Students Recall Chavez for Cinco de Mayo

Schoolchildren from Pacoima to Canoga Park took time out to celebrate a bittersweet Cinco de Mayo Wednesday: The traditional festivities honoring Mexican heroism of a century ago were punctuated with remembrances of a contemporary Mexican-American hero, Cesar Chavez, who died suddenly April 23.

The annual celebration at Haddon Avenue Elementary School in Pacoima included a moment of silence for Chavez, who worked to improve conditions for farm workers as a leader of the United Farm Workers union.

“He gave his life in service for others. We should do the same,” said Jonas Robledo, a fourth-grade teacher who served as master of ceremonies.

At the end of the program, Robledo led the crowd in a rendition of “De Colores,” a song believed to have been one of Chavez’s favorites.

Otherwise, spirits remained high as an audience of more than 200 community members watched students in bright costumes stomp and twirl their way through a number of traditional dances with names such as “La Costilla” (the rib).

At Canoga Park Elementary School, about 900 students spent the morning performing folkloric dances on the playground.

The students had been practicing the dances with professionals since the beginning of the year, Principal Phillipa Brown said.

The students included 9-year-old Leah Alicata, who explained the reason for the celebration in simple terms: “If we hadn’t won, the Mexicans would be French.”

“We wouldn’t be singing now,” added classmate Teresa Lopez, 10, who had donned a special lacy, Veracruzano dress for the occasion.

Manuel Ponce, director of the Mexican-American Education Commission, an office of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said it was natural for Chavez’s name to be evoked in concert with Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that celebrates “self-preservation, pride, honor.”

The 5th of May, 1862, is the date that an outnumbered and outgunned Mexican army in Puebla defeated invading French troops, who had been sent to collect debts. The holiday is traditionally marked by parties, parades and fireworks in Mexico.

The Los Angeles school district board passed a resolution in 1990 “strongly encouraging” all schools to recognize Cinco de Mayo in view of the fact that 65% of students and about 40% of Southern Californians are Latino.

Of that number, 75% are of Mexican descent.