SAN FERNANDO : Proud Students Mark Mexico’s Independence

From preschoolers, who dressed up as little birds in yellow paper hats and danced the los pajaritos , all the way up to sixth-graders who belted out a history of Mexican independence, students at O’Melveny Elementary School in San Fernando marked Mexican Independence Day on Wednesday with exuberance and pride.

Dressed in the red, white and green of the Mexican flag, students shook maracas made of milk cartons filled with beans and waved colored streamers tied to their wrists.

“I want to celebrate for my cousins in Mexico to let them know I care about them,” said Lidia Salguero, 9, a fourth-grader who read aloud for the hundreds of parents and students at the program. “I want to remember where my parents were born.”

The school celebrated the holiday--which actually is observed Sept. 16--on Wednesday, because school is not in session today.

Sara Coughlin, the district supervisor of elementary schools for the San Fernando Valley region, said most of the elementary schools in the eastern Valley celebrate Mexican Independence Day, but only schools on year-round tracks have enough time to prepare an elaborate show.

O’Melveny’s principal, Lucky Hemphill, said 98% of the 1,000 students who attend the year-round elementary school are Latino, and the majority of them are of Mexican descent. They began preparing for the celebration five weeks ago--making costumes and learning dances from different regions of Mexico in their afternoon art, music and physical education classes.

The Diez y Seis de Septiembre --the 16th of September--marks the overthrow of Spanish rule in Mexico in 1821. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a rebellious parish priest in the village of Dolores, triggered a struggle against the Spaniards on Sept. 16, 1810, when he rang a church bell calling Mexicans to arms.