FILLMORE : High School Blends Cultures for Cinco de Mayo Festival

The lunchtime Cinco de Mayo celebration at Fillmore High School on Tuesday had a definite multicultural flavor.

Balloons and crepe paper in the colors of the Mexican flag fluttered over the school’s quadrangle. Nearby, students munched crepes sold by members of the school’s French club, ate all-American apple or cherry pie, or tasted tostadas from a school chapter of an international organization for Mexican students.

The event was the second day of Fillmore High’s International Week, started five years ago to augment a schoolwide Cinco de Mayo assembly. School officials said they expanded the celebration after Anglo students protested because all students, not just Latinos, were required to attend the Cinco de Mayo observation.

The week, which includes an Asian Day and an African-American Day, culminates Friday with Global Awareness Day.

On Tuesday, Grupo Folklorico Tepeyac of Santa Paula performed authentic Mexican dances in colorful costumes, their hard-soled shoes clattering on the Masonite floor of a portable stage. The school’s patio was festooned with the flags of 50 nations, hand-painted by students of Lee Torres, an English-as-a-Second -Language teacher who coordinated the event.

About half the school’s 800 students attended. Faculty and students called the celebration an improvement over the old Cinco de Mayo assembly.

“If nothing else, it’s a way to get together and eat some food they don’t get at home,” said Spanish teacher Epi Torres. “The atmosphere’s been upbeat, especially when you consider what’s been happening (in Los Angeles), down the road from us.”

Principal Lynn Johnson said the events in riot-torn Los Angeles after the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King case were not being ignored. “But this is a celebration,” she said. “It was more appropriate to deal with the trial and the riots in classrooms, which teachers have done.”

The audience was a typical cross-section of Fillmore High’s student population, which is predominantly Latino and white, but also includes a sprinkling of Asian and black students.

“I think it’s great,” said senior Nikki Shaw, student body vice president.

“There are so many cultures to celebrate.”

Sophomore Rudy Carrillo, who had a front-row seat on the lawn, said he enjoyed the dancers. “It expresses how my culture affects all of us, and how beautiful that culture is.”