A bell rang as Christian Tonatiuh González Jiménez waved a large Mexican flag on the balcony of California’s Capitol building.
“Viva México! Viva México!” the consul general of Mexico in Sacramento yelled several times, reenacting the cry that ignited the fight for Mexico’s independence in 1810.
Unlike previous years, the ceremony commemorating Mexican Independence Day in the capital of the Golden State was brief, and organizers opted to forgo a festival that previously drew dozens of vendors and large crowds.
The celebration in Sacramento was among several honoring Mexican Independence Day and Hispanic Heritage Month that took place as planned or in scaled-down versions across the United States even as fears of immigration raids loom large in the community.
“It’s smaller but still powerful. Still powerful, because as long as there’s one Mexican, there’s community, there will be power, there will be pride,” González Jiménez told CNN affiliate KCRA.
The second Trump administration has been marked by a broader crackdown on immigration, with officials carrying out arrests during routine immigration checks, at immigration court and at worksites.
“Regardless of the situation, regardless of all these deportations and stuff, we are here together to celebrate Mexican independence,” Deziree Pulido told CNN affiliate KCAL when she attended a parade in East Los Angeles on September 14.
Like Pulido, crowds of attendees lined the streets to see musicians performing banda and mariachi music, followed by groups in traditional charro attire riding their horses and ballet folklórico dancers spinning in their long, colorful skirts.
The East LA parade’s grand marshal and former NASA astronaut José Hernández rode in a convertible during the celebration. Hernández, a Mexican American engineer who grew up as a migrant farmworker in California, offered a few words of encouragement.
“The time to prepare is now, politics is like a pendulum and opportunities will present themselves, let’s just be prepared to take advantage of them when they do come!” he wrote in a Facebook post.
In Illinois, Olga Cook wore a Mexico baseball jersey as she stood on a sidewalk in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood next to her husband, proud to see many people attended the celebration in the city earlier this month.
“It shows we have faith that everything is going to be okay, even though the (Trump) administration is doing everything to pull us out, but our community is very strong and we believe that we’re gonna overcome these issues,” Cook told CNN affiliate WBBM.
Seeing the Mexican and US flags flying side by side, Cook said, shows how “the US has opened doors to other countries and we can grow together,” WBBM reported.
Several other celebrations in the Windy City and its suburbs were postponed, citing safety concerns amid immigration enforcement operations.
Meanwhile at the historic Chicano Park in San Diego, the immigrant advocacy group Unión del Barrio hosted a celebration titled “El Grito de Resistencia,” meaning cry of resistance in Spanish.
After working for months training teachers about immigration rights, speaking with concerned parents and launching community patrols monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s activities, the group and the community gathered to celebrate their heritage with music and performances surrounded by the murals depicting Chicano culture and history.
“We will not be silenced, we will not be erased,” a teacher told attendees, standing under the park’s green, white and red gazebo.
“We live in fear only when we believe we are alone. But look around, we are not alone, we are connected by our ancestors, by our historia, by our culture, by our blood, and in that connection lies our power,” she added.