Tacos, Si; Melting Pot, No, at Fiestas Patrias

We call ourselves a melting pot, but the ingredients don’t always blend so smoothly. Last weekend, one attempted mix flopped like a flat souffle in Santa Ana--selling pasta primavera on Mexican Independence Day.

The huge crowds that packed the city’s downtown streets for the annual Fiestas Patrias celebration ignored the non-Latino dish, offered for the first time in an attempt to diversify the festival’s mostly Mexican menu. At another booth, American-style chicken and steak sandwiches didn’t sit well either with the mostly Mexican revelers.

The three-day event was a huge success, but the sandwich seller had to throw out a bunch of unused meat. The cart peddling sweetened popcorn was also a bust.

Other food booths did brisk business as usual with such standard fare as tacos and tortas, with all proceeds going to charity. That makes sense: People want Mexican food at a Mexican holiday, like they want hot dogs on the Fourth of July.

Although Latinos love to celebrate America’s Independence Day with traditional Yankee food and fireworks, few non-Latinos are drawn to the annual Santa Ana celebration marking the 16th of September, Mexico’s patriotic day.

Police estimated a record 275,000 people attended the event last week. It was virtually an all-Latino crowd. Even the white residents of neighborhoods within walking distance of Fourth Street, the fair’s main thoroughfare, stayed away.

Their absence prompted one non-Latino in the crowd, Sheri Long of Irvine, to ask organizers: “Can’t you get more gringos to this event?”

Good question. What should Santa Ana do to bring a more diverse crowd to its Fiestas Patrias, Spanish for “patriotic celebrations?”

Long has some excellent suggestions, which I’ll share with you in a moment. City officials also had some ideas for attracting a wider audience, including perhaps changing the name to something in English that everybody can understand. But that went over like a Border Patrol van in the parade.

Taking the Mexican Out of Fiestas

“To change the name now, I think would be a bad marketing move,” said Elsa Gomez, who owns a tax service on Fourth Street and serves as treasurer of the downtown merchant’s association. “If we pull in almost 300,000 people, we must be doing something right. . . . Fiestas Patrias should remain Fiestas Patrias. Everybody loves it.”

The fiesta’s 122 booths were sold out days in advance, said Gomez. She even had to chase away squatters. One pet shop proprietor set up an unauthorized table on Main Street selling tarantulas and iguanas--not exactly the type of new attraction people had in mind.

Organizers tell me they are negotiating to get more financial support in the future from City Hall, which this year chipped in $15,000 as a discount against a charge of $63,000 for police services. But they add that the city set a condition: If they want more moolah, they must make the event more multicultural.

Now that’s a cultural conundrum: Make the Mexican holiday less Mexican.

Can an all-Latino event draw more non-Latino patrons by altering its identity? Should it try to be what it’s not in order to appeal to those who don’t care for what it is?

Trying to Turn Blue Collars White

In a way, this dilemma mirrors the underlying tension that permeates civic affairs in Santa Ana, a city torn by clashing visions for its future. The mostly white establishment seeks to change the city’s working-class Latino image through gentrification. So City Hall pours millions into projects like the Artists Village in hopes of drawing a better mix, both ethnic and economic, of businesses and patrons to the city center.

Critics say that’s a waste of time and money. Santa Ana is an immigrant, blue-collar place and shouldn’t pretend to be anything else.

Which brings us back to the pasta primavera.

This year’s experiment in multicultural food booths at Fiestas Patrias was an attempt to broaden the event’s appeal. The fact that it flopped was a disappointment.

“I think it’s important to be inclusive and that’s what everybody strives for,” said Dr. Arturo Lomeli, a Mexican-born dentist and president of the merchant’s association. “We would like to share our culture with Orange County, and every aspect of that culture, whether it be music, food or art.”

Now we come to Sheri Long’s key suggestion: Santa Ana needs to learn how to package and present its culture if it wants to draw more outsiders to its ethnic events. Contrary to the idea of de-emphasizing the festival’s Latino essence, Long says organizers should do a better job of selling it.

How about a hands-on cooking booth where people can learn to make tortillas and tamales? Or a stage for dance lessons in salsa, cha-cha, la bamba and the macarena? How about a class in making Mexican pottery? Or a curtained booth to visit with a curandera, or folk healer?

Long, a practicing marriage and family counselor, took a visitor from Japan, the mother of an exchange student, to Fiestas Patrias this year. She wanted the woman to get a taste of a culture she can’t easily experience back home.

At one point, the two women ducked into one of the dozens of bridal shops that line Santa Ana streets. The foreign visitor was fascinated by the owner’s explanation of the traditional quinceanera ceremony, the Mexican coming-out party for 15-year-old girls that can be as elaborate as weddings.

So how about this: A mock quinceanera presented on stage during the fair? Bridal businesses can showcase their merchandise. And there could also be booths to display religious items, folk art and traditional crafts, all linked to lectures at the Bowers Museum.

And don’t forget to print a Fiestas Patrias program explaining it all.

“These are things that Mexicans take for granted and the rest of the world doesn’t really know about,” Long said.

She even suggested an English slogan for the festival: “Celebrate your Neighbors/ Celebrate your Roots.”

Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com