Description
Husi Cazares, an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, grew up in southern Arizona and has devoted his life to teaching and preserving his people’s culture, history, and language. He has taught Tohono O’odham culture as well as Native American history and culture at several colleges and universities. Husi holds an M.A. in Native American Studies from the University of Arizona and an M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. Husi is currently working as a trilingual speech-language pathologist in southern Arizona where he just received a national 2026 Hero of the Year award from his employer, Bayada Home Health Care. He remains deeply involved in language preservation and literacy initiatives within his tribe. He continues to write bilingual Tohono O’odham books for children and is currently working on an illustrated, bilingual, Tohono O’odham/English dictionary. Kerrie Ann Cázares grew up in Orland Park, Illinois. She received her Bachelors degree in sociology at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. Kerrie Ann writes and illustrates books, language coloring books, and language materials for learning the O’odham language with her husband Husi Cázares.
The O'odham celebrate All Souls Day every year near the second day of November. On the Tohono O’odham reservation it is called Limoṣan and families in our communities celebrate it in slightly different ways. It is a ceremony that O’odham participate in to remember family members that have passed. O’odham believe that the souls of our ancestors come back one night each year and we prepare the foods they once loved for them to enjoy once more. Limoṣan is a tradition introduced by the Spanish missionaries when O’odham were introduced to Catholicism. The O’odham have changed the way All Souls Day is observed; and it has become a unique O’odham custom.
Audience: Ages 6-8.