photo credit Courtesy of Visit Santa Rosa, visitsantarosa.com.

Santa Rosa’s much-loved Cinco de Mayo celebration is back.

It’s been a few years due to Covid interruptions, but celebrations planned by the Santa Rosa Cinco de Mayo organization are coming back to Roseland, said Sylvia Lemus.

"Our last one was in 2019 and we've been planning since last year," Lemus said.

Lemus is one of the directors behind the city’s Cinco de Mayo Festival.

"From logistics to entertainment to vendors, volunteers, we have different committees working on different priorities to make sure that this festival is successful," Lemus said.

The City of Santa Rosa put on a celebration last year, but this year, Lemus and the Roseland Cinco de Mayo organization are back handling the celebration first organized in 2006.

"Prior to 2006, there was problems in the street with youth kind of causing situations where the police would have to arrest people out in Roseland, on Sebastopol Road," Lemus said. "And every time Cinco de Mayo they would just arrest and arrest, and then in around 2006 it culminated there was a breaking of windows, some of the youth were throwing bricks at the Exchange Bank windows there on Dutton Avenue at the corner of Dutton and Sebastopol Road."

"The sheriff at the time, his name was Bill Cogbill, great sheriff, said, 'we can't arrest ourselves outta the situation,'" Lemus said. "We have to do something."

It was from that realization Lemus said, Roseland’s Cinco de Mayo festival was born.

"The sheriff worked with Jane Bender, the mayor of Santa Rosa at the time, and he put together Latino community leaders from different areas to start a festival there in Roseland," Lemus said.

Roseland’s annexation in late 2017 sent organizers to Santa Rosa City Hall, not the county, for permission and permitting for the event.

Now, after getting thrown into disarray by Covid, and smoothing over a “lost in translation” moment last year, Lemus said they’re excited to move forward in partnership with the city.

"We've been using their facilities to meet since last year and we've been meeting with the assistant city manager and we have a staff member assigned to us to work with us through this whole process, giving us all the support that we need," Lemus said. "Which has been really wonderful."

The Cinco de Mayo celebrations will be held at the well-trafficked shopping center where Sebastopol Road and West Avenue meet in Roseland, an area Lemus noted has seen big changes in recent years.

"We have a really good partnership with Mitote Food Park," Lemus said. "So we have a meeting with them and getting everything prepared so we can have this beautiful cultural festival for the community."

So what exactly can people expect?

"We're having one stage with entertainment," Lemus said. "We have Banda La Congora, which is regional Mexican music. We have Los Del Sietes, which is more younger kind of group, more modern kind of Latino music; Maxima Frecuencia; and then we have Mariachi Cantares de Mi Tierra, and that's a youth mariachi ensemble from the Luther Burbank Center. They're really great kids and great music."

Lemus said there will be plenty of festival treats on offer as well.

"Corn dogs, kettle corn, snow cones, elotes, and tornado potatoes, which I'm still not sure what they are, I'm looking forward to seeing what that is," Lemus said. "Tacos dorados, bombasos, gorditas, tacos, burritos, and even mocktails and slush. And one thing that has made our event successful is that our event is non-alcoholic."

Lemus said attendees can expect to see community and business groups, representatives from the city and county, youth organizations like CHOPS teen club and the Children’s Museum, and local law enforcement from Santa Rosa PD and the County Sheriff.

"It's important for them to be there to be with the community and kind of interact," Lemus said.

While there’s obviously only one Cinco de Mayo a year, Lemus said the organization works within the community throughout the whole year.

"So we have La Reina del Cinco de Mayo, which is the queen of her court," Lemus said. "It's a fundraiser for local schools and school programs. Young students will participate in this program by raising money and selling like $1 tickets, and the money all goes back to their school or their school organization club."

"The top, like three finalists of this contest, we'll match their funds if they raise a thousand dollars and we'll give 'em a thousand dollars," Lemus said. "That's just kind of a part of our way of giving back."

Since 15 years holds special significance in Mexican culture, Lemus said they are excited to celebrate.

"In 2019, we were so looking forward to 2020, because that was gonna be our 15th year, 15th year festival, which is a quinceañera," Lemus said. "So we were gonna go all out with like tiaras and t-shirts and cake and you know, just everything themed around quinceañera."

"So this is our delayed quinceañera and we're still planning on having maybe quinceañera cake for everybody or something, if we want to throw in that aspect of quinceañera," Lemus said. "Because this is a Latino tradition that's...as big as a wedding or more...it's kind of like a coming of age for young women in Latina community."

Lemus said the Roseland Cinco de Mayo celebration is always held on Cinco de Mayo proper, this year they just got lucky with the calendar.

"This year it lands on a Sunday, that's a great day for a lot of families, especially because a lot of families work, you know, six days a week, some seven, but most six days a week," Lemus said. "We're just asking the weather gods to give us great weather that day."

"It's Sunday, May 5th from 3 P.M. to 9 P.M., we just encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the entertainment, enjoy the food," Lemus said. "I mean, it's a Sunday afternoon. Like I said, hopefully we have the best weather day and if anyone's interested in volunteering, especially the day of the event, it really takes a lot of help, and...we welcome any teams of people or anyone that wants to come out and help us anytime during the day."