photo by: Rochelle Valverde

From left, Malachi Burnett, Yareli Ortiz, Isa Carttar and Ransley Hernandez attach strips of newspaper to balloons on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, during a workshop held at Danielsan Electric, 900 New Jersey St., in East Lawrence to create papier-mâché figures for the Lawrence Día de los Muertos celebration.

On the cement floor of a workshop in East Lawrence, Tonatiuh Hernández Pacheco is binding reed shoots together to form a capsule-shaped object several feet tall. Behind him, a few people dip their hands into a pot of wheat paste, wetting strips of newspaper to cover inflated balloons, while others lay strips over a cluster of arched reed frames resembling macaroni elbows.

“This is the first layer,” Hernández Pacheco said as he gestured to one of the structures being added to. “Layer upon layer, it’s given more form and detail.”

While the assorted shapes draped in wet newsprint Wednesday evening may not have looked like much yet, by Saturday they will become the brightly painted papier-mâché figures adorning altars for the . For the past several days, Hernández Pacheco has collaborated with his father, Juan Hernández Rodríguez, a third-generation master cartonero from Guanajuato, Mexico, to guide workshop participants in creating the figures and other art pieces for the celebration.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Juan Hernández Rodríguez, a third-generation master cartonero from Guanajuato, Mexico, points to alfeñiques, miniature food offerings sculpted out of sugar paste, during a workshop on Oct. 29, 2025, in North Lawrence.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Alfeñiques, miniature food offerings sculpted out of sugar paste, are pictured during a workshop on Oct. 29, 2025, in North Lawrence.

Those in Hernández Pacheco’s workshop, mostly youth participants, were helping create what will ultimately be three larger-than-life papier-mâché animals representing the connection to the earth, underworld and sky. Indicating the capsule-shaped structure, Hernández Pacheco said it will be the abdomen of an approximately 5-foot hummingbird. As Somos Lawrence members worked alongside a group of University of Kansas students, Hernández Pacheco said they are creating more than just the figures.

“They are building community,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about, right? I see them interacting, sharing and getting to know each other better.”

The rituals honoring the dead as part of Día de los Muertos, which are simultaneously happy and sad celebrations, begin Oct. 26 and end on All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2. Somos Lawrence, in conjunction with the Lawrence Percolator, will hold a free community event on Satuday featuring a community altar, individual family altars and a main art piece. The event will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at John Taylor Park, 200 North Seventh St. Hot chocolate, tamales and Mexican sweet bread will be served.

Among those gathered around the table of wheat paste at Hernández Pacheco’s youth workshop was Somos Lawrence Core Volunteer Isa Carttar. Carttar said what makes the event unique is that the planning and art are done by community members, giving both Latino residents and the broader Lawrence community a chance to come together.

“I think Lawrence, despite being a very welcoming place to Spanish speakers and Latino residents, doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to really celebrate Latino culture besides the St. John’s Mexican Fiesta and a few other small things,” said Carttar, who has been volunteering with Somos Lawrence (which translates to “We are Lawrence”) for more than two years. “I think this really gives the whole city an opportunity to appreciate the culture of the people who make the city run.”

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

A papier-mâché dog figurine made by Juan Hernández Rodríguez is pictured during a workshop on Oct. 29, 2025, in North Lawrence.

A tribute to animal companions

Each year, Somos Lawrence selects an annual theme for the celebration, and this year’s is animal companions. Araceli Masterson-Algar, a Somos Lawrence organizer, said that as the altars have gone up each year, there have always been photos or mementos representing cats, dogs and even goldfish among the remembrances of human loved ones. However, she said this year’s community altar will pay special tribute to the nonhuman companions whose lives intertwine with our own.

“The animals that have been part of our lives are like centers for conversation that allow us to revisit the memories of many things, right?” Masterson-Algar said. “They mark time in our lives. When we pull out the picture of a dog that we had or talk about things that the cat did, they are really nodes for us to talk about many other things.”

While for adults the lifespan of different pets can represent particular personal eras, for children, a pet’s death is often their first experience with mortality. Leading up to the event, Somos Lawrence visits Lawrence schools to make decorations to adorn the altars, such as the multicolored papel picado banners and tissue-paper marigolds, and Masterson-Algar said that pets often come up.

“In their short lifetimes, those are the beings they have seen come and go,” she said.

The community altar will still have a section for departed human loved ones, and community members are invited to contribute copies of photos, poems or other mementos of both the people and animals they would like to remember. That both will adorn the same space speaks to the deeper considerations of the theme, which Masterson-Algar said seeks to celebrate our bonds with animals and humans’ interconnectedness with all living things.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Tissue-paper marigolds are pictured during a workshop on Oct. 29, 2025, in North Lawrence.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

A piece of a papier-mâché animal figurine is pictured during a workshop on Oct. 29, 2025, in North Lawrence.

An act of remembrance

Over the Kansas River bridge in North Lawrence, Juan Hernández Rodríguez is leading another group of workshop participants. Drying on shelves in a corner of the room and spread across tables are papier-mâché structures, animal figurines, tissue-paper marigolds, and alfeñiques, miniature food offerings sculpted out of sugar paste. Among the art pieces are also milagritos, decorative, heart-shaped charms that Hernández Rodríguez said represent in part the remembrances being made.

“Our loved ones in reality only die when we forget them,” Hernández Rodríguez said. “While their memory is present, they continue to live in our hearts.”

Community members who would like to leave mementos for their departed animal companions or human loved ones can drop by John Taylor Park throughout the day on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. In the event of inclement weather, check the Somos Lawrence or Percolator Facebook pages for an announcement about potential venue change. In addition, ahead of Saturday’s main event, the public is invited to trick-or-treat on Friday at the garage of Danielsan Electric, 900 New Jersey St., which has been serving as the space for the youth workshop. Both children and adults may view the art pieces and make a craft.

Somos Lawrence, which is housed in the Ballard Center adjacent to John Taylor Park, is a community organization that seeks to advocate for effective and culturally informed grassroots outreach to under-represented, Spanish-speaking residents of Douglas County. Other collaborators in the Día de los Muertos celebration include the Ballard Center, the Sunrise Project, Common Ground, the Lawrence Humane Society and Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as student volunteers from KU and the Latin American Student Union. The event is supported by a grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council.

Note: The interviews with Tonatiuh Hernández Pacheco and Juan Hernández Rodríguez were translated from Spanish.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Guillermina Peña and Megan Sheldon work on papier-mâché figures during a workshop at the Sunrise Project, 245 N 4th St., in North Lawrence on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Juan Hernández Rodríguez, a third-generation master cartonero from Guanajuato, Mexico, led the workshop.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Tonatiuh Hernández Pacheco, a fourth-generation cartonero from Mexico, shows University of Kansas students how to make marigolds out of tissue paper at a workshop in East Lawrence on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.