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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody. We will end today talking about how some Mexican New Yorkers and others mark the day and how those celebrations reflect the culture, history, and regional diversity of Mexican life in Mexico and Mexican life in the city. My guest is Maria Ponce Sevilla, director of development at Mixteca, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that supports Mexican and Latin American immigrant communities.
We'll talk, among other things, about how the Mexican population in New York has evolved, which Mexicans do and which Mexicans don't make a big thing out of Cinco de Mayo, what traditions different regions bring with them and even how Cinco de Mayo might feel to people in the age of mass deportation. Hi, Maria. Welcome to WNYC.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Hi, Brian. Thank you for the invitation.
Brian Lehrer: Listeners, if you celebrate Cinco de Mayo in any way, call up and tell everybody else how. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You want to introduce our listeners to Mixteca and the work you do?
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Yes. Thank you, Brian. Mixteca is located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Our mission is to enrich, equip, and empower the Latinx and Indigenous community in Brooklyn and New York City. We help immigrants achieve their dreams and thrive through dynamic, culturally-centered programming. We offer services in Spanish and several Indigenous languages.
This is a very special year for us. We are going to be celebrating our 25th anniversary on September 25th, celebrating the programming that goes beyond immigrant justice and advocacy, education and skill building, workforce development, mental health services, and health and wellness services for Latinx immigrants in New York City.
Brian Lehrer: Very important. Can I ask, as a little bit of a detour, how anything that's going on in Washington affects your work, whether it's funding or anything else?
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Unfortunately, like many other nonprofits in New York City, our funding is affected due to some of the grants being pulled and just what is going on in general in the federal government in the state. This is also a really important year for us because we will just have to work really hard due to the issues with the funding. Obviously, we are also one of the nonprofits in the city whose payments are delayed, but recently, there was news from the Adams administration, so we're hoping to get more information on that that will hopefully help and sustain our work for the next few years.
Brian Lehrer: Well, I hope it goes okay. Let's take a Cinco de Mayo call. Kenny in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kenny.
Kenny: Hey, Brian. We love you all over New York. Cinco de Mayo has been a staple in our family. Although we're Puerto Rican, we know the whole history of it when Mexico won the battle and Napoleon III from France was deposed. My niece, Emily Edis, turns 20. She was born 05/05/2005, exactly 20 years ago, at 5:57. I want to wish Emily a happy birthday, but to all my Mexican American brothers and sisters in the Bronx, we love you, and que viva Cinco de Mayo.
Brian Lehrer: Kenny, thank you very much. What a great birthday, 05/05/05. Maria, tell people who don't know what Cinco de Mayo really does celebrate. Kenny just referred to part of it, and I think a lot of people confuse it with Mexican Independence Day, which it's not, right?
Maria Ponce Sevilla: It is not. Cinco de Mayo celebrates the battle in which Poblano, people from the state of Puebla, defeated the French army. Really, even in Mexico, it's not celebrated nationally. It is more of a state holiday. I know in Puebla, my niece and my nephew get the day off, but that doesn't happen throughout Mexico. No, it is not Mexican Independence Day. That takes place in September.
Brian Lehrer: Paco in Westbury has a Cinco de Mayo call. Hi, Paco, you're on WNYC.
Paco: Hi, so nice to be on the air with you, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: You are, I see, from Pueblo, which--
Paco: I'm so happy-- I am originally from Puebla City, yes.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, go ahead.
Paco: I am so happy that you have a guest of honor, I would say. I do own a Mexican bakery in Westbury called Panaderia, which is bakery, Panaderia & Café Don Paco. My father, Don Paco, he had his first shop in Brooklyn on 4th Avenue and 47th Street, Don Paco Lopez Panaderia, and it's been a very successful business. We are part of the community now. The Brooklyn Children's Museum, they have a replica of the bakery inside the museum.
Brian Lehrer: Nice.
Paco: Because of that, prior COVID, we used to do a lot of workshops. I used to do workshops on how to do different types of bread, kind of being an ambassador of the Mexican culture in our way. I'm so happy that Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated here, except that, like your guest was saying, it's not the Mexican Independence. It was a battle with the French. We defeated them, and it is an honor that these days why we celebrate it actually.
Brian Lehrer: Yes. In Mexico itself, Paco, is it mostly a Puebla thing, or do other parts of the country join in?
Paco: It's just a Puebla thing. We do have a big parade. We do have a big fair that lasts about a month. We do have different singers. Actually, Maroon 5 was there. It is only celebrated in Puebla City. All the schools from around the state come down to the capital, Puebla, for the big parade.
Brian Lehrer: Paco, loved your call. Thank you very much. Call us again. Maria, how would you describe the way Cinco de Mayo is celebrated across New York City, far from Puebla?
Maria Ponce Sevilla: [laughs] I think it's just a really good marketing ploy to sell liquor, to sell food, and why not? A lot of businesses, small businesses in Queens, Brooklyn, and the boroughs, see this as a big opportunity because a lot of people do go out and celebrate and spend money on food and spend money on drinks. I think it's also for the Mexican population.
For myself as a Poblana who immigrated here at the age of eight, it's joyous too to be able to now see the celebration of Mexicanness in so many different forms compared to back in '92 when I first immigrated here, and I was eight and things were hard to find. Cilantro would be sold by the pound, or we would have these vans who would drive around the boroughs. You knew when the van was coming that you were getting Mexican candy, Mexican products, compared to what we have today, where at your local deli, you're going to find all of these things.
Brian Lehrer: Because there are more people here, and it's not just the specialty shops that are going to find people wanting those things. How has New York's Mexican population shifted over that period of time that you just referred to? I think a lot of listeners may not realize how culturally diverse Mexican New York is.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Mexico has a diversity of language. We have over 62 Indigenous languages. Some of those are spoken here from people who have migrated from states like Oaxaca, Guerrero, Puebla, Chiapas. You'll find a Mexican Chiapas Indigenous population in Albany, New York. You'll find people from Guerrero who speak Mixteco, who speak Tu'un Savi. I think more of the diversity has migrated here to New York. I think it enriches our Spanish language, and it enriches the city as a whole.
Brian Lehrer: What are some specific cultural markers like language, music, dress, or food? I know that's a big question, but maybe single out one or two that people from different parts of Mexico bring with them and maintain here.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Well, one of the things, for example, is that-- I don't know if you know this, but New York is actually known as Puebla York.
Brian Lehrer: I've heard it.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: In Mexico, when you say you're coming from New York, it's like, "Oh, Puebla York," and when you're here, you say you're from Puebla. It's Puebla York.
Brian Lehrer: Right. It's like Nueva York, but there's so many people from Puebla, they say Puebla York. Go ahead.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Right, yes. It's schooling, it's languages, it's the way that intergenerational transmission is happening here with mothers who immigrated from Mexico or from Indigenous places in Mexico, and whose kids are now speaking three languages: English, Spanish, and Indigenous language. A large portion of the Mexican population also lives in mixed households, which may include grandma, grandpa, the kids, and the grandchildren, and that itself also brings a certain richness and a certain way of relating to one another.
Brian Lehrer: In our last minute, for people who want to go deeper beyond the parades and the parties, what would you encourage them to see or read or experience today or beyond today?
Maria Ponce Sevilla: I would say, if you're interested in volunteering, check out our website, mixteca.org, and you can participate in some of our programming. In 2012, the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute was started and is doing research and is doing work and is also doing a lot of cultural programming that is Mexican-related. Definitely check out our website, check out our events, check out our programming, and if you're free, come celebrate with us on September 25th for our 25th anniversary.
Brian Lehrer: Maria Ponce Sevilla, director of development at Mixteca, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that supports Mexican and Latin American immigrant communities. Thanks so much for coming on today, and happy Cinco de Mayo.
Maria Ponce Sevilla: Happy Cinco de Mayo, Brian. Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily Politics Podcast. Our intern this term is Henry Serringer. We had Shayna Sengstock and Matt Marando at the audio controls today. Megan Ryan is the head of Live Radio. Stay tuned for Alison.
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