A Day To Escape

If you go outside, red, white and blue are everywhere on the Fourth. If you think too hard about the state of the country or aridification in the state, you may not be able to just enjoy the holiday off.

A story last year from AP described the difficulty some had celebrating the nation's birth during "what some people of color consider troubling times," and this year is no different.

But getting together with family, eating and watching fireworks can, in its own way, be an escape.

"I think tomorrow will be a day to escape the reality of the news," says Roberto Paredes, a cashier at the Amigos Latinos Casa de Cambio market on Airport Road. He brings up the separation of children from their parents by border agents in recent weeks.

"You can't separate families just because you want to," Paredes says. "It's violating international law. Everyone has the right to be with their kids."

Amigos Latinos will close early Wednesday for the holiday, around 6 pm . Paredes says he'll be with his family and that they'll barbecue, something they do most years on the Fourth. He celebrates the holiday even with so much prejudice emanating from the federal government toward immigrants, particularly from Latin America.

Some, he says, "have the mentality that Europeans immigrants are coming to do good for the country but that Latinos are here to do bad.  This is a lie and it's false."

Others along Airport Road won't get much of a break tomorrow. Javier Perez, a road worker who lives in Albuquerque standing in front of Familia Mexicana, tells SFR he tries to work six days a week during the summer because jobs dry up in the winter.

"I didn't know about it," Perez says in Spanish, referring to the Fourth of July. He has a job tomorrow in Española. "Right now, I'm just trying to work as much as possible."

"I want to be a citizen, I have to learn a lot of things about America and its history," says Ruiz, who is from Mexico.

Due to severe and extreme drought, the city in May banned the sale and use of certain fireworks including aerial spinners, Roman candles, rockets, and ground-based exploders, but included a provision that public displays of fireworks were an exception. Last month, Santa Fe County prohibited the sale and use of similar fireworks, and the Pueblo of Pojoaque announced it would halt the sale of fireworks in support of the resolution.

Mayor Alan Webber tweeted a list of legal fireworks today, including smoke emitters, sparklers, wheel spinners and others.

Anybody in the city is welcome to attend the fireworks show taking place outside the Santa Fe mall, organized by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe.

Katia Amaya, who is in town from El Salvador visiting family, says she plans to watch the show from their Southside home tomorrow. Their store, Latinos Unidos Mini Market, will still be open, and family members will take turns leaving the house to tend to the store.

"Everyone knows the Fourth of July is the American independence day," Amaya tells SFR. "We have a similar thing in El Salvador on September 15. It's a patriotic day."

Stopping to eat a torta at the Taqueria La Hacienda food truck, Alex Rodriguez, who is in town from Los Angeles, says his ministry Victory Outreach will be hosting a celebration tomorrow at the Glorieta Camps for teenagers from across the country. Instead of fireworks, he says, they'll have a "glow in the dark Christian rap concert" as the main event.

"Black lights everywhere, neon lights glow in the dark clothes," Rodriguez says.

Santa Fe's Fourth of July Celebration
6 – 10 PM Wednesday July 4. Free.
Santa Fe Place mall, 4250 Cerrillos Road