The Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication (CLIC) hosted its annual Día de los Muertos commemoration Nov. 1 in the lobby of Rayzor Hall. This year’s ofrenda honored the more than 5 million people who have died due to COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
One name in particular was memorialized on the altar: Margarita Rodriguez, beloved member of the Facilities, Engineering and Planning team, who worked in the Alice Pratt Brown Hall at the Shepherd School of Music for almost her entire career at Rice. Among the items on the ofrenda were conchas and a bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola, a few of Rodriguez’s favorites.
Following the commemoration of this year’s ofrenda, students and other guests were invited to create their own calaveras literarias. The short, irreverent poems are composed as epitaphs for people or things not yet dead; once a form of political satire, writing calaveras literarias has become a popular Día de los Muertos activity and a way to express difficult feelings around death.
CLIC’s altar remained in the lobby of Rayzor Hall throughout the week, displaying more objects and memories each day.