Music to a Mother’s Ears
When all nine of your family members live in the same apartment, it’s hard to sneak out.
Elvia Flores, 17, and two of her sisters pulled off the feat early Sunday morning. Instead of making a break for freedom, though, the trio let their parents know where they were by singing just after dawn in front of their Santa Ana home.
When their groggy mother realized her children were waking her with songs for Mother’s Day, she began to cry.
“How can you not?” Guadalupe Flores asked, after receiving a red rose and a hug and a kiss from her children. “I was just overcome with emotion.”
About 15 children on Minnie Street, one of Orange County’s most impoverished neighborhoods, serenaded their mothers early Sunday morning, a Mother’s Day tradition in Mexico. While Latino Health Access, a nonprofit group based in Santa Ana, helped to organize the singers and buy flowers, “we weren’t the ones getting up at 6 in the morning,” said Oscar Iglesias, a health promoter with the group.
The children kept their plans a secret and drew curious stares from early-morning walkers as they belted out traditional Mexican folk songs.
Despite their best efforts and the help of a boombox, many of the singers had a hard time projecting their voices amid Minnie Street’s densely packed apartment buildings and had to knock on doors to wake their mothers.
“I didn’t have a clue what it was,” said Marcila Abalo, who initially ignored the children as troublemakers and tried to go back to sleep.
But then she heard her son Jonathan’s voice--”He sings better than Ricky Martin; how could I not recognize him?”--and realized what was happening.
“It was such a pretty way to wake up,” she said. “It had all the emotion and heart of a Mexican holiday.”
Many mothers were especially surprised Sunday because in Mexico, Mother’s Day falls on May 10 and is generally marked by large celebrations with dancing and mariachi bands. But Latino Health Access officials decided to stage the celebration Sunday, when most of the Minnie Street mothers would be home.
“People there don’t have a lot of time to celebrate; everyone’s working,” Iglesias said.
Many of the mothers said they had not celebrated the traditional day since emigrating from Mexico, and some feared the tradition was dying out in their families.
“We have so much to do and my own parents aren’t here to remind me of Mother’s Day, so we never really celebrated it,” Abalo said.
Some of the serenading children said they wanted to connect with their roots while surprising their mothers.
“Normally, we just get her a present, but I wanted to do something traditional to honor my mom,” said Elvia Flores, the sibling trio member and a junior at Century High School in Santa Ana. “And I knew she would like singing and start crying because she’s a very sentimental person.”
