When he was raising his children, Moses Castro would take them to downtown San Jose for the Cinco de Mayo parade – “we went every year,” he said.
Three decades later, he still goes – but these days, he brings his grandchildren.
“It showed me Mexican culture — and that’s what Cinco de Mayo is really about,” said Carmelita Rodriguez, Castro’s 10-year-old granddaughter, as she watched a group of Aztec dancers strut their stuff with feathered headdresses and sparkling outfits. “I don’t really get to experience my Mexican culture – it’s only once a year.”
Cinco de Mayo began as a commemoration of Mexico’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but has evolved into a celebration of Mexican-American pride. San Jose’s festivities spanned two days, beginning Saturday with a car show near the SAP Center and a salsa dance festival, and culminating Sunday with two parades in downtown and east San Jose.
For Bernadette Guzman, the parade was an opportunity to reconnect with a culture she never grew up with.
“My father was born in Mexico and lives there, but I never went to visit him,” said Guzman, who brought his nine-year-old daughter, Georgiana, to the parade. “I don’t get to see that kind of thing. Now that it’s Cinco de Mayo, we have a piece of it.
San Jose authorities were under pressure after road closures during last year’s parade cut off freeway access to downtown and were criticized by some local leaders as “targeted” and ” racist.”
But by Sunday afternoon, the day’s events appeared to be proceeding smoothly.
This included the East San Jose Lowrider Parade, where more than 300 custom vehicles traveled down King Road to Emma Prusch Agricultural Park. Along the sidewalks, families stood side by side, waving Mexican flags and watching glittering vehicles pass by. The smell of gasoline mixed with “al pastor” spices escaping from a nearby taqueria.
Among the multi-colored fleets of Chevy Impalas and Pontiac Torpedos, San Jose police brought their own lowrider to the parade. It was an olive branch of sorts, coming two years after the city lifted its 30-year cruise ban, seen as discriminatory against Mexican Americans.
From the crowd, Wayne Lara cheered as a driver showed off his car’s hydraulic system. As a teenager growing up in the 1970s, Lara would commute from Milpitas to the Story and King neighborhoods on her low-rider motorcycle, her girlfriend perched in the back seat.
“I built my first low-rider bike myself,” said Lara, sporting a horseshoe mustache and black “Chicano Bikers” leather vest. “I love coming to see the young kids do this now.”
Her friends, Elizabeth Salas and Eleanor Lopez, grew up in the neighborhood. They remember weekend evenings as teenagers, spraying their hair and applying makeup before heading to the streets of East San Jose to watch the cruisers go by.
“It’s beautiful to see the low cars on the street again,” Salas said, as she tried to spot her son driving his 1947 Chrysler Plymouth in the parade. “You can see your culture again, like before. »
Lopez returned to San Jose just six months ago after spending 15 years in Santa Cruz. She is happy to see her old neighborhood full of life, celebrating its Chicano culture.
“It’s nostalgic,” she said. “I feel like I’m at home.”
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