MANTI, Utah — Students at Manti High School got to learn about other cultures by celebrating Día de Muertos with their beloved teacher, and what they have in common in the process.
"We learn, little by little, we have things in common," Spanish teacher Olga Willey from Manti High School said of her Day of the Dead celebration this year. "We all have ancestors, you know, and we all have people we want to remember close."
She was teaching the concept of the Mexican holiday Dia De Las Muertos to her students using traditional skeletal images, papel picado or colorful banners, butterflies she says signify visits from the other side.
"I’m so proud of them. Everybody was helping a little bit. We’re cutting the paper, making the butterflies, so creative," she said. "I honestly was just behind trying to provide the materials, but they did everything. They created everything."
Student Dax Braithwaite was in charge of creating a photo opportunity for students. In this case, a giant butterfly.
"You learn a lot through just doing the projects. It’s interesting, because, I don’t know, it’s refreshing to have something out of the ordinary to kind of step out of my comfort zone of what I usually celebrate," said Braithwaite. "Because I probably wouldn’t be celebrating Dia de las Muertos if it weren’t for Mrs. Willy so, yeah."
Olga said in the past she's shown her students the movie Coco but this year really wanted to do more and was so happy with the support of the entire school, with students not just from her class getting involved but also from all classrooms and involved all the faculty, as well.
English teacher Susan Hatch says it's been a lot of fun.
"Miss Olga over here is the best at integrating culture into the school," she said. "So I think she’s helped the students and the faculty get to know the Mexican culture of the Day of the Dead and she’s bringing it to life in all of the teachers."
Teaching her students in this rural area about something different, something Olga says she's proud to share. She is not from Mexico, but from Columbia, and says it's important to learn about many different cultures.
"I am from a big city in Bogota, so 8 million people, so living in a small area, a rural town, you don’t have much access to other cultures like if you went to Salt Lake or somewhere else," she said. "So I like to bring it here. It's like a little window to see the world."
