The 101st annual Mexican Independence Day parade went on peacefully Sunday in East Chicago in the face of heightened federal immigration enforcement nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t nobody steal our joy,\u201d Mayor Anthony Copeland said just as he hopped into a parade car. \u201cThis country is made of immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along the route, Mexican flags lined the streets. One float had Ballet Folklorico Yolotzin\u00a0dancers and was followed at the end with horses.<\/p>\n
![\"Maya,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-3.jpg\")
Maya, a xoloitzcuintli dog, painted and dressed for the festivities, stands up against her owner, East Chicago resident Rosie Diaz, during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Mexican, it\u2019s like a family reunion,\u201d said Rolando Ruiz, 48, of Valparaiso.<\/p>\n
Sitting at his parents\u2019 home on Parrish Avenue, he said they were going to a neighbor\u2019s cookout. He estimated since the late 1990s, the crowds have become \u201cless and less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A lot of that had to do with East Chicago\u2019s population gradually shrinking over the years.<\/p>\n
![\"Ballet](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-7.jpg\")
Ballet Folklorico Yolotzin members, donning stylized Trajes de Concheros, perform on a float during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are traveling,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are afraid of the situation with ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opinions varied on crowd size, whether more people stayed home than last year. Others said the crowds were about the same.<\/p>\n
Those who can come out and celebrate their culture should show up and be a \u201cvoice for the voiceless,\u201d Uni\u00f3n Ben\u00e9fica Mexicana President Marino Solorio said afterwards by phone.<\/p>\n
The current immigration climate was his generation\u2019s \u201ccall to action,\u201d he said. When the parade began a century ago, the community was organizing as they faced deportations. It shouldn\u2019t be taken for granted, Solorio said, hoping a future UBM leader was somewhere \u201cin that parade.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"East](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-4.jpg\")
East Chicago resident Amara Alcazar, 17, holds up a Mexican flag as she celebrates during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Also known as Fiestas Patrias, the parade in East Chicago was only cancelled a few times in the past century \u2014 during World War II, after 9\/11 and early in the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Solorio told the Post-Tribune previously that being a city in a Republican state may help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot let our voices be silenced,\u201d he told the Post-Tribune last week.<\/p>\n
Lizette Magallanes, of Valparaiso, lined up in a car for her second year as Queen of Fiestas Patrias.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-9.jpg\")
A Bishop Noll marching band member, wearing face paint in colors of the Mexican flag, plays the trumpet during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were not sure we\u2019d do it,\u201d said Elvia Franzese, a UBM trustee, sitting with her. They made the call to \u201cgo ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Iman Tenorio, dressed as La Catrina \u2013 clad with flowers in her hair in a traditional red, green and white dress with D\u00eda de los Muertos makeup \u2013 said it was her first year, coming down from Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always ready to represent our culture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Down the parade route, mom Marie Alcazar, 44, waited for her favorite \u2014 the horses \u2014 as her daughter Amara, 17, carried a Mexican flag. Alcazar said she\u2019d been coming to the parade almost her whole life.<\/p>\n
![\"Parade](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-13.jpg\")
Parade participants ride horses as onlookers wave during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you appreciate it more,\u201d the mother said.<\/p>\n
Just over half of East Chicago\u2019s roughly 25,000 residents are Latino, according to the U.S. Census.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame Assistant History Professor Emiliano Aguilar, an East Chicago native who has written extensively on the parade\u2019s historic and cultural importance, noted E.C. has the highest Hispanic population percentage in any city in Indiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cEast Chicago and the regional Mexican community have, with a few years serving as an exception, long continued this tradition in the face of threats like repatriation, urban renewal, and deportation,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cFor East Chicago, Fiestas Patrias is not just a celebration of independence, but a way of highlighting their resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Parade](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTB-L-FIESTAS-PATRIAS-0914-6.jpg\")
Parade participants wave from a car during the 101st annual Fiestas Patrias parade on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (Kyle Telechan\/for the Post-Tribune)<\/p>\n
He credited Indiana Historical Society curator Nicole Martinez-LeGrand for helping to bring into the forefront that the 100th anniversary was last year.<\/p>\n
As a kid, he recalled his grandparents, UBM members Francisco and Rosalia Aguilar, lining up for the parade. Later as an academic, he was motivated to research the history of Latinos in the Midwest that he hadn\u2019t learned much of in school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember in high school, when the festival was moved to Tod Park, my grandfather sat in his pickup truck overnight to watch the stalls, stages, and equipment being set up early,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI remember going through photos with my aunts at family events, and the number of photos they had of the family at the parade showed a story of the importance of this tradition for our family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Illinois, Mexican Independence Day parades in Chicago\u2019s Little Village neighborhood and suburban Waukegan were scheduled to go on as planned Sunday, according to media reports. By contrast, El Grito Chicago, a two-day Mexican Independence Day festival at Grant Park that drew 24,000 in 2024, was postponed as the Trump administration appeared to target the city for immigration raids, per the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n
Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d last week in Chicago, targeting illegal immigrants. That came days after President Donald Trump posted in a meme on social media that the city would become \u201cChipocalypse Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the smell of deportations in the morning,\u201d he wrote. \u201cChicago about to find out why it\u2019s called the Department of WAR.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later backtracked on the comments, saying he wanted to fight crime. However, since the National Guard were sent last month to Washington D.C. to do the same, the Associated Press estimated over 40% were immigration arrests.<\/p>\n
Trump recently told Fox News last week he wanted to send National Guard troops instead to Memphis.<\/p>\n
Trump said Friday he \u201cwould have preferred going to Chicago,\u201d where local politicians have fiercely resisted his plans, but suggested the city was too \u201chostile\u201d with \u201cprofessional agitators.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed.<\/p>\n