‘Celebrating Chicano culture:’ San Jose parades for Cinco de Mayo
San Jose's Mexican Americans celebrated with lowrider show, salsa festival and traditional dancing
When he was raising his kids, Moses Castro would take them to downtown San Jose for the Cinco de Mayo parade — “we would go every year,” he said.
Three decades later, he still goes — but these days, he’s bringing his grandkids.
“It showed me the Mexican culture — and that’s what Cinco de Mayo is really about,” said Castro’s 10-year-old granddaughter Carmelita Rodriguez as she watched a group of Aztec dancers strut by in feathered headdresses and sparkling outfits. “I don’t really get to see my Mexican culture that much — it’s only once a year.”
Cinco de Mayo began as a commemoration for Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but has morphed into a celebration of Mexican-American pride. San Jose’s festivities were spread out over two days, beginning Saturday with a car show near the SAP Center and salsa dancing festival, and culminating on Sunday with two parades in downtown and East San Jose.
For Bernadette Guzman, the parade was a chance to connect with a culture she never grew up with.
“My dad was born and Mexico and lives there, but I never went out there to visit,” said Guzman, who brought her nine-year-old daughter, Georgiana, to the parade. “I don’t get to see this kind of thing. Now that it’s Cinco de Mayo, we have a piece of it.”
San Jose officials 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 as of Sunday afternoon, the day’s events seemed to be going off without a hitch.
That included the lowrider parade in East San José, where more than 300 custom vehicles cruised along King Road down to Emma Prusch Farm Park. Along the sidewalks, families stood shoulder to shoulder, waving Mexican flags and watching glittering vehicles pass by. The smell of gasoline mixed with the “al pastor” spices wafting from a taqueria nearby.
Among the multicolor fleets of Chevy Impalas and Pontiac Torpedos, the San Jose Police Department brought its own lowrider to the parade. It was an olive branch of sorts, coming two years after the city scrapped its 30-year cruising ban, which was seen as discriminatory toward Mexican-Americans.
From the crowd, Wayne Lara cheered as a driver showed off his car’s hydraulics. As a teenager growing up in the 1970s, Lara would ride from Milpitas to the Story and King neighborhood on his low-rider motorbike, his girlfriend perched on the back seat.
“I made my first low-rider bike myself,” said Lara, sporting a horseshoe mustache and a black leather “Chicano Bikers” vest. “I love coming out to see the young kids do this now.”
His friends, Elizabeth Salas and Eleanor Lopez, grew up in the neighborhood. They recall weekend nights as teenagers, spraying their hair and touching up their makeup before heading out to the streets of East San Jose to watch the cruisers go by.
“It’s beautiful to see the low-riding cars back on the street,” Salas said, as she tried to spot her son driving his 1947 Chrysler Plymouth in the parade. “You get to see your culture again, back like before.”
Lopez moved back to San Jose just six months ago after spending 15 years in Santa Cruz. She’s glad to see her old neighborhood full of life, celebrating her Chicano culture.
“It’s nostalgic,” she said. “I feel like I’m home.”