¡Viva Lodi!

Chamber Hispanic Business Committee to host big Cinco de Mayo celebration

Hispanic Business Committee members of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce were talking in December about how to raise more money to fund scholarships for deserving Hispanic high school seniors when the idea arose to have a big Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Mirna Ruiz

Committee members thought it was a great idea, and the December meeting was followed up by a major brainstorming session in January, said committee chairwoman Mirna Ruiz.

One thing led to another, and the 50-member committee developed a schedule of entertainment, children's activities and informational booths highlighting Lodi's Hispanic businesses.

The Cinco de Mayo celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday on the west lawn at Hutchins Street Square. There will also be a buffet dinner. No alcohol will be served.

"The feeling was that we should be doing this for families," Ruiz said.

Saturday's Cinco de Mayo is not Lodi's first such event, but it is the largest so far, Ruiz said. This year's two scholarships will be in the memory of Elena Yukary Sanchez, a 12-year-old Lodi girl who was recently killed in an accident.

Ruiz, a News-Sentinel advertising representative, was named to chair the chamber's Hispanic Business Committee this year. The committee was formed in 2004 to serve Hispanic business people and give their businesses greater exposure.

The committee boasts about 50 members, Ruiz said. Committee members may change the meeting time â€" 8 a.m. on the first Tuesday of each month â€" because many business owners are too busy opening their stores for the day and cannot attend the board meetings, she said.

To better serve Hispanic business owners, the committee is looking to create a pamphlet in Spanish to explain basic information about the chamber and Hispanic Business Committee. An application for chamber membership would also be enclosed.

"Being on the committee is one of the most interesting things in my life," Ruiz said. "You just keep learning."

Ruiz grew up in San Jose and once worked in health and social services for the Head Start program in two counties. She served 64 low-income families in San Jose.

Because she couldn't afford to live in San Jose as a single mother, Ruiz moved in 2000 to Las Vegas, where she was an administrative assistant for a tour bus company and a social worker at a homeless shelter.

She left Las Vegas after one year because she said it is a bad place to raise children. That brought her to Lodi five years ago, where her mother and uncle live.

Ruiz was an office manager for a furniture manufacturer in Stockton before joining the News-Sentinel three years ago.

Ruiz now lives in Lodi with her husband, Edwin Ruiz, a forklift driver, and two daughters, Marlena, 13, and Azjah, 4. A son, Nick, 15, lives with his father in South San Francisco.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.