility
- (2) Taxes And Transfers
- (2) Student Funding
- (2) Art
- (2) Nicaragua
- (2) Government Action
- (1) Central American Policy
- (1) K-12 Teacher Workshop
- (1) K-12 Cuba Teacher Institute
- (1) David Smilde
- (1) Graduate Students
- (1) Prison
- (1) Hurricane Katrina
- (1) Deportation
- (1) Study In Latin America
- (1) Government
- (1) Protests
- (1) Oil
- (1) Refugees
- (1) Social Mobilization
- (1) Social Justic
- (1) International Programs
- (1) Fundraising
- (1) Water Management
- (1) Forced Migration
- (1) Sustainability
- (1) Urban Ethnography
- (1) Lgbt
- (1) Kellogg Institute
- (1) Public Health
- (1) School Of Public Health And Tropical Medicine
- (1) Undergraduate
- (1) Diversity
- (1) Revolution
- (1) Tulaso
- (1) Greenleaf Fellow
- (1) New Orleans Center For The Gulf South
- (1) Latin Americanist Graduate Association
- (1) Lago
- (1) Lago Conference
- (1) Urbanism
- (1) Greenleaf Fellows
- (1) Slavery
- (1) International Studies
- (1) Outreach
- (1) Ethnography
- (1) Sustainable Development Goals
- (1) Catholic Church
- (1) Teacher Workshop; Outreach
- (1) French
- (1) Architecture
- (1) Indigenous Latin American Languages
- (1) Non-profit
- (1) Outrearch
- (1) Social Conflict
- (1) Audubon Zoo
- (1) Postcolonial Studies
- (1) Art History
- (1) African Diaspora
- (1) Middle American Research Institute
- (1) Job Opening
- (1) Center For Global Education
- (1) Relief
- (1) Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy
- (1) Trauma Institute
- (1) Cuban & Caribbean S
- (1) Mari
- (1) Authoritarianism
- (1) Gran Fiesta
- (1) Portuguese
- (1) Altman Program In International Studies & Business
- (1) Flas
- (1) New Orleans Film Festival
- (1) Democrac
- (1) Maduro
- (1) Elites
- (1) Africana Studies
- (1) Photography
- (1) Communications
- (1) Amazon
- (1) Identity
- (1) Graduate Student Conference
- (1) Community
- (1) Culture
- (1) City
- (1) Visiting Researcher
- (1) New York Times
- (1) Afro Latinos
- (1) Migrant
- (1) Migrant Workers
- (1) Peacekeeping
- (1) Paris
- (1) Hlpe Report
- (1) Venezuel
- (1) School Of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
- (1) Institutions
- (1) Rule Of Law
- (1) Benefit Incidence
- (1) Income
- (1) Hlpe
- (1) Urban Land Development
- (1) High Level Panel Of Experts
- (1) Nutrition
- (1) Committee On World Food Security
- (1) Food Security
- (1) Regional Agreements
- (1) Intra-regional Trade
- (1) Regionalism
- (1) Environmental Governance
- (1) Governance
- (1) Same Sex Marriage
- (1) Civil Society
- (1) Legislature
- (1) Transnational Activism
- (1) Effectiveness
- (1) Representation
- (1) State-society Relations
- (1) Informal Urban Land Development
- (1) Pension Reform
- (1) Forestry
- (1) Informal Urban Settlement
- (1) Legislatures
- (1) Transnational Law
- (1) Assembly Movements
- (1) Lasa 2010
- (1) Christian Science Monitor
- (1) Model Oas
- (1) Global Poverty
- (1) Global Economics
- (1) Roundtable
- (1) Meeting
- (1) Centro De Investigación Y Adiestramiento Político Administrativo
- (1) Political Competition
- (1) Celebracion Latina
- (1) Payson
- (1) Latino
- (1) Happiness
- (1) Debt Crisis
- (1) Film Series
- (1) Indigenous Rights
- (1) Ludovico Feoli
- (1) Fundación Vidanta
- (1) Buenos Aires
- (1) Teaching
- (1) Samuel P Huntington
- (1) Citizen Security
- (1) Prisons
- (1) Drug Trafficking
- (1) Anthony Pereira
- (1) Decompression
- (1) Inclusive Growth
- (1) Economic Forum
- (1) Fundación Rap
- (1) Transfers
- (1) Bolsa Familia
- (1) Mesoamerican
- (1) Poverty Reduction
- (1) Popular Sector Incorporation
- (1) Indirect Taxes
- (1) Semester Abroad
- (1) Fall
- (1) Music
- (1) Working Papers
- (1) Incidence Analysis
- (1) Repal
- (1) Public Sector
- (1) Inter-american Dialogue
- (1) Center For Conflict And Cohesion Studies
- (1) Social Dialogue
- (1) United Nations
- (1) Social Safeguards
- (1) Environmental Safguards
- (1) Private Sector
- (1) Spain
Celebrating Day of the Dead in Schools across New Orleans
November 7th, 2017
On Thursday, November 2, Denise Woltering and Rachel Witt of the Latin American Resource Center at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies visited two elementary school classrooms to share with students how Day of the Dead is celebrated throughout Latin America. Día de los muertos, or Day of the Dead (November 1st ‘” 2nd), is a holiday that honors the dead with colorful festivals and lively celebrations. Over two days, families gather at family homes and cemeteries to remember deceased loved ones and to celebrate life.
Though this festival is typically associated with Mexico where the tradition originated, it is also celebrated throughout Latin America. Through a Title VI U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center Grant, Tulane University’s Latin American Resource Center at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies created a set of lessons about Day of the Dead traditions across the Americas, focusing on Guatemala, Haiti, and Peru. This year, for the culmination of the project, Denise Woltering and Rachel Witt shared Día de los muertos traditions with two elementary school classrooms at St. Martin‘s Episcopal School, Metairie, and Ecole Bilingue, New Orleans. Students at Warren Easton Charter High School, New Orleans, also celebrated Day of the Dead. Students honored their loved ones by creating an altar with images of calaveras, food, flowers, and the favorite items of deceased family members.
Woltering and Witt introduced Day of the Dead to students with an overview of how the holiday is celebrated in Mexico and Guatemala. In Mexico, one of the most important traditions is the construction of altars to the dead in homes, in public places, and in cemeteries. Family members will leave ofrendas, or offerings, such as the favorite food and drink of the deceased family member on these altars. In Guatemala, communities make large kites out of tissue paper and bamboo with intricate designs and messages to their deceased family members, believing that the airborne kites are closer to the spirits of the ancestors.
This year, Woltering and Witt shared with students how the human skeleton is an integral part in many Día de los Muertos celebrations across the Americas. Alters in Mexico oftentimes include of representations of skulls made out of paper mache, and even sugar, to represent the sweetness of life. In Mexico, representation of bones and skeletons on altars traces its origins back to the Aztec Empire. Skulls of vanquished enemies were placed in public places and on skull racks, or tzompantlis, because these skulls were thought have protective forces. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Jose Guadalupe Posada, a famous Mexican artist and political cartoonist, drew satirical representations of skeletons, or calaveras. These representations have been adapted for use in Day of the Dead traditions, particularly his famous Calavera Catrina, a satirical upper class female skeleton wearing a large floppy hat.
Tulane graduate student and bioarchaeologist Rachel Witt shared with students how Peru‘s Day of the Deceased (Dia de los dunfuntos) traditions relate to ways in which the pre-Columbian peoples treated the dead. Drawing on the descriptions of these traditions written by Spanish chronicle Guaman Poma de Ayala, Witt described how the mummies of Inka Emperors had an active role after death. Inka mummies were not buried, but lived in the palaces and houses they constructed while alive. These mummies were also consulted as oracles, received regular meals, and were even paraded through the streets of the Inka capital of Cusco during important celebrations. The Inka were not the only Pre-Columbian civilization to honor their dead. Before the Inka, family members of other Pre-Columbian cultures would place their deceased in large, above-ground tombs called chullpas. These towering chullpas were not simply tombs, but thought to be homes for the deceased. Reverence for the dead continues today, as modern Peruvians sometimes visit the pre-Columbian tombs of their ancestors and leave offers of coca leaves, cigarettes, coins, and even candy.
After the presentations, students were able to create their own Peruvian retablo to honor deceased loves ones. Retablos, or portable shrines, originated in Europe and came to Peru with the Spanish Conquistadors in the sixteenth century. The modern retablos style is a folk art reflecting cultural syncretism between indigenous beliefs and Catholicism that evolved in the Ayacucho region of Peru. Some modern retablos show strong influences of Mexican folk art, including scenes of death and Calaveras to celebrate Peruvian Day of the Deceased.
Explore photos of the celebrations and presentations here.
Guatemala + People
Valerie McGinley

Copyright © 2021 Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies All Rights Reserved.
Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu