Cinco de Mayo celebrations plentiful in Sonoma County

Cinco de Mayo may not be celebrated widely in Mexico, but in Sonoma County it has become a holiday celebrating unity within the Mexican American community.

On May 5, 1862, Mexican forces defeated the French army in an unlikely victory in the Battle of Puebla. In Mexico, the date isn't a national or statutory holiday, and is only an official holiday in the State of Puebla and neighboring Veracruz.

While the most important Mexican holiday is Independence Day on Sept. 16, Sonoma County's Cinco de Mayo celebrations have become an integral part of several communities.

The Roseland neighborhood's Cinco de Mayo festival is one of the largest in the North Bay, according to its co-directors. Each year, about 10,000 people attend the free event where there's food, live music and lots of people celebrating pride in their Mexican heritage in a family-friendly ­- and alcohol-free - street party.

The event was created in 2006 in response to conflict that often emerged on May 5 between the local Latino community and law enforcement.

On the night of the holiday in 2002, several people were injured when gang violence broke out amid a large gathering along Mendocino Avenue. Law enforcement increased its presence in the following years, and the Latino community accused the department of racial profiling.

The solution came in 2006, when the community and the police department created a safe, family-friendly festival. With a hundred volunteers, some law enforcement and thousands of families and their children, the violence dropped to a minimum.

“I think one of the things we really count on is the volunteers,” said Sylvia Lemus, one of two co-directors for the Roseland Cinco de Mayo Festival.

“We draw on hundreds of volunteers to walk around and be the eyes and ears of the festival.”

Caroline Banuelos, the other co-director, has been with the festival committee since its inception. She and the others working on creating a family-friendly festival felt a celebration on the day of Cinco de Mayo, not on the weekend before or after, was necessary to alleviate tension between the Latino community and law enforcement.

“What we wanted was an event put on by community members and not by the city,” she said. After meeting with people in the community, organizers found “the biggest thing was they were very afraid of the police at the time.”

A lot of change and progress has occurred through hard work on both sides.

“The sheriff at the time, Bill Cogbill, was very interested in repairing the relationship between the Latino community and law enforcement, which at the time, he believed to be broken,” Banuelos said.

Thursday will mark the festival's 11th year. But Roseland isn't the only place to find Cinco de Mayo festivities in Sonoma County.

This year, Windsor will celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Thursday, rather than the weekend before May 5.

Cindy Bagley, who supervises recreation programs in Windsor, is organizing the event. The celebration will mirror the town's Thursday night concerts, featuring live music headlined by La Misa Negra and a performance by Ballet Folklorico Sarita, a group that has opened the festivities every year.

Bagley said the group's availability was a major reason for moving the celebration from the weekend to Thursday.

“We try very hard to reach out to our Latino community,” she said. “We listened to the community about the music they'd like to hear, and that's why we're having La Misa Negra as a headliner.”

In Sonoma, Cinco de Mayo will be celebrated Sunday, May 1 on the town's plaza in an event organized by La Luz, a nonprofit organization that serves Sonoma Valley's Latino community.

Angie Sanchez, the event's organizer, said there will be several businesses from the Springs community providing food and refreshments.

“This is one of the main events that brings the whole community together down at the plaza,” she said. “It's kind of like a tradition.”

Community members, including Sanchez, have been involved or participated in the past, and parents, who as kids performed with the Ballet Folklorico, now watch their children perform.

“I think that's why the Sonoma residents enjoy it and continue going year after year,” Sanchez said.