El Día history

In March 1996, while being interviewed in Tucson, Arizona, the author and poet Pat Mora learned about the holiday celebrated in Mexico.

In 1998, a grant was awarded from the Kellogg Foundation to allow the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE) to develop a plan for a national campaign to disseminate information on El día de los niños/El día de los libros.

The American Library Association formalized its support for El día de los niños/El día de los libros in 2001 when the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) applied for and received a W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant to promote the concepts of El día de los niños/El día de los libros.

By 2004, El día de los niños/El día de los libros had become a tradition in many schools and libraries and found its permanent home with the Association for Library Service to Children.

In 2007, Target became the first official national sponsor of Día, providing funding for libraries to receive complimentary bilingual brochures about Día and mini-grants to help establish or enhance local programs at eight libraries.

In preparation for 2012 Día celebrations, ALSC added additional content and reorganized the Día website, with additional support from Dollar General Literacy Foundation, and continues to sponsor Día-related webinars.

When the animated movie “The Book of Life” came out in 2014, Pedraza Puente said she noticed that more people wanted to dress up like the movie’s characters, but she hopes to teach people that the Day of the Dead “isn’t a costume.”