Cempasuchil. Color. Community. These were the things welcoming members to LUPE’s annual Dia de los Difuntos in its historic salon at the San Juan office. This yearly event is meant to create a safe and culturally significant space for the LUPE community.
Although this is a celebration of remembrance for our loved ones who have departed, this is an opportunity to pay homage to those who lost their lives in hopes of the American dream and the reassurance of the immigrant community to continue working towards that dream.
Perhaps now, more than ever, the Latinx and immigrant community need spaces like these. Places that allow us to carry traditions from one generation to the next. Places that allow us to share recipes of pan de muerto and tamales. Places that celebrate life over grief of loss. Places that create a sense of home and belonging.
Tania Chavez Camacho, Executive Director and President of LUPE, shared words of celebration and solidarity as she gave an address to kick off the event. Chavez acknowledged that this event was a celebration of our loved ones, but a moment to continue the work as a community.
“Today we celebrate, and tomorrow we work. Today we celebrate, and on Tuesday we go out to vote,” Chavez said in Spanish.
With the November constitutional election coming up the Tuesday after the event, LUPE’s executive director highlighted the importance of becoming a LUPE member and participating in the elections. Chavez reiterated that the only way forward is through collective power.
“And we encourage you to organize with us. We are not just a few, we are not just a hundred. We are millions, count us properly,” Chavez exclaimed.
As people cheered and clapped in solidarity, Tania Chavez encouraged attendees to have fun in celebrating this holiday and its traditions, reminding them of the importance of showing up. Our beliefs in community and collective power can have lasting effects, but we must be willing to allow our voices to be as loud and as vibrant as the colors of our culture and traditions. Our actions must be as obvious as the dances to our music.
Together as a loud and proud pueblo, we can and will make a difference. ¡Si se puede!
