Upon stepping into the Johansen Student Center commons on Oct. 29, students were met with a whirl of vibrant, sunbaked tones for a Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebration. Pink, yellow, white and orange streamers hung along the walls, and in the main room, the fiery orange of cempasúchil crafts popped.
The cempasúchil crafts — bright tissue paper twirled around a green pipe cleaner stem — were meant to resemble Aztec marigolds, or “the flower of the dead,” for the Día de los Muertos celebration. The International Student Association and the Crawford Residence Hall put on the event from 5-7 p.m., inviting students to have a bite, participate in hands-on cultural activities and learn about the traditions and significance behind Día de los Muertos.
Senior Nico Nguyen has been behind the organization of the Día de los Muertos celebrations for the last three years as a resident assistant at Crawford Hall and Program Officer for ISA. Being Buddhist, Nguyen doesn’t have a personal background celebrating the holiday, so ensuring cultural accuracy and respect with thorough research is essential, Nguyen says.
“I personally don’t celebrate Día de los Muertos, but I usually do in my hall,” Nguyen said. “I usually do the [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice] programs because I’m one of the few students of color who’s an RA. And so every year when I do an event similar to this … I do a lot of research about it.”
At the annual student organization event for Día de los Muertos, Nyugen strives for attendees to walk away with an enjoyable community experience, but also to have truly learned something by being immersed in another culture.
“[Día de los Muertos is] simple, and it’s also educational and it’s important. And I don’t really like that Halloween just overshadows that,” Nguyen said. “So I already had some of the research planned, and I usually do like certain facts that I would put on.”
Since trivia activities don’t always get much participation, Nguyen leads the event with intentional pauses for learning and reflection.
“In the middle of people doing their work, I’ll be like, ‘Hey, guys, let’s take a break. Can you turn the sheets around?’ And make them read certain snippets, or facts, or questions. And then we discuss as a group,” Nguyen said.
Latin America Ambassador for ISA Carleen Sierra, a senior, also helped put on the 2025 Día de los Muertos event. Sierra’s family also didn’t celebrate Día de los Muertos, but growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, a primarily Latino community, she remembers how the holiday lit up the city. When fall rolled around, Sierra says people in her community would create beautiful altars of their family members with flowers, locals would sell skulls and bakeries would bake bread specifically for the holiday.
“Even if it didn’t really mean much to me because I didn’t have a personal connection, I got to learn what it means for somebody else who does participate in that,” Sierra said.
As new local stories emerge of individuals being detained and deported by ICE, as reported by the Des Moines Register on Oct. 23, Sierra said that a Día de los Muertos celebration is much needed to combat fear and ignorance in the current political climate.
“I don’t want to get too political into it, but a lot of what is currently happening to Latin American communities— especially with ICE and everything that’s happening, I guess Mexican culture has been villainized in some way,” Sierra said. “I think this is a great way to teach people what the culture is really about and just having a good time.”
In organizing, Nguyen said research is an important element to balance appealing to students’ interest in familiarity, without oversimplifying or whitewashing the holiday’s premise. In the case of Día de los Muertos, that means digging beyond just popularly known sugar skulls.
“Drake University has many organizations where there are a lot of students of color. You can just go up and ask,” Nguyen said, advising students to: “Ask [student organizations] about cultural practices, asking about, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about doing this event. Do you think that it’s okay? What would you want to see at an event like this?’”
Nguyen believes that Drake as a whole should put more money into making students of color and international students feel welcomed and safe and have fun.
“Inevitably, there’s a ton of different types of people in this country, different backgrounds, different everything. I think [cultural immersion] is important even if [Drake’s] a PWI [primary white institution],” Nguyen said, because ultimately, “I don’t think PWIs are going to last … I think [cultural diversity] is interesting. It’s fun. It’s important to have all different types of people in one place.”
