School Salutes U. S. Traditions, History

Dressed in the image of a 19th-Century suffragette, Marie Wren stood before an auditorium of rapt Fillmore Middle School students and spoke of the decades-long struggle that gave women the vote.

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“This is the 75th anniversary of women’s right to vote in America,” said Wren, who, impersonating women’s rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton, sported a long burgundy dress adorned with a sash of yellow, blue and purple--colors the suffragettes wore to symbolize their movement.

“It took 72 years for us to get to vote,” she said. “We won it as with any political campaign, and we did it without any bloodshed or help from any political party.”

The 66-year-old Fillmore resident was among several speakers who addressed about 500 students on the first “Pride in America Day” celebration, a schoolwide event aimed at fostering an appreciation for American traditions and history.

“We are living in a time of so much diversity that it’s important for the kids to remember that we are Americans too,” said Vice Principal Josie Bisciglia. “Although many of our students were born here, they don’t feel that they are Americans.”

Some students lack a sense of patriotism because of strong family ties to their Mexican heritage, Bisciglia said.

“Our goal is not to put down their Mexican heritage, but to teach them that America is just as important,” she said.

According to the 1990 U.S. census, 6,783 of Fillmore’s more then 12,000 residents were of Mexican descent. And records this school year at Fillmore Middle School show that 76% of the schools 510 students are Latino.

History teacher Mary Ford said she came up with the idea for “Pride in America Day” after watching the enthusiasm of students during Cinco de Mayo celebrations and lamenting that they would not be in school to celebrate the Fourth of July.

“We thought we would hold the celebrations now [Friday] because of Memorial Day,” Ford said. “It provided us with the patriotic flavor that we needed to celebrate America.”

The festivities began at 8:30 a.m. when the Fillmore High School band filled the school’s gym with the sounds of the American national anthem.

Then the Colonial color guard of the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution marched into the gym carrying the American flag.

Principal Phil Catalano welcomed the students and told them about his family’s traditions as Italian Americans. Raquel Ortega, 13, entertained the audience by singing three patriotic songs, including “God Bless America.”

Several of the speakers quoted American leaders, including John F. Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.

“America has many faces, many colors and many ideas,” Anthony Prado, a trustee of the Fillmore Unified School District, told the attentive students. “An American could be an Irish American, Italian American, French American, a Mexican American, or . . . a Buddhist American or a Muslim American.”

Veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars shared their experiences with the group and talked about the significance of the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

“I had never understood what Memorial Day was about until today,” said Lacey Morales, 13. “When I heard the veterans telling their stories, I realized what it meant going to war.”

After the speeches, students watched a group of professional square-dancers. And as a grand finale to the morning-long celebration, they were treated to a hot-dog lunch on a school patio.