Dia de los Muertos is more than just sugar skulls and colorful offerings. The Mexican festival celebrates the lives of the dead. And in Las Vegas, it also gives people a chance to reconnect with -- or learn about -- Mexican culture. The festival includes music, poetry, food, drink and dance.
 

 

Irma Wynants, coordinator of the Dia de los Muertos festival: "I remembered the day of the dead growing up in Mexico was something more lively, and I wondered if the people who moved from other parts of Mexico to Las Vegas have continued to do their traditions. So I started going around to the cemeteries, asking around the different communities and I found that they were doing it. I spent some time at the cemetery and talked to people who were there all day sitting with the dead which is part of the tradition, and praying and bring the fod and having like a picnic in the cemetery, which is again, part of the tradition."

 

 

Fronteras reporter Veronica Zaragovia brought back these images from the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Las Vegas on Nov. 1 at the Winchester Cultural Center:
 

 

 

Dancers of the Comparsa Morelense group put on extremely heavy but lavish and colorful costumes for their performance at the Winchester Cultural Center to celebrate Dia de los Muertos on Nov. 1.

 

 

An altar, or ofrenda, made by the Latino Youth Leadership Alumni featured hanging skeletons. The altar was made for the Dia de los Muertos celebration at the Winchester Cultural Center in Las Vegas.

 

 

 

Young dancers took to the stage at the Winchester Cultural Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 1, the first night of the Dia de los Muertos celebration.

 

 

The Dia de Los Muertos celebration on Nov. 1 at Winchester Cultural Center in Las Vegas included folkloric dances.

 

 

Mexican candy was abundant at the Dia de los Muertos celebration at the Winchester Cultural Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 1 and 2.