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Dia de los Muertos

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Day of the Dead originated several thousand years ago with the Aztec, Toltec, and other Nahua people, celebrate the life of and respectfully mourn the dead. For our culture, death is a natural phase in life’s long continuum. The dead are still members of the community, kept alive in memory and spirit—and during Día de los Muertos, they temporarily returned to Earth. 

The centerpiece of the celebration is an altar, or ofrenda. These altars are meant to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living. Raza took on the task of creating an apagar to be it up on the centennial lobby of the law school to celebrate Dia de Los muertos October 31st - November 2nd. 

Native Land Acknowledgement


We take a moment to recognize that Berkeley sits on the territory of xučyun (Huichin) (Hoo-Choon), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo (Cho-Chen-yo) speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma (Muh-wek-muh) Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.

We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has benefited, and continues to benefit, from the use and occupation of this land since the institution's founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible the university's relationship to Native peoples. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold the University of California, Berkeley more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.