Fresno City College hosted a car show and Cinco De Mayo celebration to celebrate Mexican heritage at FCC on May 5. The celebration took place in Veterans Square from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with a wide variety of cars, vendors and activities.
Cinco De Mayo is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage in the United States. The holiday has a common misconception that it is the celebration of Mexican independence, while the actual celebration of Mexican independence is not until Sept. 16.
Cinco De Mayo celebrates the battle of Puebla in 1862 where Mexican forces were victorious against French forces. Although Cinco De Mayo is celebrated in Puebla where the battle took place, it is not a national holiday in Mexico.
The Cinco De Mayo celebration was full of performances and vendors from clubs at FCC. There were performances by a mariachi band and folklorico dancers, games such as loteria and a tortilla making tutorial made the celebration event more vibrant.
Luis Gallardo, a biotech major at FCC said that events like the Cinco De Mayo celebration are important for FCC and that it brings everyone at the college closer.
“I heard an advertisement about this show and I just got out of class. Even last year I saw these and I was like oh I want to see them” Gallardo said.
Serena Levine is a technical theater major at Fresno City College and likes that the event brings different people together.
“I like that it brings the culture together, and everyone on campus who might not even know too much about it and then [to] just bring everybody together,” Levine said.
FCC clubs such as the Anime Club, Business and Finance Club, Architecture Club, Law Pathway Student Association Club and the Mindfulness Club were present selling traditional Mexican food and drinks to raise money for future club trips and events.
The Law Pathway Student Association Club (LPSA) were selling dirty sodas to help raise money for the club. Jasleen Ginger, who is a part of the clubs, said the goal was to get more exposure to the law field.
“We have a lot of students coming in from the program who are interested in the club, because we’re more about going out there, especially more field trips, like going to the courtroom. We’ve seen hearings, we’ve spoken to lawyers. If you want to have more experience with a lawyer or mentorship, you can go through the program. You can buy one-on-one mentorships,” Ginger said.
Many vintage cars were parked in veterans square for the car show that was a part of the Cinco De Mayo celebrations. Cars such as Impalas, Corvette and Volkswagen were parked for students to see.
Busch Elton brought a vintage 1936 Ford Pickup to the car show for students to view . Elton said the truck has been with his family for years sitting in his family’s barn, and he decided to rebuild it.
“My dad and his family, my grandpa and grandma, his brothers and sisters, they all came from Oklahoma, Missouri in that truck. They migrated out here in 1947 and that’s what they brought. We had it trapped in the barn for 50 years and I sold another truck and I decided to rebuild it,” Elton said.
Darnell Lawrence is a business major at Fresno City College who was excited to see the different cars displayed.
“The first time I walked over here, I was excited, man. I didn’t even know this was going to be here today. So guess what I did? I walked and I looked at every single car there was in here and it was crazy man,” Lawrence said.
