Hundreds of people celebrated Mexican Independence Day with music, food and dance in Waukegan as the city hosted unprecedented back-to-back parades Sunday.
Despite inclement weather that delayed the processions for more than an hour, each parade carried on with the familiar scenes and sounds of horns blaring, mariachi music blasting and brightly colored marchers decked out in garb that represents their culture.
In the background, though, was a feud brewing for months leading up to the celebrations between the two organizers, due to each wanting to be solely in charge of planning the parade.
The hostility between Oscar Zepeda, who organized the Desfile de Independencia, and Margaret Carrasco, who organized Fiestas Patrias, also divided crowds, not so much at the parades — as the route was the same and one followed the other — but at the festivals.
That has resulted in talks about the city taking over the organizing of the parade in the future, Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor said.
Waukegan police deputy chief Scott Chastain said that thanks to an unprecedented amount of preplanning of extra city resources for the two parades, only two arrests were made Sunday, and both were off-site from the parades and festivals.
But Taylor said that if it takes twice as much of the city’s staff to pull off a safe event, it does make sense to look at the option of the city taking it over.
The parades were different this year, too, due to the division and the decision from City Council to host both parades on the same day. Less participants were allowed to march and there were no horses, which are a staple of Mexican culture.
For parade-goer Osmar Lamadrid, that resulted in an experience that was not up-to-par in terms of what the event should be.
“This is kind of silly,” he said.
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Now, the city’s risk-management team will evaluate how the events went, Taylor said. Based on that information, officials will make a decision on whether the two will happen again next year, or if there will be another way to celebrate.
“The city is very proud of this celebration,” Taylor said. “But this division is not what this community is about.”
Both Zepeda and Carrasco said they will put in an application for their parade next year.
There were mixed reviews from festivalgoers and parade-watchers.
Some said they were confused as to why there were separate simultaneous celebrations after the parades. Others had no clue there was another celebration elsewhere.
Some of those interviewed said they wished the leadership in Waukegan wouldn’t always boil down to politics, and instead focus on the residents.
Both organizers had criticized the City Council ‘s approval of the other’s event. They both said it was the council that divided the community with the decision to allow both instead of only theirs.
“It’s ridiculous to be dividing people like this when it’s supposed to be an occasion that unites everyone,” said Maria Calderon, a vendor at the festival organized by Zepeda, which was held on city property on Sheridan Road.
Both organizers are deeply involved in the Waukegan Hispanic community. Zepeda runs a bilingual newspaper, while Carrasco is the head organizer of the Fiestas Patrias organization that hosted the annual parade in previous years.
Zepeda cited a need for a more educational take on the event and in wanting to host, and Carrasco wanted to keep things the same, as far as leadership.
“We want to give the community what they deserve,” he said, “which is a better quality parade that promotes the culture and teaches youth what the celebration is about.”
After the event, Zepeda said he was happy with the turnout and the results.
“I did what I said I would do,” he said. “The message I saw was clear: family is first in our community. I saw that family unity.”
Carrasco said her parade and festival did just that and educated people about how Mexico declared its independence from Spain, with marchers and floats representing Spaniards attacking and Mexicans defending themselves.
She said her events were, “a clear slap on the face of the mayor,” whom she added was unsupportive of her efforts to provide the community with a celebration of their Hispanic culture. She said she’ll take her plight to court if she has to.
“We will have horses next year, I assure you,” Carrasco said.
Waukegan resident Maria Garcia, who had planned to go to all of the festivities, said she just wants her children to enjoy traditions she grew up with, no matter where they live and no matter who is behind the organizations.