DES MOINES, Iowa — El Día de Los Muertos or The Day of the Dead is a two-day holiday traditionally celebrated in Mexico and other Latin American countries to remember friends and family members who have passed.
There are Day of the Dead celebrations throughout the U.S. as well, including at Lincoln High School in Des Moines.
About 40% of Lincoln High School's students are Latino, so Spanish teacher Rafaela Vidal wanted to make sure everyone felt included at her school.
Vidal moved to the United States from Puerto Rico back in the 1990s and joined the Lincoln High staff two years ago.
"The kids, I always tell them, what is the most important thing? Family, familia," Vidal said. "We are all together for one day. To remember the loved ones, they are gone."
Vidal asked faculty, staff and students at Lincoln High to create "ofrendas", or offerings, to contribute to their first-ever altar in celebration of El Día de Los Muertos on Thursday.
The school's altar, which took Vidal some extra hours after school to put together, featured monarch butterflies, lights, flowers, and pictures of fathers, former educators and friends of students.
"We are happy because we are celebrating those loved ones," Vidal said. "They are not with us, but, one day [we] will be with them."
Thursday's altar and traditional celebration had many students smiling and enjoying each others' presence, including Jesús and José Alabarado, who just arrived from México three months ago.
"It is very nice to have people who speak your language and share your traditions in a place where this type of tradition isn't customary," Jesús said in Spanish.
Back in México, the two students had a different way to celebrate the holiday: Jesús and José would visit cemeteries of passed family and friends, and they would place flowers on those graves.
But now in Iowa, the Alabarados are learning to acclimate to the U.S.'s culture and customs while continuing to feel at home, and Vidal makes sure of that.