San Jose celebrates Mexican Independence Day with security boost

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The streets of downtown San Jose bursting with pride and unity for Mexican Independence Day.

People from all over the Bay Area came out on Monday in front of City Hall to commemorate and connect to their heritage.

Robert Valdez drove from Santa Cruz.

"It's a rich culture, the food, the music, the art," Valdez said.

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Amid heightened immigration enforcement, other celebrations in California have either been scaled back or canceled - including one in Sacramento.

"There's a lot of uncertainty up in the air so you know while we have it, we should take advantage of our freedom and our community," Valdez said.

Apolonia Cortez said she was happy to see this El Grito event continued.

"I feel very proud to be able to celebrate for those who can't and to show representation that we're not going away - we're all here and there's a lot of us," Cortez said.

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Jesus Flores is the president of the organization that hosted the event. This year, they doubled security.

"We have armed police officers, we also have private security and again this is all to protect our community to be safe try to make it as safe as possible. We're just trying to do the best we can for our community, show that we belong," Flores said.

Attendees tell ABC7 News this year, the crowd is a lot thinner than in previous years but it doesn't take away the joy of celebrating.

San Jose Jeanette Nava brought her daughter - she wanted to show her the culture.

"Being with family I think that's the most important thing," Nava said.