Paloma Vigil, Contributing Photographer

Student performers celebrated the Mexican holiday Dia de Los Muertos with a poetry and dance showcase in two sold-out performances on Nov. 12. 

Ballet Folklórico Mexicano and ¡Oye! Spoken Word held a joint performance in Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges’ Crescent Theater. The performance, which honored deceased relatives, was called “Amor Eterno,” or Eternal Love. Two performances were held in the theater, and the “Celebración de Amor Eterno” followed right after in the Stiles Courtyard, featuring food and mariachi music. 

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán de Yale also used this event to fundraise for their annual Sueños Scholarship, which is awarded to undocumented high schoolers in New Haven.  

“Although I am thousands of miles away, the Amor Eterno celebration and my performance has helped me feel closer to home,” said Zenaida Aguirre Gutierrez ’24, an Oye performer. “The event and space have invited me to express my feelings and vulnerability during such a special occasion.” 

Gutierrez performed an original poem called “My Dad’s Abuela,” which paid homage to her great-grandmother, Zenaida, the woman she was named after. 

This showcase was the first ¡Oye! and Ballet Folklorico collaboration in Yale’s history, as both have always commemorated Dia de Los Muertos with separate performances in the past. This year, however, they worked together to create an even bigger event for this significant Latinx holiday. 

BF co-president Mariela Barrales ’24, said that the group knew they wanted to have a fall showcase this year since their last and inaugural fall showcase was back in the fall of 2019. Since the beginning of the year, the groups and associated choreographers within BF have met weekly to train dancers, especially new members, she said. 

Barrales attributes much of the collaboration to Carolina Dávila, the associate director of La Casa. Dávila brought up the idea of a joint event to “ease the stress” of planning two separate performances, said Barrales. Barrales’s co-president, Carmen Muniz-Almaguer ’24, thanked Head of Ezra Stiles College Alicia Schmidt for her support leading up to the event. 

“We all came together and had a vision for one event that we could all partake in, an event that would be open to all Yale students,” Barrales said. 

Barrales performed in “Los Barreteros,” a dance from the Zacatecas region in Mexico, choreographed by Ashley Gaytan ’25. Meanwhile, Muniz-Almaguer ’24 performed in “Ecos de Grijalva” from Chiapas, Mexico, and Jose Marin-Lee ’25 danced in “La Bruja,” from the region of Veracruz. 

“Our performance’s theme, ‘Amor Eterno,’ aims to celebrate our unique traditions as we remember the eternal love that brings us together,” Marin-Lee said. 

MEChA, which hosted the altar and post-show celebration, participates in a lot of social activism, such as their annual scholarship and many other fundraisers. This year, they sold arroz con leche, pan de muerto and chocolate abuelita — traditional Mexican-inspired foods — all while a mariachi band sang Mexican classics. 

MEChA serves students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. The showcase, organizers said, was a perfect opportunity for the group to express their culture through dance, music, poetry and snacks from home. 

 “We remember those that have come before us and whose legacies we ground ourselves in to continue striving for change,” Kassie Navarrete ’25, secretary of MEChA, told the News. “It is important for us to recognize these lives and honor how they have pioneered the way for us to be here today, even when they have passed on.”

 Navarrete has lost four loved ones over the past two years, so the performance “hit close to home,” she said, because it allowed her to “celebrate their lives” and “honor their legacies.”

La Casa Cultural is located at 301 Crown Street.

Correction, Nov. 15: A previous version of this article included a misspelling of “Amor Eterno.” The article has been updated.