The victims of the Uvalde school massacre are remembered with offerings and altars on the Day of the Dead

By Edwin Flores —

The comment on Twitter was a simple sentence, but heartbreaking.

“We should be choosing her Halloween costume together.

Instead, I am putting an offering to it,” Ana Rodríguez, the mother of 10-year-old Maite Rodríguez, who dreamed of being a marine biologist and advocated for the care of the environment, wrote on the social network.

Maite was one of

, in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May.

Communities in Texas and across the country pay tribute to the victims as part of the Day of the Dead tradition, honoring those who lost their lives in the massacre with offerings and altars.

According to tradition, at midnight on October 31, the souls of deceased children come down from heaven and reunite with their families on November 1, and the souls of deceased adults come to visit on November 2.

[“I don't want to be shot”: New video of the Uvalde massacre suggests police were afraid to confront the killer]

The day is celebrated with colorful offerings that families and communities create to honor deceased loved ones.

Various cities in the country hold events and parades and erect colorful altars.

This year,

The Latino community of Los Angeles celebrates the Day of the Dead

Nov. 1, 202201:56

At the

in San Antonio on Saturday, the Lainer High School Art Club's tribute went viral on TikTok.

The altar the students created consisted of 20 personalized desks: one honoring each of the 19 students who died and one for the two educators.

[The mayor of Uvalde announces another investigation into the shooting and the suspension of a police lieutenant]

The tribute simulated a classroom in which all the students' desks were oriented towards the teachers' desks.

Community members wiped away tears as they stopped to take photos and view the altar, Texas Public Radio reported.

Families of the victims were also allowed to take the desks home if they wished, according to the radio service.

In Chicago, the 36th annual Día de los Muertos exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art, or NMMA, pays tribute to Uvalde's victims, including an offering installation created by students at Bernhard Moos Elementary School.

The monarch butterflies represent the souls of the students who died, and two skeleton angels above them symbolize the teachers who died trying to protect them.

The mock yearbooks feature brief descriptions of the things each child loved.

They set up altars full of flowers and toys to await the souls of children on the Day of the Dead

Nov. 1, 202201:28

In the corner, next to two desks and a blackboard, is a pecan tree, representing Robb Elementary School.

On the blackboard is a poem by the Nahuatl poet Mardonio Carballo that highlights the relationship between every living being and those who have nurtured and cared for it.

“Because of the amount of gun violence, we could do an entire exhibit just in memory of the victims,” said Cesáreo Moreno, director of visual arts and chief curator of the NMMA.

“It has become a more difficult exhibition to curate, and

.”

This is not the first time that the NMMA has paid tribute to victims of gun violence.

The museum has created offering installations dating back to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, and the 2016 Florida shootings. in El Paso, Texas, in 2019.

"You can't help but look at the headlines and think, 'Oh, this tragedy needs to be remembered in some way that brings a little hope, as tragic as it is,'" Moreno said.

“We have a long tradition of doing this every year.

When Cesar Chavez died in '93...the UFW [United Farm Workers] came and made an offering,” he added.

The NMMA's “Día de Muertos, Memories & Offerings” exhibit

In Houston, the nonprofit arts and cultural group Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts (MECA) paid tribute to the 21 Uvalde victims, including murals bearing the children's names.

“We say people's names over and over again so they won't be forgotten,” exhibition curator Luis Gavito told KHOU-TV.

Pushing for change

In Texas, in addition to altars and commemorations, several Latino organizations, community leaders, and Democratic elected officials—members of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus—are celebrating Día de los Muertos with a march and advocating for gun control legislation.

The Children's March will take place in several cities, as a special tribute to the victims of Uvalde.

“We felt it was an opportune time to use something that is so significant and part of our cultural traditions ... as an opportunity to remember the tragedy,” said one of the organizers, Paul Saldaña, co-founder of the advocacy group Hispanic Advocates Business Leaders. of Austin.

Organizers in Austin will begin their march, led by nine families of the victims, on the steps of the Capitol, holding a vigil and procession that will end at the Governor's Mansion in downtown Austin, where an offering will be placed in front of the mansion. .

“I think this serves as a powerful reminder of what is at stake,” Saldaña said.