At Painesville’s Cinco de Mayo festival in northeast Ohio, a troupe of folkloric dancers prepared to take the floor.
They held up full, brightly colored skirts decorated with ribbons of red, green, blue and purple and waited for the music to start. Then, they spun and swooshed their skirts, creating swirls of color through the air.
Daniela Nicasio and Rosario Chavez have been dancing like this for years.
“It's very important because it's us trying to express our culture,” Nicasio translated for Chavez. “It's our roots, it's our life.”
They perform at Christmas, Mexican Independence Day and Cinco de Mayo — the holiday that recognizes the Mexican army’s victory over the French in an 1862 battle.
Painesville’s Hispanic community
In Lake County, east of Cleveland, the Hispanic population is one of the largest in the state, with more than 12,000 residents as of 2023.
“The city [of Painesville] is now about a third Hispanic and the schools are more than 50% Hispanic,” said Veronica Isabel Dahlberg, the executive director of HOLA Ohio, a nonprofit that helps Latino families, farm workers and immigrants.
It organized this Cinco de Mayo fiesta — the city’s third. Although the itinerary changed because of rain, its schedule was originally packed with Mexican traditions like lucha libre wrestling, Tex-Mex music, homemade pinatas and lots of Mexican food.
“All of that is important,” Dahlberg said. “It really adds to the cultural fabric of the United States and it's something we should be very proud of in this country.”
Celebration cancellations
This year, though, cities like Chicago and Philadelphia cancelled their Cinco de Mayo parades, citing fears over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
While Toledo still hosted its Cinco de Mayo celebration at the zoo, organizers told the city’s newspaper, The Toledo Blade, that they worried some people would be too nervous to attend.
Dahlberg says that’s not the case in Painesville.
"We're not scared to live here and we're not scared period,” she said. “Yes, there's a lot of rhetoric, there's some bad things going on, but we're going to continue to live our lives. We're not going to hide.
“Our community, they're very hard working, family-oriented. We're busy. People are going to work, they're having their quinceañeras and life goes on. So, same thing with Cinco de Mayo.”
And despite the rain, community members turned out.
Scenes from Painesville’s Cinco de Mayo fiesta
The sidewalks were lined with vendors selling hand painted sacred hearts and alebrijes — tiny carvings of brightly colored fantastical animals.
Nearby, a row of food trucks sold quesadillas, tacos, street corn and artisanal ice cream.
Diana Guzman and her mom brought their food truck from Sandusky, an hour and a half west.
“Where we're at, there's hardly any Hispanics,” she said. “So to come and see all our community is good.”
Maricela Daza Manejadora stood under her tent with stacks of intricately embroidered hats and bags from Latin America. In Spanish, she explained she takes her business, Latin Minga, to cultural festivals like this all over northeast Ohio.
“I think that we can get together, get to know each other a little more, enjoy the flavors, enjoy traditional dances,” she said. “I think it's very important because that way little by little we are becoming part of the community of Painesville and other places.”
Although rain may have lowered turnout, organizer Veronica Dahlberg says the impact of this Cinco de Mayo fiesta isn’t limited to just one day in May: The collaboration that leads up to it — and the cultural understanding that results — makes the community stronger too.
