Project Coco is an unforgettable walkway to celebrate the Day of the Dead, but most importantly to remember those who passed away.

Joel Rodriguez, New Tech teacher, is the brain for this project. He states, that the Day of the Dead has been celebrated for generations and generations, because it is a Mexican tradition.

“Project Coco is a celebration that comes from Mexico and from a Pre-Colombian era from our ancient Aztecs and even from before them, so we decided to do it again this year to bring it to campus and then just have students enjoy the day and remember those who are no longer with us,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

Veronica Castillo, Mexican American studies teacher, is one of the teachers helping with this project be at it’s best. She states that project Coco helps us show more of our beautiful traditions.

“Project Coco for me is about giving respect and honoring the death of our ancestors and it is also a way to show our culture, our traditions, in a Mexican American community,” Ms. Castillo said.

There has been hands working on creating altars, tapetes, art designs and giving a piece of them to help set up the project with beautiful creations and other supplies to make the Day of the Dead un poquitito loco.

“So like there is a lot of art behind it, a lot of design, and so we are having weekly meetings with the teachers so that we can know who is going to be submitting what. We’re also going to be doing a lot of afterschool art, although we have quite a lot of art work we are going to be looking to create some more. The date of the event is going to be full of a lot of students working like little ants looking to organize and put the whole thing together,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

Day of the dead is more than just a celebration, it’s about the history behind it, our heritage, our culture and learn more of what the altars really mean.

“I expect it to be very nice, that is colorful and also obviously to give some information to the kids, to be able to understand more of our culture in a very colorful and fun way,” Ms.Castillo said. 

“It’s related because we are studying our history as Mexican  Americans, our heritage, our culture, and the Day of the Dead is one of our more important traditions in Mexico so it is important for them to know about the origin and the history behind the altars of the dead,” Ms. Castillo said.

Project Coco is nothing new to the school since it was first introduced last year, although it doesn’t have many changes, this year has more involvement from teachers and it will be full of tapetes.

“So, I think the only big difference it has is the set up, so hopefully the set up is a little different and we are also introducing tapetes, which we didn’t do last year and then I think this year cause like everyone was so excited about it how we did it last year, I think this year we are just going to have more people collaborating to the idea but in general it should be about the same,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

Here are a few pictures of last years Project Coco:

Gallery • 12 Photos