Santa Ana Marks Cinco de Mayo With Music and Menudo

The country-western band hit the final note of a song at the Cinco de Mayo fiesta Sunday in Santa Ana when a man shouted from the rear of the crowd, “Hey, let’s have some mariachis! We don’t wanna hear any more western music.”

It seemed a widely shared opinion, judging by the somber faces in the mostly Latino crowd of about 1,500 who assembled on the fenced-in lot at Fourth and Ross streets. When applause followed the band’s departure, Louie Chavez shouted again, “They’re not applauding because they liked it; they’re applauding because they’re polite.”

“Look at the change,” Chavez said when organizers quickly switched to recorded ranchera music. He pointed excitedly to an elderly Latino man dancing a brief but spirited jig at the familiar sounds blaring from the loudspeakers. “I resent them having country-western music at a celebration for Cinco de Mayo,” he said.

What the 51-year-old businessman from Santa Monica didn’t know was that the real action was a few miles a way at Centennial Regional Park, where an estimated 25,000 people had gathered under clearing skies for the third and final day of the largest Cinco de Mayo festival in Orange County.

By 4 p.m., carloads of people still were waiting patiently in lines that wrapped around the park. They had missed the fourth annual Coors International Menudo Cook-Off. But the Ferris wheel would turn, shrieks would be heard from the roller coaster and beer still would flow from keg spigots at a buck a glass until well past sundown.

Altogether, more than 40,000 people had turned out for the three-day celebration of Cinco de Mayo, a traditional Mexican holiday commemorating the victory of courageous Mexicans over French invaders in a battle for the city of Puebla in 1862.

“For Mexicans, it’s sort of like the Fourth of July is for people here,” said a lanky Albert Castillo, 25, a construction worker from Santa Ana whose large sombrero hung on his back over a black, leather motorcycle jacket.

Sept. 16 a Bigger Day

Actually, Sept. 16 is Mexico’s Independence Day and is considered a much bigger holiday. According to some Mexican-Americans at the Santa Ana festivals, Cinco de Mayo has gained greater importance for Latinos in this country as an expression of their cultural heritage.

“It really is a very important day,” said Irene Estrada, 53, of Santa Ana, as she led her 9-year-old daughter, Michelle, into the park. “My mother passed on the story to me of the bravery of the Mexicans fighting the French.”

There was a little something for everyone in the multi-ethnic crowd. For a $4 entry fee, there was entertainment, all the rides you could stand and lots of ethnic food and drink. Everywhere, men hawked brightly colored flavored ices from pushcarts.

Nonprofit organizations like the local Little League and LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) operated 62 concessions selling everything from T-shirts to hot dogs.

Funds Used for Scholarships

Sponsored jointly by the City of Santa Ana and Coors, about half the fiesta’s proceeds were going to a college scholarship fund recently organized by the Hispanic Editors of Orange County. According to spokesman John Ochoa, publisher of the Neighborhood News in Santa Ana, scholarships of $1,000 will be given to Latino students from Orange County. He said the eligibility requirements were yet to be worked out.

Santa Ana police made a visible, if low-key, presence at the sprawling park, strolling among the crowd or answering questions at a community service booth.

Said one police spokesman of the three-day festivities: “Everything has been peaceful and quiet. We have had no arrests.” Two drunk people created minor disturbances, “but their families took care of them,” the spokesman said.

Just to make sure, there was an invisible presence, too. Two plainclothes officers pulled up on a side street, parked and donned radio gear and earphones. Dressed in blue jeans, T-shirts and woolen Pendletons with the shirttails out, they blended into the crowd. That is, until one scratched his back to reveal a pair of shiny handcuffs hanging from his belt.

Then there was the menudo cook-off.

Best Menudo in Town

Twelve entrants mixed and poured, stirred and simmered the humble delicacy of peasant origin under multicolored tents. Made of tripe and hominy in a rich broth that can be either red or white, it is a challenge to prepare well.

Josephine G. Maldonado, 45, spent $16 for her 10 pounds of already cleaned meat. With lemons, salt, chili powder, oregano, cumin and hominy, she said, the total cost came to about $25. For four hours Sunday, she labored pensively over a Coleman stove, under the watchful eyes of judges and most of her six children, who had encouraged her to enter.

No one was more surprised than the pharmaceutical factory inspector from Santa Ana when she took first prize of $500 and the chance to enter the state contest in San Jose on Sept. 7.

Luck Is With Her

“I’m very surprised, because sometimes you just don’t have any luck with it,” said the grandmother of three.

Would she divulge her secret? Modestly, she shrugged and wiped her hands on an apron. Perhaps it was the lemon juice she uses to soak the tripe and remove its unpleasant odor. Or perhaps the two calves’ feet she adds for flavor. Whatever it was, there was no more to be had.

“People just kept coming back for more,” her 24-year-old daughter, Anna Martinez, said proudly.