Fair Plays to Ethnic Pride of the County’s Many Cultures

VENTURA —  As Anabel Flores practiced sweeping her arms to the Mexican Banda music Sunday, the folds of her fancy dress unfurled and the hazy morning light glinted off emerald green satin and brightly colored ribbon.

“I’m not nervous anymore, I passed that already,” said the 13-year-old Oxnard girl, a dancer in the opening act of the Ventura County Fair’s Fiesta Day. Most of Sunday’s events showcased a variety of cultural arts groups from Ventura County’s Latino and Mexican American communities.

Anabel’s group, Oxnard-based Ballet Folklorico Mexicapan de El Centrito de La Colonia, stomped and twirled across Mexico’s many geographic regions, shaking to the African-influenced rhythms of Veracruz, then keeping time to the lively mariachi music of Jalisco.

Oxnard’s Jesus Rocha watched the action as if he wanted to join the dozen or so women and children on stage. Rocha is director of El Centrito de La Colonia, which sponsors the dance group.

“They’ve flourished,” Rocha said with a measure of pride. “They used to have four people . . . and now they’re up to 35 students.”

Ballet Folklorico isn’t the only thing that is flourishing.

Fair organizers are trying harder than ever to involve a greater cross-section of the region’s ethnically diverse communities by featuring a broader range of culturally oriented events and activities.

“Before, they had a little here and there, but today’s a whole day,” Rocha said while watching young mariachis warm up for their performance.

And the day was just beginning.

Sunday’s gala concert in the grandstand arena featured the popular Mexican bands Grupo Diluvio, La Tropa Vallenato, El Show de Junmavue, La Banda Azpericueta, Los Reileros del Norte, Los Bondadosos and Banda Toro.

“We’ll have probably 10,000 people in the grandstand arena,” fair spokeswoman Teri Raley said. “If history holds true, it will be among the biggest concert events at the fair.”

Raley said Fiesta Day has tended to draw larger than average crowds for more than a decade--about 32,000 people came last year. By comparison, fair attendance has averaged about 20,000 people for each of the past four days.

“It’s been that way for several years,” Raley said. “We’ve for at least a dozen years had the whole grounds dedicated to a Fiesta Day celebration.”

The efforts by fair organizers to tap the county’s burgeoning Latino market did not go unnoticed.

“Up until now it’s pretty much been mariachis and Ballet Folklorico,” said Oxnard resident Dennis Contreras, who heads Nahui Ollin, a group that performs pre-Columbian Aztec ceremonial dances in traditional garb, including loincloths and ornate feather headdresses.

The penetrating beat of the group’s Hwehuetl, or “Grandfather” drum, and the clack of ankle rattles made from nuts of the chachayotes tree could be heard above the buzz of the crowd and the cries of hawkers on the fair’s main drag.

“I think this is a start,” said Contreras, adding that being one of the fair’s featured attractions has given the group an opportunity to share thousands of years of accumulated history with local residents.

“A lot of people aren’t familiar with their own traditions and when they find out, it makes them proud,” Contreras said. “It’s a sense of awe and pride. They’re proud to be what they are.”

One aspect of the fair exemplified the organizers’ drive toward ethnic diversity: the food stands. The offerings ranged from Filipino lumpia, American Indian fry bread, pita sandwiches and carne asada tacos to corn dogs, ice cream and cotton candy.

“We can have any type of meal,” Ventura resident Linda Mendoza said. “That’s what I’m going to do next--have a Chinese dinner--and then a Polish sausage before I go.”