Countywide : Fair Celebrates Cultural Diversity

Dozens of children dressed in elaborate, handmade costumes twirled and swirled to ethnic tunes Thursday afternoon as Santa Ana residents munched on traditional foods from Samoa, Greece, Korea, China, Thailand, Mexico and the United States.

Surrounded by flags of the 50 states at the Plaza of the Flags, about 100 people gathered for the city’s first ethnic fair to celebrate October as Cultural Diversity Month. Sponsored by the city Human Relation Commission, the fair’s free food and the dancers’ vibrant costumes attracted a crowd to the Civic Center plaza.

“I think it’s great that everybody doesn’t think they’re better than everybody else,” said 14-year-old Marlene Fernandez, a 10th-grader who led a trio in a Hungarian folk dance, complete with tambourines. “Everyone is equal no matter what their coloring.”