Chicago to cancel its Mexican Independence Day celebration

WEST CHICAGO, Ill. (CBS) – A western suburb with a sizable Mexican-American population has been forced to cancel its Mexican Independence Day celebration this September.
WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports it would have been the fourth year for the Mexican Independence Day festival in West Chicago, but officials said Thursday it was being cancelled, due to an insufficient number of volunteers to run it, and vendors to sell food and other goods during the event.
Deputy City Clerk Valeria Lopez said more than half of West Chicago’s 27,000 residents are Mexican American, so she was surprised not many people wanted to be part of the celebration.


“We were hoping that we get more vendors this year, and unfortunately we did not,” she said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have any volunteers to help coordinate and manage the event.”
Lopez said not many vendors wanted to take part, at least partly because last year’s festival was abruptly called off because of bad weather.
She said Acting Mayor Ruben Pineda plans to address those concerns by proposing a rain-or-shine Mexican Independence Day Celebration next year.
“We will definitely try again next year. We’re going to budget for the event, and hopefully we will get more volunteers and vendors to participate,” Lopez said.