<i> Ole </i> and Away They Go for Las Fiestas Patrias
Las Fiestas Patrias, celebrated today and Sunday at the Alberto Diaz Plaza in Belvedere County Park, is the largest Mexican Independence Day festival outside of Mexico City. Saluting the food, folklore, music and arts and crafts of the early California settlers, the event is expected to attract more than 100,000 people, according to Roy Williams, district administrator of the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, East Los Angeles-Basset District. The department has sponsored the event for 15 years.
The festival will feature continuous entertainment, a bike race and a parade.
Stage entertainment will be offered from noon until 8 p.m. each day. Performers include rock vocalist YURI, Mexico’s Madonna; balladist Luisa Maria Guell; ‘50s radio star Maria Victoria; Hermanas Padilla, the humorous Northern Mexican music group; actor and singer Manuel Lopez Ochoa; Los Broncos, another Northern Mexican music group; charro Saul Ezqueda; and vocalists Belinda de Sonora, Lucerito, Laura Flores and Sergio Fachelli. Menudo, the popular Puerto Rican teen rock group, will appear both days.
The Casita de los Ninos (house of the children) will provide continuous children’s activities, including a carnival, juggling and clown acts, arts and crafts, games and live bands. A youth boxing exhibition, co-sponsored by the Eddie Heredia/Eastside Boxing Club, begins today at 1 p.m. and will feature novice and open classification boxers in 15 amateur bouts.
Also today, Club Anahuac de Belvedere Park and Ladies Auxiliary 4696 are hosting a free dance for senior citizens from noon to 6 p.m. in the park’s gym. It will feature live bands, food, contests and prizes.
Beginning at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the Mexican Independence Criterium, a bike race that is open to bike club members as well as unaffiliated riders, will be run on streets surrounding Obregon County Park, 4021 E. 1st St. Today is the official deadline for entries, but those still wishing to participate may pay a $3 late fee when they register Sunday morning, in addition to the $7 entrance fee. (There also is an additional $5 charge for riders who are not members of a bike club.) Spectators are welcome to watch the estimated 500 riders compete for more than $3,500 in prize money.
Another highlight of the festivities will be the annual parade, Sunday at 1:30 p.m. According to parade director Sal Lopez, there will be 25 floats, seven marching bands and four groups of mounted charros.
The parade route begins at the intersection of 1st and Lorena streets and proceeds east on 1st Street to Gage Avenue. There it turns north, following Gage Avenue to Brooklyn Avenue, then turns east again and continues on to Belvedere County Park.
The weekend celebration will culminate at dusk Sunday with a fireworks spectacular. The park is at 4914 Brooklyn Ave.