Traffic stopped and pedestrians parted as 70 people celebrating the Latino holiday El Dia de los Muertos marched through the Square yesterday.

Five dancers from Danza Azteca, a Jamaica Plain-based group, led the traditional Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.

Marchers walking behind them clapped and cheered, chanting "La raza vive" ("The race lives") and "La lucha sigue" ("The fight continues").

Organizer Albert T. Chevez, a Divinity School student, said the event is a "celebration and remembrance of ancestors."

To acknowledge death, marchers wore skull masks or painted their faces to look like skulls.

"The skulls are a way of having a good time with death," said Divinity School student Felipe E. Agredano.

"My friend's car died, so he placed a picture of it at the alter and asked the Virgin Mary to guard it in the celestial garage," Agredano said.

The event was sponsored by the student group Nueva Generation and the Latino student government Concilio Latino, an umbrella organization that includes undergraduates and students from the Law School, Education School and Divinity School.

Heriberto Hernandez '98 said the celebration had personal significance for him.

"I'm here to celebrate the life of my grandfather and a good family friend,"he said.

Because he is of both Spanish and Native American descent, Hernandez said paying homage to ancestors is a "synthesis of the old and new world."

Eight children from the Central Square based Latin American community agency Centro Precente carried colorful hand-painted murals.

"[They are] a proud symbol of immigration,"said Phoebe B. Potts, the students' teacher.

Marchers began in the Peabody Terrace parking lot, passed in front of Eliot House, walked up Mass. Ave. and through the Yard to Andover Hall, where they were met by 30 other celebrators.

The procession ended in the chapel where marchers placed pictures or other tributes to the dead on an altar