Oxnard Grows its Latino Pride!

 

 

Latin American culture will be on display for 35 days beginning Thursday as Oxnard rolls out its first monthlong Latino Heritage Month celebration.

The observance will showcase art, crafts, music, dance, film, food and history of lands south of the border.

Events will range from a film series tribute to one of Mexico’s top cinematographers to traditional music concerts.

There also will be a business component, with several events dealing with Latin American trade. [...]

“This is a historical achievement,” said Javier Gomez, director of the Inlakech Performing Arts Center.

While Sept. 16 has traditionally meant a celebration of Mexican Independence Day and there has been a Multicultural Festival in October for the past 12 years, nothing this ambitious has been done before, said Gomez, who described himself as a longtime cultural activist.

“The city has finally opened its eyes to the true value of the citizens of this society,” he said, noting that two-thirds of the city’s residents are Latino.

“We’re saying to people that we’re proud of what we have here,” Gomez said.

Over the next several weeks, youngsters from the Inlakech Center will perform traditional folk dances of Mexico and play mariachi music at 16 venues.

Their first performance is set for 4 p.m. Thursday at Oxnard Public Library, Colonia Branch, 1500 Camino del Sol, No. 26.

“People have claimed that Oxnard is a cultural desert, but it has a lot of resources,” said Councilman Andres Herrera.

“We want to recognize all those artists and performers and let them know they are appreciated.”

Herrera collects Mexican folk music and is one of 12 members of an extended family that performs traditional Mexican music.

“This music may be from Mexico, but it belongs to the world,” Herrera said.

The two family groups, Conjunto Hueyapan and Hermanos Herrera, are set to perform later this month.

“The music has kept our family together,” Herrera said.

Maintaining family ties and Spanish language are considered important elements of the Latino heritage. [...]

“Spanish is beautiful it’s part of your personality,” said Burt, who noted that her own Spanish is not perfect, but she speaks it to her 13 grandchildren when she can.

—Oxnard event to honor Latino culture will run for a month, City expands heritage celebration 

 

 

OF COURSE, after reading that article I was feeling proud of both my family name and of mi cultura, as well as the state in which I was born. Pero it was not to last!

First comment on the article was made by “Freedom1″: (I know, you are wondering if Señor “Freedom1″ is any relative to Jon “Justice,” the racist misogynist radio weakling? These FreedomMarchJustice monikers bring a sour wind anymore, but I can’t be sure.) These fools (probably alipac.us) stay up all night waiting to unload their diseased thoughts upon the rest of the world.

 

Oh well, at least some people have spoken back, including this “ahuizotl” cat, ahem. 

Seriously, though. This demonstrates too clearly what is wrong with so many human minds in our midst. The nativist-racist element may not make up a majority of our nation; they may in fact only be a small faction. But this struggle plays out. Much of the population has reason for Brown Pride. Humans who descend from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Central America, South America. We are many in this nation. We make up, in fact, the majority of the Americas and soon the majority of the USA, and there is no reason why our traditions and languages and cultures should not be celebrated. And they will be celebrated. And they are. And fools like “Freedom1″ will see their day slowly browned to a beautiful and healthy crisp. They will mope about “having” to see the Spanish Language, they will moan about “Blacks feeling Superior”, they will vote against Obama and go down to the ocean floor riding the McCain ship. They will leave snippy unintelligent but mean comments on articles celebrating a culture they fear (unless lusting after the culture’s women, food, or feeling cool using little phrases of “Americanized” versions of the language themselves), and they will die knowing the world they prefer is gone from here.

Oh well! I guess we should allow them their nasty comments. That and their walls of denial is all they have.

We have something much bigger. We have each other, we have nuestra cultura, nuestra lengua, nuestro orgullo. Tenemos historia, tenemos el futuro, tenemos la verdad.