YWCA Greater Austin in coordination with AVANCE-Austin, Todos Juntos Learning Center, HEB, El Buen Samaritano, St. David's Foundation, Dell ERG Latino Connection and YWCA USA want to honor and amplify the voices of Women and Women of Color during this year’s Día de Los Muertos celebration. Our Día de Los Muertos (DDLM) Community Mural Project will include community ofrendas and the creation of beautiful murals by local women of color that aim to strengthen and inspire our communities.

Through our Dia de los Muertos Community Mural Project, we celebrate our ancestors and honor them by continuing to fight for the rights of Women in Central Texas. A third of Austinites are Hispanic or Latinx, almost twice the United States average. This is a community whose voices we cannot afford to miss out on.

Some of the issues affecting women in Texas today are:

• Reproductive Rights, 
• LGBTQIA+ Rights, 
• Voter Suppression, 
• Economic Security,
• Health and Community Well Being,
• Racial Justice,
• Mental Health,
• Banned Books and 
• Gun Reform.

We call for intergenerational solidarity. Together, we can and will make history!

Our Partners and Supporters

For this year’s Dia de los Muertos Community Mural Project, YWCA Greater Austin is proud to partner with: Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Garza Independent High School, Austin Pets Alive, AVANCE-Austin, Todos Junto Learning Center, HEB, El Buen Samaritano, St. David's Foundation, YWCA USA, Niz Graphics (muralist), Kimie Flores (muralist), and Candy Kuo (muralist)Joining hands together to make history in Central Texas.

HISTORY OF DDLM

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. “In Mexico, death rites date from pre-Hispanic rituals represented in murals, painted pottery, monuments, and artifacts, which shows how the Day of the Dead has its origins in the rituals practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Its precedents date to more than 3000 years ago when the Olmecs and subsequent Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Maya, and Aztecs honored death.

Those who passed are alive in our memories. A continuous echo that at certain occasions becomes louder. As the only answer to many of our questions, death is an integral part of life, and the living and the dead meet on this day to emphasize the importance of death in the cycle of life.

Día de los Muertos acknowledges the symbiotic relationship between life and death. El día de Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and November 2nd, in which the spirits of the dead are believed to return home and spend time with their relatives on these two days. To welcome them, the family build altars in their honor. These altars have a series of different components that vary from one culture to another that mostly include yellow marigolds, candles, photos of the deceased ones, papel picado or cut tissue-paper designs, as well as food and beverages offerings for the dead. 

It is common to see skulls or calaveras as decorations. These can be made of papier-mâché, clay, wood, metal, cut-out tissue paper, and often, they are made of sugar decorated with colored icing, flowers, or metallic colored foils.”(DIA DE LOS MUERTOS | The Mexican Museum)

Learn More Links

Five facts about Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) | Smithsonian Institution (si.edu)

Day of the Dead - Wikipedia

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS | The Mexican Museum