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Folk dancers displayed their dresses, mariachi singers serenaded and Greek members made smoothies in the Free Speech Area Thursday as students tried to figure out what Cinco de Mayo meant.
First-year students Greg Longo and Nick Smith said they knew that the mariachi group they were listening to before their music class was part of a Cinco de Mayo celebration because of a sign, but they were not too sure what the day celebrated.
"It's like Mexican Independence Day, right?" Longo said.
Cinco de Mayo honors a Mexican victory over a larger French army in the Battle of Puebla May 5, 1862. The French army later captured the city of Puebla and took over the country once it reached Mexico City, but the city and state of Puebla honor their initial victory.
Epsilon Sigma Rho members sold smoothies Thursday at the event and said they try to be involved in multicultural events and learn why people celebrate different things when they do fundraisers.
"It's always good to do research," alumnus Ali Guzeldere said. "You don't want to just show up."
The multicultural fraternity member said he knew Cinco de Mayo was not Mexican Independence Day but did not know much else about the day.
Fraternity member Sonny Lee said the holiday has turned into a larger Mexican-American celebration recently, though he does not think many people observe it in Mexico.
"Now you see commercials for Corona, and before you didn't even hear about it," Lee said.
As she sat on the grass listening to the music, senior Ann Marie Munez tried to remember what the day signified.
"It's a battle," Munez said. "That battle, it starts with a 'p.'"
She studied the Battle of Puebla in her Mexican history class this semester, but knew about Cinco de Mayo before because she lived in a community with Latino people who held festivals for it.
Dancers from the Chico State club Ballet Folklórico México Lindo perform several times each semester to represent the traditional dances and dresses that come from the 31 Mexican states, Paula Cruz said.
"It's showing diversity even in Mexico," Cruz said. "Each region has a different dance, different music."
Los Machetes, the state of Jalisco's dance, is lively and involves a lot of turning in ribbon-trimmed dresses, while the Veracruz dance of La Bruja calls for graceful steps in lacy dresses to signify a flying witch, Cruz said. The dancers normally dance with men wielding machetes for Los Machetes, but they did not find any men who wanted to dance.
The eight men in the mariachi group named Los Caporales de Santa Rosa did dance a few steps during their singing. Adan Gutierrez learned mariachi music from his mom and started this group eight years ago, in which he plays the guitar, bass and harmonica.
"People like it," Gutierrez said. "It's happy music."
He said he tries to make people happy by playing mariachi to eat dinner and dance to, but some people do not respect his efforts and think the music is stupid.
The Multicultural Greek Council, Sociedad Estudiantil de Literatura, Arte y Cultura and other organizations on the Cinco de Mayo committee planned the celebration for May 4 because more students would be around on a Thursday to see what the event was about, SELAC president Ivan Paredes said.
"We wanted to make sure we hit the students," Paredes said.
As sophomore Liliana Orozco watched the folk dancers, she said she celebrates Cinco de Mayo every year and planned to go to her cousin's fiesta May 5.
"We're full-blooded Mexican, so of course we're going to have fun," Orozco said.
She does not make a big deal of the Battle of Puebla victory because Mexico's Independence Day on Sept. 16 is more important to Mexican history. But she thinks of Cinco de Mayo as a day to spend time with family and friends eating good Mexican food and listening to music, Orozco said.
"It's a way for us to get together and remind people of our culture."
Tanya Roscorla can be reached at
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