CENTER – From an electronic bull, to thrilling children’s rides, facepainting, water gun fights, vendors, and food trucks, Center’s first-ever Mardi Gras all began in the morning with a colorful parade on Aug. 24.
The event saw about 150 people for the parade in the morning, and over 500 people throughout the day.
The theme for the event was chosen by Mayor Archie Gallegos. Gallegos said that it sounded like a fun theme, so they went with it. The parade was headed up by a Center Police Department patrol car glistening in the early morning sun, as they went down the main highway in Center, adjacent to Casa Blanca Park.
The main streets were lined with smiling adults and eager children, waiting with colorful sacks, for the different floats and people who would be tossing candy during the parade. The parade’s Grand Marshall, Judy Crawley, soon came down the road, smiling and waving from a classic white car.
Mayor Gallegos was also smiling and waving, while driving a black city truck in the parade. The Kiwanis Club of Center had an extremely impressive float, decked out in purple with a large golden, traditional Mardi Gras mask adorning the front of the float.
As the floats came down, lots of candy was thrown from the floats, and the children smiled happily, running into the streets, picking up the candy and loading it into their colored bags.
Each float and car in the parade was decked out with some form of Mardi Gras signage, and many of the people in the vehicles also gave out traditional Mardi Gras necklaces. Richard Garcia of the Poor Boy Car Club was seen in the parade, giving out necklaces to many attendees.
Casa Blanca Park was decked out with Mardi Gras balloons, and adults and children could be seen walking in the park and outside in the streets where the vendors were selling their wares, and many people could also be seen dancing in the streets to the live Spanish music band that was performing.
In the park's corner, the electronic bull was bucking and spinning around, with children and adults riding on it. Eight-year-old Jesus Vargas was on the bull, and after riding it for a bit stepped down with a laugh.
“I want to do that again, but my mom says I have to wait a minute,” he said with a smile. “She said I could get dizzy, but it's so fun.”
Resident Diane Martinez said the event was nice and hoped they would consider putting it on every year.
“Monte Vista has Stampede, and I know Del Norte has a big celebration too, we have events, but nothing really like this. I hope we can convince the Town of Center to put this on next year, everyone was so excited about the parade. My grandkids loved getting candy and checking out the floats. The kids' rides are just so cool. Yes, if Center keeps doing this, it would be a good thing for the town,” she said.
Valerie Atencio, a jewelry vendor at the event, said that she had a lot of interested people and it seemed like a good crowd.
“There’s been a few people out today, and I have done pretty good. This is a really nice event that the community put on,” she said.
