By Karen Trinh
Fountain Valley High School’s Spanish Club created an altar Saturday, November 3, for the Noche de Altares event held in Santa Ana.
This was the first year the FVHS Spanish Club had its own altar on display. The altar was dedicated to deceased Fountain Valley alumnus Scotty Lang and Mike Musso, two former football players at Fountain Valley High School.
Lang had passed away on the football field due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 1999, and Musso passed away in a tragic car accident in 2005. The boys’ pictures, as well as their jerseys, were placed on the altar.
Astrid Ulloa (’14), the president of FVHS Spanish Club, said, “Many of us teared up and we just kept thinking that both Scotty and Mike had a long life ahead of them and it was just cut short so tragically.”
Throughout the day, members who helped create and set up the altar had the opportunity to meet the friends and family members of both Lang and Musso, who came to visit the altar and pay their respects.
“Creating an altar was the perfect cultural event to start off the year…. and it was a great way to represent our school,” Ulloa said.
Noche de Altares is a community event held every year in honor of the ancient Mexican festival, Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. At the event, there were booths, food vendors, and live entertainment.
The Day of the Dead is meant to celebrate the lives of deceased loved ones. Families create altars in their memory as part of the celebration.
Each year, a large number of Fountain Valley High School students attend this event for various reasons, whether for a Spanish culture project or to simply to experience a new culture.
You have missed two others, also alums of fvhs. Matthew Maldonado, only got to sophmore year but was also on the football team. And Joey Nungaray, killed just last year. Hit by a dui driver. Please remember them as this was the school we all went to, you reading this included. I came to fvhs 1 year after Scotty, i know the story. But people like Joey and Matt deserve to have there story told. Thank you, Steve Watkins. Im on facebook. Contact me if needed, srwatkins321@gmail.com