About 40 years ago, Francisco Herrera left his small town in the state of Durango, Mexico, as a teenager and started a new life in Chicago washing dishes.
On Sunday, Herrera and his family joined tens of thousands from his homeland along West 26th Street from Albany to Kostner Avenues to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. The day, known in Spanish as Dieciseis de Septiembre, marks the onset of Mexico’s revolution in 1810, which led to freedom from Spanish rule.
Carrying a full-size Mexican flag and smiling broadly, Herrera cried out “Viva Mexico,” the words that are believed to have launched the revolution.
With his wife, Maribel, Herrera, 55, has tried to pass on to his four children their culture and values, from the norteno and mariachi music that blared from live bands and radio stations during the parade to the importance of family, while learning English and American ways of life.
“We have two cultures,” said their daughter Tamara Herrera, 26, who joined her parents with boyfriend Javier Abasta and their son, Jacob, 3.
Both born in Chicago, the young couple now live in a Berwyn home where pictures of the Virgin de Guadalupe share space on their walls with a replica John F. Kennedy campaign poster.
A tortilla griddle often sits on their stove, but they are as likely to cook meatloaf or pasta. They root for the Chicago Cubs as well as Los Tigres, or The Tigers, of Monterrey.
“The essence of being Mexican is, No. 1, family and culture,” Abasta said.
“And food,” said his girlfriend.
“Yes,” said Abasta. “The first thing my mother asks when she calls is, ‘Son, what have you eaten?'”
The young couple pointed to Jacob, who wore a broad straw hat while sitting atop his uncle’s shoulders, and boasted that he, too, is bilingual and will grow up knowing both cultures.
Floats advertising prepaid phone-card companies and Western clothing shops, carrying Hispanic politicians and real estate agents reflected the many ways that those around this three-generation family also live in two cultures.
Now a U.S. citizen, Francisco Herrera says he carries both countries’ flags in his Chevrolet Blazer. The former dishwasher graduated college in Chicago with a business degree and now is a loan officer.
If thoughts of the modern push to revise immigration laws were on paradegoers’ minds, they didn’t show it during the celebration. Many shuffled and swayed in place and munched on flavored ice or fried pork skin with lime and hot sauce. Some, such as Rosa Rodriguez, 50, had fashioned the Mexican flag into clothing, wearing a dress cut from the red, white and green banner.
“They take the holiday more seriously in Mexico,” Rodriguez, who lives in Berwyn, said in Spanish. “They know what they’re celebrating over there. Here — not so much.”
Like many, Maria Correa, 48, of Geneva thought she would never see the parade as she, her two daughters and three grandchildren looked for parking in the congested residential area near the parade. But with their car parked, Correa beamed as she watched everything from men dressed as Aztecs to a group of ROTC cadets pass by.
“I feel like I’m in Mexico,” she said, then pointed to her grandchildren in strollers. “We want to let our children know the significance of our culture.”
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mfergus@tribune.com
