Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo expects big bounce back

Nebraska’s biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration kicks off in South Omaha this weekend, highlighted by a Saturday parade of 100 entries that will stretch through the historic 24th Street commercial district.

It’s a time to see folklorico dancers, floats, prancing horses, marching bands and area political candidates making final pitches before the May 10 primary election.

Even the winner of the “Que Chulo” dog contest is to join the lineup flowing south along the main business corridor, from about D to L Streets.

Veterans honored as Grand Marshals

Heading the 10 a.m. parade will be Latino military veterans, honored as this year’s Grand Marshals.

Organizer Marcos Mora says he expects about 60,000 people for the parade, and a three-day crowd attendance as high as 200,000, with many visitors coming more than one day and from across Nebraska and surrounding states. Activities start  Friday evening.

Mora said other Nebraska communities in the past hosted Cinco de Mayo parades or festivals, but those have dwindled as more gravitated to the larger Omaha celebration which includes free live bands and performances.

“People come from a four-hour radius,” Mora said. “We’re really on the map. That’s what makes the event unique.”

The 2022 Omaha celebration follows a delayed and smaller one last year. The year before, COVID-19 halted the festivities altogether.

Pent-up excitement may be a contributor to the full slate of parade entries. Mora said there was a waiting list beyond that maximum number.

In more typical years, he said, a quarter of the paying vendors, booth exhibitors and parade participants were new to the event. This year, he said, at least half are newcomers.

Recruitment tool

He attributes some of that fresh involvement to heightened attention by the business community to diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce.

Some business representatives have told him they hope their presence at the event serves as a recruitment tool. “They want to come to our community, test the waters, get their word out,” Mora said.

The newly formed Latino Economic Development Council, Mora said, also has worked recently to spread the word: “Don’t leave South Omaha out.”

Yet despite what he said is a century-old tradition of hosting Mexican-American festivals in Omaha, the Cinco de Mayo event is still a “best-kept secret.”

Many in the metro area remain unfamiliar, organizers said, with the event that offers carnival rides, shopping, ambiance, a beer garden and an array of food including elotes, tortas, aguas frescas, chicken kabobs. A health fair is included also at the festival, which is centered around Plaza de la Raza near 24th and N Streets and fans out along nearby streets.

Organizers estimate that the festivities generate about $7.5 million for the local economy.

While Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) has evolved also into a commercialized occasion in the U.S., where restaurants market guacamole dip and bars blend up the margaritas, the day holds a deeper meaning for many people of Mexican descent.

It was on May 5, 1862, that a much smaller but mighty Mexican army triumphed over France in the Battle of Puebla. The conflict between the two countries had begun after then-President Benito Juarez of Mexico stopped foreign debt payments and Emperor Napoleon III of France sent in invading troops.

Stirs feelings of pride, resilience

Though the French later would occupy Mexico, the Puebla victory galvanized and emboldened Mexican forces. The date grew to stir feelings of pride and resilience.

Omaha Chicano historian Jose Garcia notes that Mexicans in the U.S. also connect the Battle of Puebla with the U.S. Civil War, which was being fought at the time, and for helping to prevent a Confederacy win.

Garcia, co-founder of the Mexican American Historical Society of the Midlands, said the May 5th battle botched the French emperor’s plan at the time to supply weapons to Confederate states, allowing more time for the Union army to get a better grip on the war.

“Cinco de Mayo is as American as apple pie,” said Garcia, a veteran who will be among others leading the parade as Grand Marshals.

Today, he said, the occasion is an opportunity to showcase “Mexican tradition of overcoming tremendous odds.”

For the broader community, he said, it’s become more of a “kickoff to the summer season.”