The Nevada Sagebrush

The performance opened with six women in glittery, golden Aztec costumes dancing and shaking noisemakers attached to their ankles and wrists. Shirtless men, witch doctors, drums and Death himself all found their spot in an Aztec dance piece that lasted about half an hour.

Teatro Sangre Latina y Danza Azteca Aztlan, a Latino theater and dance group, performed “El Día de los Muertos,” or “Day of the Dead,” a theatrical dance performance in Spanish, Aztec and English and based on the traditional Latin American holiday of the same name.

The Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 throughout Latin America. Due to scheduling difficulties, this year’s performance was moved back to Saturday and Sunday, said Mariano Lemus, director of the theater group. The performance started both nights at 7 p.m. in the Joe Crowley Student Union theater.

“El Dia de los Muertos” is a theatrical timeline documenting the original Aztec tradition, the arrival of the Spanish and the adoption of Christianity, Lemus said.

“Everything started with the Aztecs, and then the Spanish came to America with Christianity, mixing the traditions. And that’s what we’re celebrating: religion and tradition,” he said.

One common misconception is that the Day of the Dead and Halloween are related, said Marcos Pico, a research assistant at the Latino Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“El Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of death. We eat with the dead in the cemetery — bread, tequila, candy, whatever the people enjoyed while living,” Pico said.

Pico said the Day of the Dead is not a gloomy celebration. The sadness and fear associated with death is less present in Latin American culture, he said.

“El Dia de los Muertos is not sad at all. We embrace the dead. We believe life extends beyond flesh walking on the Earth,” Pico said.

The final scene featured six masked and sombrero-donning dancers performing “The Dance of the Old Ones.”  The performers, assuming the roles of elderly, hunchbacked men, did a lengthy and lively tap dance-style number in wooden sandals while a middle-aged woman curtsied and spun in the center, a basket of fruit held against her shoulder. This piece symbolized the adoption of Spanish and Christian culture into the native society.

One member of the audience, Corinna Lamberts-Rodriguez, a Spanish professor at UNR, said the performance was an important cultural event to bring to UNR.

“It’s a wonderful thing to have,” she said. “(It) creates more of a Hispanic presence on campus.”

Don Weinland can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.

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