Roots

Dear Reader,

Despite the fact that it was Cinco de Mayo, I decided that I would rather go to the Apple Picking Festival in Chinatown. I have not been doing a very good job of celebrating my Mexican heritage lately. For Mexican Flag Day I went to an Italian restaurant and ate hamburgers. Pretty much everything is wrong with that sentence. But in my defense, I don't really know anyone that celebrates flag day anyways.I think the real reason I chose the Chinese festival though is because last semester I did a whole photo series on Chinatown and ever since then the neighborhood has been one of my favorite places to go and think. Something about it feels so familiar, safe, almost like home. My favorite spot is this park they have by the river. They cherry blossoms were in bloom, but I am guessing they are gone by now. 

Anyways, this festival was a lot better than the other events I have been to in Chinatown. It was a complete Asian Heritage festival so there was a variety of different performers and it lasted about 3 hours straight. It actually started and ended on time and everything seemed to run smoothly. I remember the last time I went to photograph a parade in Chinatown . It was February, freezing cold, and the whole thing started 45 minutes late. Nobody really showed up to be in the parade so they had to have a few of the groups go through the line-up a second time just to make the parade longer. 


Everything this day was pretty good though, but of course my favorite performance of the day was the Kung Fu demonstration. As a whole the performance was very entertaining, but the best part was watching the amount of talent the little kids had. I actually went to the performing school to train last semester and took a class with all of the younger students once. They were running all over the place and did not seem to have any interest in listening to the instructors whatsoever, but once they step on that stage they seem to change into another person. Complete focus, intricate yet graceful movements, and speed. Speed being something I severely lacked. I look at them and hope I can be that good when I grow up lol.

I really enjoyed the festival, but there was something bittersweet about the whole thing. After each performance you would see the groups walking around after, hanging out, teasing each other or talking about how everything went. I remember when I used to do performances like this a couple years ago with my Taekwondo school. While many of us joined the demonstration team for different reasons, everyone stayed because of the relationships. The best part of performances usually took place before and after we even stepped on stage. I was surprised how everyone cleared out so fast after everything was done too. Within ten minutes all the chairs and microphones were cleaned up and everyone went on with their everyday business as if nothing had even happened. Yet there I stood alone with my camera. I seem to think about my life and the people I knew in high school a lot. I wonder if they ever think about me.

Unfortunately this seems to be one of the main things holding me back right now, how I keep focusing on things in the past. Guess that will have to be something I work on this summer. Lets both keep looking forward though, I think there is still so much more to come.

Signing out for today,
Gonzalo

Before the performances even started these two caught my eye

  

 Always entertaining, but not quite sure why they seem to be at all of the Chinatown events

Traditional Japanese Dancer

Waiting to Perform

 

The Leader of the Group

Bollywood Dancers

Motion

Thai Dancer

Dance about avoiding bamboo traps in the fields

Filipino Dancer

Indonesian Performers, I think...

Korean Drum Dance

Sword Form

Kung Fu Kid

It takes a certain powerful grace to pull off a fan form

Inverted

Staff Form

One of the instructors

Hard to keep a calm face when you just broke two metal bars apart with your head