TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Series educates teachers about Mexican holiday
By Katie Nelson
knelson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The KU Center of Latin American Studies is showing students this month that death can be a reason to celebrate.
Mexico's Day of the Dead, a time-honored religious celebration, is this Saturday and Sunday.
The center is putting on a Day of the Dead series that began Saturday with a workshop for more than 60 Kansas elementary, middle and high school teachers, and lasts until Dec.9.
The holiday, known as Dia de los Muertos, is a time for families to pay tribute to those who have died. It's a festive remembrance, celebrated by decorating graves, creating altar sites and preparing elaborate feasts.
"It seems like everyone in Mexico does it," said Raymond Rico, a Kansas City, Kan. sophomore, who has family in Mexico who observe the holiday.
Rico went to Mexico during Day of the Dead when he was 8 or 9 years old. He said he remembered seeing thousands of people at cemeteries for the holiday. His relatives created an altar with flowers, food, candles and personal things such as a sombrero for his grandfather, who died in 1992.
a somberer for his giftedness. The Latin American studies center regularly holds workshops about Latin American culture. More people attended Saturday's session than any other, said Brent Metz, the Center's assistant director. It receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education to serve educators throughout the Midwest.
Teachers who attended the opening session learned how to introduce their students to the holiday and Mexican culture.
Hannah Malotte, a Spanish teacher at St. Gregory's Catholic School in Marysville, introduces her sixth graders to Day of the Dead through making traditional sweet bread in the shape of skulls, she said.
"At first the kids are a little weirded out," she said, chuckling. "I guess they think it's kind of creepy."
But her students' initial apprehension quickly turns to fascination, Malotte said.
She said it was good for her students to learn about Day of the Dead, a holiday they don't know much about.
indoor about. "It's getting them talking about different cultures," Malotte said.
The Center of Latin American Studies is also creating a Day of the Dead display in the KU Museum of Anthropology. Just inside the museum's red arches, display cases hold small skeleton figurines decorated to look like people doing any number of occupations. In Mexico, these figurines are often
DAY OF THE DEAD:
A FIVE-WEEK CELEBRATION
Upcoming Day of the Dead events sponsored by the Center of Latin American Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the department of anthropology and the Hall Center for the Humanities. All events will be at the Museum of Anthropology unless listed otherwise.
Documentary Day of the Dead — 7 p.m., Oct. 31
in the Spencer Museum of Art
Opening talk: "Celebrating Death: Morbid
Evil oragnism or Life?"" — 4 p.m., Nov. 3
Lee Skinner, professor of Spanish and Portuguese: "Indigenous Memories: Day of the Dead in Mayan and Chichua Communities" — 3:30 p.m. Nov. 6
Bart Dean, professor of anthropology, and Laura Herilily, instructor of Latin American studies: "Living with the dead: Mortuary Rituals in the Neotropics" — 3:30 p.m., Nov. 13.
Special presentation by Gary H. Hossen, Julian Steward professor of social science at Deep Springs Collegae: "Day of the Dead Cross-culturally" — 10 a.m., Nov. 16
Ivonne Heinze, linguistics Ph.D. candidate:
"Death crosses the Rio Grande: Cultural Hybridity and the American Reinvention of the Dav of the Dead" — 3:30 p.m., Nov. 20
Kathy Sloan, instructor of Latin American studies; "Pancho Villa and the Whore: Representations of Gender in Day of the Dead" — 3:30 p.m., Dec. 4.
Exhibit: Los Dias de los Muertos (The Days of the Dead) — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays until Dec. 9
Guided class tour available upon request.
Contact Adriana Natali-Sommerville at 864-
3899 or adrana@ku.edu
Celebrations in Motion: Food for the Ancestors, 2 p.m. on Tuesday, La Offenda, 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5 through Dec. 5
given as gifts for the holiday. The skeleton trinkets are a way of celebrating the lives of those who died.
Photos of altars and Mexican families gathered at cemeteries hang on the walls.
The exhibit will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5
p.m. Sundays. It will run until Dec. 9.
"I'm hoping to take my students there so that they can get a better understanding for what Day of the Dead is about," Malotte said. "Every culture deals with death differently, and kids should learn about that."
For more information, contact the Latin American studies center at 864-4213.
— Edited by Katie Teske
Gasoline
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
keep the demand for gasoline and its cost relatively high during the winter.
Mike Aman, manager at University Phillip's 66,2434 Iowa St., said customers noticed the difference in this season's prices.
"People are gripping about it a little bit more this year than last year," he said.
But Jason Dresslar,manager at the Kwik Shop,1611 E.23rd St., said customers were used to higher gas prices.
"It seems like in the past few years, prices have jumped up and down so much, people don't really mind," he said.
Danenberg, who said she spent about $60 per month on gasoline, said current gas prices discouraged her from fully filling up her gas tank. This concerned her, she said, because gas tanks were more
Beau Jackson, Andover senior, said higher gas prices could have a positive effect on the environment, because people would be inclined to drive less, which would reduce gasoline emissions.
likely to freeze during the winter when a tank had little gas in it.
"I know that when gas prices were really high a year ago, a lot of my friends were driving a lot less," he said.
Financial Aid CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
- Edited by Katie Teske
their FAFSA for next year beginning Jan. 1. Roecker said the key to receiving financial aid was timeliness.
"File that FAFSA as early as possible," Roecker said.
Another opportunity for students to receive financial aid comes from KU tuition grants, which began as a measure to counter greater financial need after the tuition increase.
Roecker said the University had guaranteed KU tuition grants through the end of this school year. She said the grant would be offered again if KU had a further increase in tuition, and that decision would be made during the spring semester.
She said some of the original recipients had dropped classes and lost eligibility for the money, so the University had redistributed some of the grants.
funds to KU tuition grants, said Janet Roecker, assistant director of student financial aid.
Park sophomore, said he had received a subsidized loan for the second time this year. He said the tuition increase wasn't the reason he applied this year.
"The tuition increase definitely didn't help," he said. "But I was in pretty much the same financial situation as I was in last year."
The University has dedicated 20 percent of the tuition increase
Covington said the FAFSA application deadline for the 2003-2004 school year was June 30.
— Edited by Katie Teske and Andrew Vaupel
Jonathan Nesteruk, Overland
Election
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
students said the candidates for governor were not making themselves known among the younger voting population, Morris said.
In each of the seven questions testing students' knowledge of each candidate, more than half of the participants answered the questions incorrectly or indicated that they didn't know the answer. For example, 75 percent of students didn't know Sebelius' current job and 87 percent didn't
know Shallenburger's position.
In order to learn about the candidates, some 48.5 percent of students surveyed said they used traditional newspapers over Internet sources.
"So often we hear that this is the electronic generation, so it was a surprise that newspaper was the highest," Morris said.
"It also could indicate a certain amount of disinterest," Morris said.
A section of the survey regarding key campaign issues showed education was the most important matter on the polled students' minds. But a subsequent question revealed that neither candidate was focusing on younger voters.
"Although they are addressing the issues, they aren't addressing them adequately for the students," said Jenifer Lewis, second-year graduate student in the class from Topeka.
Elizabeth Gray, Blue Rapids sophomore, said she agreed that the candidates hadn't appealed to college students.
— Edited by Andy Samuelson
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