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Arts & Entertainment

More Than 1,000 Flock to Immigrants Day Festival

Despite rain forcing the festival indoors, families enjoyed artists' performances and activities that represented the diverse population in San Mateo County.

For the first time, the threat of rain forced Redwood City’s popular Immigrants Day Festival indoors. The weather, however, failed to dampen the spirit of hundreds of people who attended Sunday’s event that honored the Peninsula’s pioneering ethnic groups by celebrating what they had in common as well as their diversity.

Despite the rain that moved the outdoor performances inside the historic old county courthouse, the sixth annual festival drew 1,143 people, according to Mitch Postel, president of the sponsoring San Mateo County Historical Association.

“Do you like it better inside?” Postel asked about 200 people who packed the courtroom where the dancers and singers performed. He was met by enthusiastic applause.

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In the past, the performing artists displayed their talent on a stage set up on Courthouse Square, a plaza lined with fountains and anchored at both ends by historic buildings. The old San Mateo County courthouse, dedicated in 1910 and now the museum’s home, stands at is the north end where it faces the Fox Theatre, a movie palace that opened in 1929.  Last year the festival drew 1,400 people, up from 1,100 in 2009, which was an increase from 1,000 in 2008, according to museum officials.

Sunday’s show highlighted music and dancers from China, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Russia, the Pacific Islands, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain and Portugal. The festival also featured food from around the world.  The dishes ranged from smoked salmon at the Irish table to traditional Chinese food.

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The “melting pot” theme of the festival was underscored by Midori Conlon, 10, and her sister, Briana, 8, of San Mateo. Both wore what their mother, Mayumi, described as “a traditional Japanese dress, but more casual,” but their father, Joe, noted that the girls are both members of an Irish dance group.

“Today most people recognize that San Mateo County is a very diverse place, with close to 30 percent of its population born in another country,” said Postel. “However, most people do not realize that as far back as 1880, 30 percent of the people of San Mateo County had been born in another country.”

A must is a stop at the museum’s permanent exhibit called  “Land of Opportunity: The Immigrant Experience in San Mateo County.” Each immigrant group has a display case that features clothing, food, music and artifacts from the past, all items that differed in form but were the same in function. Another gallery features the county’s earlier Native American and Hispanic pioneers, but on Sunday all groups were native Americans, as in natives of America.

Some exhibits may surprise. One, called “Strangers in a Strange Land,” recounts the well-known World War II internment of Japanese Americans, but it also shows that some Italians on the San Mateo coast were relocated.

“Every new wave of immigration to the United States has experienced alienation and discrimination,” reads the museum’s text. “Newly arrived immigrants struggle with new customs, culture, values, and language.”

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