L.A. Gets Head Start in Marking Cinco de Mayo : Festival: Music and games help celebrate Mexico’s victory over French troops in 1862.

Mariachi music wafted through the warm spring air. Gabriel C. Sanchez, 67, sprang into action, beckoning to 22-year-old Veronica Lugo to dance to “La Bamba” as the first day of the downtown Cinco de Mayo celebration got under way Friday in old Los Angeles.

“Oh yeahhhh,” said Sanchez, who has been going to Cinco de Mayo celebrations across the city for more than 12 years. “I go crazy when I hear music.”

Cinco de Mayo, which means May 5th in Spanish, celebrates the date in 1862 when a small band of poorly armed Mexican soldiers defeated thousands of French troops in the battle of Puebla in Mexico.

Other Cinco de Mayo celebrations will be held throughout the region starting today. At Olvera Street downtown, the fiesta today and Sunday will start at noon and last until 9 p.m. One stage will feature traditional dances, songs and music, while another will spotlight contemporary music and a third will have songs, music and dances for children.

There will also be food, games and carnival rides ranging from Ferris wheels to carousels, and there will be performances by clowns. There will be a fireworks display each night behind Union Station.

About 60 kindergartners from Yorba Elementary School in Pomona rode the Metrolink to downtown Los Angeles for Friday’s celebration. Some youngsters shook maracas as the bands and dancers performed.

The merriment was in sharp contrast to last year. “A year ago we had to cancel this official celebration because of civil disturbances,” said Councilman Richard Alatorre, who helped kick off the celebration. “If we learned one thing (from last year’s riots), we’ve learned that it is important that we learn about one another, that the richness, the greatness of this city is a result of its people.”

Alatorre said that Cinco de Mayo “is a celebration that is not only important in the history of Mexico, but it’s important in the history of Los Angeles because this city was founded by us. . . . We have helped develop and bring this city to the place it is today.”

Enrique Loaeza Tovar, the new consul general for Mexico in Los Angeles, also helped open the three-day fiesta on Olvera Street. Loaeza said: “Mexico is proud of its history and because we’re proud of its history, we can be proud of Cinco de Mayo.”

After he finished his third dance with Lugo, Sanchez, a grandfather of four and the man with the dancing feet, said the sounds and music of Cinco de Mayo are “something you can feel in your heart, no matter where you are.”