Christian Hubbard of Oswego came to Aurora Monday morning for the raising of the Mexican flag during a ceremony to honor Mexican Independence Day.
“I was telling my colleague here a while ago how cool it is to make this culture feel celebrated, visible, seen, uplifted and it’s a really cool thing that we do,” Hubbard said as he stood at One Aurora Plaza in downtown Aurora for the ceremony.
“We have all sorts of walks of life being celebrated right here at the plaza,” he said. “This community is for everybody.”
Aurora holds a number of flag-raising events throughout the year to recognize different cultures and communities within the city.
Monday’s ceremony honoring the city’s Mexican community included remarks from city officials and a mayoral proclamation as well as a number of entertainers that featured special mariachi guests including youth singer Diego Rodolfo Trillo Valdez, the Mariachi Monumental de Mexico group, and a larger-than-life mariachi robot.
In addition, the annual Viva Excellence Awards were given out before the flag was raised.
Aurora Chief Engagement and Equity Officer Clayton Muhammad spoke before Monday’s ceremony, noting that “the Mexican community is one of the largest communities here in Aurora.”
“We look forward to celebrating the independence of Mexico and many of our families are directly from Mexico even though some were born here – there are many with direct ties to the motherland,” he said. “It’s very important that we celebrate all cultures and look forward to celebrating the 214th Independence Day of Mexico as we also kick off Hispanic Heritage Month.”
Muhammad said the community continues to embrace the many cultural celebrations offered in Aurora, noting that each group “is proud of who they are and where they come from.”
“People are proud that Aurora celebrates the way they do. We find representation across the board,” he said. “Cultural celebrations attract people from throughout the area. When we celebrate cultures people invite their friends and family to celebrate with them.”
Hundreds gathered near the plaza as the ceremony began Monday morning.
Gil Rios of the Aurora Hispanic Advisory Board said the flag-raising event is “awesome.”
“It’s so neat (the city) is doing this and people are showing up. It is awesome we are celebrating this event here in the city of Aurora,” Rios said. “This is very inclusive and there will be a lot of other people here. Everybody comes out to celebrate today. We have the theme of ‘One Aurora’ and I feel this enhances that whole thing. We’ve had ceremonies for other groups and everybody is included.”
Laura Ayala of Naperville said the event “represents the independence of Mexico – 214 years and it means for us how to come and grow together and become one community.”
Iliana Rivera of Aurora spoke proudly about her heritage at the event.
“I am a very proud Latina and Mexican and my parents were both from Mexico and we are very rooted in our culture and very proud – hence that’s why I’m dressed like this to represent that,” she said while sporting a colorful dress. “We get to honor our flag and here in Aurora, with our hometown and our people, this is a beautiful and meaningful thing for all of us here. I feel like we have always tried for inclusivity here and I think we’ve seen more and more of that in recent years.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
