Events showcase heritage of Hispanics

The church is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with festive events today and next weekend.

By LINDA M. LINONIS

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — People from ethnic backgrounds often want to preserve traditions of faith, food and music. Those customs contribute to the rich diversity of America.

As part of a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, a Spanish Food Fest is planned from noon to 7 p.m. today at St. Rose de Lima Church, 50 Struthers-Coitsville Road.

The church will hold Eldia de la Hispanidid (Day of Being Hispanic) from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 14.

Those attending today’s fest can feast on foods with a Spanish flavor including paspelillos, fried dough with ground meat; rellenos de papa, potato ball with ground meat; hrroz, rice; and alcapurrias, a fried meat pie with special seasonings. Customers may eat in or take out.

The proceeds will help send 10 young people from the church to the National Catholic Youth Conference to be held in November in Columbus, said Nancy Esparra, a parishioner and wife of food fest chairman Reynaldo Esparra.

The senior members of the church are preparing the foods, and the youth will serve and clean up. “The older ladies are doing the cooking,” she said, and maybe the young people will learn something from watching. “It’s a nice thing for the generations.”

She said it was important that the youth of the church carry on the customs. “They are the future of our church. It’s important that they are involved and are being taught the traditions.”

St. Rose de Lima is the only Hispanic-oriented church in the Diocese of Youngstown. It does have a priest of ethnic origin, the Rev. Gerald DeLucia.

Father DeLucia recently was installed as pastor at St. Rose and also serves at Holy Rosary Church in Lowellville. Though his ancestry is Italian, he does have a Hispanic link.

“My great-grandpa left Italy and lived in Argentina. Some of the family stayed there, though the connection has been lost, and others came to America,” Father DeLucia said. “I have a fascination with South America,” he said. “I love the people and the heritage.”

Father DeLucia said he learned to speak basic Spanish while taking classes in high school and also took the language in college. “I must be doing OK,” he said, “because I understand the people and they understand me.”
“There’s no Hispanic priest in the diocese,” said Nancy Esparra. She credited Father DeLucia with being fluent in Spanish.

Assisting Father DeLucia are Deacons John Rentas and Enrique Santiago, who are Puerto Rican and bilingual.

St. Rose has about 200 families. Father DeLucia said the parish membership represents immigrants from Puerto Rico, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, Peru, Argentina and Spain.

At Rose, Masses in Spanish are at 6 p.m. Saturdays and at noon Sundays and in English at 9:30 a.m. Sundays. “The Masses in Spanish focus on the music,” Father DeLucia said. “The music is very Latino and lively. It has a special rhythm that’s captivating and mesmerizing.”

Father DeLucia said the event Oct. 14 will start after the noon Mass, about 1 p.m. “It’s all about flags, customs and dancing,” he said, and added there also will be a sampling of Hispanic foods. “The hall will be decorated with the flags of Hispanic countries, some artifacts, and there will be folk dancers and some live music.”

Just like the ethnic groups that immigrated from Europe to America, Hispanics did the same and for the same reason. “Back in the 1950s, there were many immigrants from Puerto Rico. They came, just like other immigrants, to work in the steel mills,” Father DeLucia said of the jobs that drew many to the Mahoning Valley. “The main areas for Hispanics are Campbell and west and east sides of Youngstown.

“Family connections continue to draw people here,” he said. “And we’re experiencing growth,” he said of the parish.

St. Rose of Lima was organized in the late 1950s when the Hispanic immigrants were attending Masses in the basement of St. Columba Cathedral; the parish was officially founded in 1961.

Father DeLucia said the church took its name from the first saint of the Catholic Church in the new world. “It was seen as a new beginning,” he said. “She was the first real Hispanic saint.”