The Garcia Arts and Education Center was alive with art, music and culture Thursday evening as the usual after-school program was replaced with a community Día de los Muertos festival.

Children came dressed in Halloween costumes to collect candy from the Westside Business Association’s Boo in the Park festival, featuring games and activities, as well as treats.

Inside the center, the walls were lined with ofrendas dedicated to deceased loved ones and Día de los Muertos-themed artwork from a youth art contest. Attendees also had the chance to help paint panels for a mural.

Fourth grader D’Anna and kindergartner D’Aleena Diaz, students in the center’s after school program, came dressed as an imposter from the game Among Us and Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen.”

The girls were excited for the event, but enjoy going to the Garcia Center for the after school program on normal days as well. D’Anna said she likes everything about the program, especially art and music activities.

“I try to pick them up early sometimes and they beg to stay,” mom D’Anielle Diaz said.

The free after school program offers tutoring in literacy and STEM, art and cultural learning opportunities for elementary school students. Students also work with the center’s community garden.

Throughout the year, the center also participates in an annual César Chávez March honoring Mexican-American labor activism and a Navidad de las Familias event. It offers counseling, family night out events and health fairs. A mobile food pantry visits the center.

In the summer, the center hosts camps focused on writing, cooking, empowerment and the arts. A community chess club also meets at the center.

“I really feel like the Garcia Center is the hub of the Westside, to bring the community and the children together to partake in tradition and cultural activities and also education,” director Esmeralda Teran said.

This year, the center was able to offer longer summer camps. Phyllis Robertson, curriculum, instruction and learning sciences department chair at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s College of Education and Human Development, said she has seen the center grow in recent years.

A&M-Corpus Christi students assist with the after school program and consult on literacy and math education.

“It’s such a vital part of this community and the way the programs have expanded in recent years is just phenomenal,” Robertson said.

Robertson credits Teran’s leadership in helping the center find ways to expand and new funding and community partnerships.

Robertson said the Garcia Center captures the heart of what community-university collaboration should be. “and I don’t think it could be done with more passion and more support.”

At last year’s Día de los Muertos festival, the first held by the Garcia Center and the Westside Business Association, hundreds of children came trick-or-treating.

“What better way to give to our communities in the Westside?” association president Liz Cantu said. “They have the opportunity to walk from their neighborhood to our location and enjoy good music and good food, candy.”

Cantu said this year’s event featured more vendors.

Día de los Muertos is a holiday traditionally celebrated to honor deceased loved ones. At the Garcia Center event, colorful altars dedicated to the dead were laden with photos, food, flowers and candles.

The youth artwork featured imagery traditionally associated with the holiday, including calaveras, which are decorative skulls.

Teran said that the center is able to honor cultural traditions through the involvement of families.

“We reach out to our families, especially those where tradition and culture is very important to them,” Teran said. “We reach out to them to guide us.”

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