By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rio celebrated Chinese New Year with a parade, colorful costumes and dancing in the city’s historic downtown district on Saturday.
Businesswoman Diana Stern, wife of Del Rio attorney Jack Stern, walked at the head of the parade, which made its way from the intersection of Losoya
to the Sterns’ building in the 700 block of South Main Street, beginning about 10:30 a.m.
Stern brought the colorful tradition of celebrating the Chinese New Year with her when
she relocated to Del Rio more than 20 years ago.
The parade included Mayor Al Arreola and wife Myrella Arreola and others dressed in traditional Chinese costumes and decorative accessories like gold headpieces, caps and fans, walking along South Main with Stern, with groups of children, also dressed in
Chinese New Year parade. Rodriguez, a former Miss Val Verde, is now working as a
teacher at San Antonio’s MacArthur High School in San Antonio. (Photo by Karen
Gleason)
Chinese costumes and carrying fans or ribbons on sticks.
After the parade, Stern told The 830 Times, “It’s always exciting that I can bring a little
bit of the Chinese culture here. I’m really happy I’ve been able to do this for the last 20 years.”
Stern is still involved in the planning and execution of the event, but she has turned over much of the work to a family friend, another transplanted Del Rioan, Adva Chattler, who works remotely for a Jewish non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pa.
After the parade, Chattler told The 830 Times that when she learned Stern might not continue the tradition of Del Rio’s Chinese New Year celebration, she was happy to step in and do some of the heavy lifting.
Chattler said, “I think it’s wonderful to celebrate different ethnicities and cultures, and
just bringing the beauty of different cultures into the small city of Del Rio. We have
many different people that come here from all over the world, people who get stationed at
Laughlin Air Force Base; me, who came from Israel, and it’s just so nice to be able to
have a tradition like this that keeps going year after year.”
“I wish we had more Israelis, so we could do an Israeli parade, but just having the Chinese New Year celebration is amazing, and I’m really happy to be able to support
something so important, that’s been done for so long,” Chattler added.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, began on Jan. 29, and, according to the Chinese zodiac, began “the Year of the Wood Snake.”
Reach the writer at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
Chinese New Year celebrations because it symbolizes good luck and prosperity, walk in
the Chinese New Year parade. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
