Flu can't stop Cinco de Mayo

Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune

Left to right, Araceli Dicostanzo, Victoria Pineiro, Adrian Gomez, and Angelica Villegas primped as they waited for their cue to go on stage to perform traditional Mexican dances with the Los Alegres Bailadores at the annual Cinco De Mayo Festivities along Cesar Chavez Drive.

The sun was shining, the crowds were festive and no flu masks were in sight at St. Paul's annual celebration.

By BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Last update: May 2, 2009 - 8:43 PM

There wasn't a flu mask in sight as thousands of people turned out Saturday for Cinco de Mayo and the Festival of Nations, two of St. Paul's biggest community gatherings of the year.

"You gotta live. You can 't stay home and live in fear," said Brynetta Benner of St. Paul, who was walking the streets of the West Side's Mexican festival, versions of which were canceled in other cities.

Benner, who was at the festival for the seventh year in a row with her husband, Brad, and son, Brad Jr., said their biggest concern had been that others might stay home. But by midday Cesar Chavez Street was thronged with people clearly enjoying the food, music and sunny May skies. Many said the crowd was about as big as they'd seen in previous years.

"We're still shaking hands and hugging and meeting people," Brynetta Benner said.

But flu concerns weren't far beneath the surface. At the Minnesota Department of Health booth, two-thirds of a display board was devoted to flu awareness and prevention in two languages.

"Show me what you do when you cough," one attendant said to a mother pushing a 2-year-old in a stroller. On cue, Maria Torres of St. Paul coughed into her elbow.

"I am a little scared," said Torres, who showed that she'd stuffed a small bottle of hand sanitizer in the stroller. "But I feel safe in Minnesota, compared to California or Texas. And I'm trying to wash my hands frequently."

Similarly, Oscar Torres (no relation to Maria), had brought his three kids to the festival and said he'd had them sanitize their hands "twenty times." He'd also brought gloves and a mask, but left them in his truck. What made him decide it was OK to come at all?

"Cinco de Mayo is only one day a year," he said. "It's tradition."

Also unseen at Cinco de Mayo were the blue and silver colors of Sureno 13, a gang whose members were under a court injunction against wearing colors or flashing signs at the festival. St. Paul police gang unit Sgt. Kevin Moore said gang members were in the crowd, "but they're acting great." As of midday Saturday there had been no arrests at the festival.

In the St. Paul Rivercentre, the most obvious signs of flu awareness at the Festival of Nations were the large yellow signs marking hand sanitizer dispensers on the walls. But Shartsi Musherure, who was working in an Ugandan crafts booth, said she'd forgotten about it until someone mentioned it at a sink in the bathroom.

"Everybody has it in the backs of their minds," Musherure said. "But so far, so good."

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646