Delia Pino had reason to celebrate at the Cinco de Mayo celebration in Preisker Park Sunday afternoon. Having lived in the Santa Maria area for 69 years, she recently earned the right to take the oath of citizenship along with 7,000 other new Americans at a ceremony in Pomona a couple of months ago.

“I did it with the help of my children,” Pino said. “I've lived here a long time. I'm glad I did it.”

Pino, along with her daughter Julie and son-in-law Frank Marez of Arroyo Grande, were just one of many families that attended the celebration in the park, which was hosted by the Mexican-American Political Association.

But it was the cultural aspects of the celebration, not the political, that attracted the most attention.

“Mexican people are very cultural,” said Frank Marez. “Anytime you get together it's very important that we express our cultural heritage for our children so they can pass that on to the next generation.”

The Xiuhcoatl Aztec Dancers performed several traditional dances from a variety of indigenous cultures, including Aztec and Apache, to kick off the event.

Noemi Valasquez-Mitchell has been a part of the performance group her entire life - her father Pedro Velasquez directs the dancers.

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Born and raised in Santa Maria, Valasquez-Mitchell thinks educating and exposing children to their culture and heritage is an important responsibility.

“It's important to keep our culture alive,” she said. “We're all indigenous and it's important to tell our children where they come from. I want my children to know that.”

Keeping the event a family oriented one was high on the organizers' list of priorities. The event took place the day after Cinco de Mayo so families could attend.

“We wanted to give the working families a chance to be here and take part in the celebration,” said Richard Valencia of MAPA. “We know that many of these people are working in the fields on Saturday and if they worked today they got off at noon.”

MAPA also used the event as a fundraiser for several scholarships, and grants it has available to students.

The mostly political organization also wanted to send a message to those who treat Cinco de Mayo much like St. Patrick's Day or Octoberfest, also widely celebrated culturally significant events, as an excuse to party and get drunk. The group's message: That this event is going to focus on the families.

“It's important that we're examples to our children,” Valencia said. “Those events have become very commercialized as has Cinco de Mayo. There's no alcohol here. This is about families getting together to celebrate our culture in a safe manner.”

Valasquez-Mitchell agreed that the day has been overly commercialized in the Hispanic community, with more of an emphasis on partying than on its real meaning.

“Yeah, that bugs me because we don't emphasize drugs and alcohol at all. This is about our culture. It's about educating our children and passing on their heritage.”

Todd Cralley can be reached at 347-4580 or tcralley@santa

mariatimes.com.

May 7, 2007