PLACENTIA : Mothers Feted With International Flair

Yolanda Moraca couldn’t translate into English the song she had just sung in Spanish with her fellow second-graders, but the Tynes Elementary School pupil did know what the song was about.

“It’s about her,” Yolanda said, pointing to her mother. “It’s a song about a special day, about Mother’s Day.”

Maria Sanchez, Yolanda’s mother, smiled and gave her daughter a hug.

Yolanda’s performance was part of Tynes’ International Mother’s Day Festival, held Friday afternoon on the school playground. Pupils from the first through sixth grades participated in the two-hour program, singing songs, reciting poetry and performing Mexican and American folk dances.

“The reason for the event is to focus on mothers,” said Lilia Stapleton, a bilingual teacher there who organized the festival. “In the Mexican culture and other cultures, Mother’s Day is a big event. There’s a strong tradition for this type of event in other cultures.”

Pupils at the school had been practicing square dances and Mexican folklorico dances since November. Paulina Ramirez, a dance teacher who offered to teach the children, said the dances are all common at birthdays, weddings and other special events in Mexico.

Stapleton and the schools’ eight other bilingual teachers first organized the Mother’s Day event three years ago, inviting mothers to join their children for dinner after school. Last year, the teachers added the folklorico dancing, and this year they included American square dancing and invited a group of Asian dancers to provide a multicultural flavor.