While walking around the event, I ended up talking with a woman named Victoria for a little while. She had helped build an altar with the Beacon Hills Arts Program. In the altar there were pictures of all the people in Beacon Hills that were killed by police officers in 2017. There was also a baby carriage and rocking horse by the front that she said was there for when the children walked by to see the altars. After, I went downstairs where the vendors were selling posters and clothing and such. Many of the posters had a powerful message about life and resistance. Through the door was an area where children were dancing with skull faces painted on. Here they were passing out bread and Mexican hot chocolate to dip it in. Overall, I had a great time and feel like I’ve learned more about Latinx culture. 

Before coming to El Centro, I expected the event to be quiet with people standing by the altars they had built. Instead when I got here, people were moving up and down the hallway to look at the altars, people were introducing themselves to one another, and they were talking to each other throughout the event. The atmosphere was friendly and open, people were celebrating their loved ones and causes that they cared about. One of the altars was about the air traffic over Beacon Hill. It had a note that was praying for peace and quiet. In the note, it talked about how the planes flying overhead has taken away sleep and the ability to focus. I was talking to a woman here about it and she said that the planes fly over almost every 3 minutes, so there really isn’t any peace. The altar had a graph of all the lines a plane from SeaTac flies over every day and how many times it went over Beacon Hill specifically. There were so many lines blended together that it looked like a solid color.