By Riley Wasek
This year’s Fiestas Patrias was the second annual occurrence of the event. The festival included Music, dancing, community outreach, and booths with activities and items to purchase. The fact that this was not an extremely large festival and was filled with almost all locals made it feel so real and authentic.
I got the opportunity to speak with the Mayor of Vista himself. He was an extremely well-spoken person overall. The first question I asked him was what his favorite part of being mayor was. He responded with “no question about it, helping people”. It is very comforting knowing that the person in charge of running our city has this compassionate outlook on life. As we delved deeper into the festival itself, I asked him what he thought of the festival overall and why it was important to him. “Vista is a community that is 50% Latino. So, for half of our citizens, this is their heritage and their culture. For the other half, this is understanding and celebrating the culture of the people that we are all here making community with. I think it’s very important to celebrate each other’s cultures” -John Franklin [Mayor of Vista]. While the majority of people attending the festival were there celebrating their own culture, I did notice many people from other cultural backgrounds there to learn and enjoy the festivities. I personally felt very immersed in genuine people. Especially since this was not necessarily a super large festival, most people knew each other or at least recognized and were familiar with each other.
The Rancho Buena Vista High School Mariachi band and Ballet Folklorico Troops also attended and performed at the festival. I got to speak with Ruby and Alex, who are both members of Mariachi, right after their performance. “I think you should embrace your culture and try to be very involved in it” -Alex. This overall message was a recurring theme of the festival and everyone I talked to there. Hispanic culture is such an important piece of America, and especially Southern California. It is embedded and cherished in our day-to-day. Not only is it important for one to get the chance to celebrate and be proud of their heritage, traditions, and practices; but it is also so enriching to learn about other cultures as well as your own. To understand the people around you in this world, makes us all closer as a planet and as humanity. From the Rancho Buena Vista Ballet Folklorico team, I got the chance to speak with Tabs and Lily. Tabs spoke of the communal bond and closeness one gets to experience with their fellow dancers and the satisfaction of performing and knowing you did it right. “The girlhood that comes with it– the community that comes with it” -Lily. For everyone I talked to at the festival, I asked them the same question of why they think such celebrations are important. Tabs’ insight into this was “I think it is very important, especially nowadays, that hatred’s really common and we have a lot of racial, ethnic, and religious divisions”. Followed up by Lily, “everyone is so split up, hosting events like this brings everyone together”. I could not have said it better myself. It would be so boring in this world if everyone were the same.
At the facepainting booth, I spoke with Chris who was also selling some of her crochet crafts that she makes. Her favorite part of the festival was getting to see and be immersed in her culture. “It’s really cool to see the community come together and support each other like this– It’s not just fun but it’s also people who are educating” -Chris. One thing she wished everybody knew about Hispanic heritage is “it’s very diverse, it’s a lot more diverse than people would think. There are different states and tribes that we come from”. This stood out to me. Throughout the rest of my time there I was paying closer attention and asking questions about what region certain traditions were from. Some volunteer firefighters and a fire-cadet were running a booth at the festival as well. The biggest takeaway I learned from them was that “I think its great to experience different cultures, not just Hispanic but everything overall” -City of Vista Fire-Cadet. On a final note, our mayor, John Franklin gave a piece of advice I believe everyone should get the chance to hear: “Take note of this: if you want to be happy in your life, find a way to serve other people”.
