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By 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Danny Caballero and Mike Sotomayor had already flipped hundreds, if not more, pancakes.
“Let’s say a thousand,” Caballero said from his post at the griddle.
The two aproned men, both firefighters with the Redwood City Fire Department, had arrived nearly five hours earlier to set up for the event. Behind them, hundreds of hungry families and officials from around the county packed into the downtown fire station to enjoy a pre-parade plate of pancakes and sausages.
During the city’s beloved pancake breakfast, which is more than 40 years old and the Firefighters Association’s main annual fundraiser, volunteers cooked more than 200 pounds of batter and 300 sausage links.
Only halfway through their shift, the firefighters were already sweating.
“It’s hot,” Sotomayor said, laughing, spatula in hand. “It’s great, though. It’s really fun to see everyone out.”
The morning feast kicked off a long-awaited day of July Fourth festivities in downtown Redwood City. After a two-year forced hiatus during the pandemic, the city came back in full force with craft vendors, chalk art, live music and, of course, the largest Independence Day parade in Northern California.
“After these last two years, to see this turnout, it’s pretty amazing,” said San Carlos resident Lisa Bolanos.
Bolanos, born and raised in the Bay Area, said she’s been coming to the local July Fourth celebration “forever,” with her daughter, Tee, and son, Jacob. Still, she suspected that COVID fears may have kept some people away. “Is this crowd good? It’s good. Is it anywhere close to what it used to be? No,” she said.
“It used to be huge,” she added, wistfully.
Bolanos, who currently lives with her two kids and seven dogs, called them an “All American Family” and praised Redwood City’s “old school” Independence Day celebration. They waved and cheered as veterans of the American Legion Post 105 rolled past.
Other families were taking it all in for the first time.
“I’ve never been to something this big,” said Barbara Rodriguez, who’d moved to Redwood City three years earlier from her home in Toledo, Spain.
Watching the parade with their son, Liam, Rodriguez and her husband Ernesto were in awe of the American pride. “There’s so much more patriotism here than back home,” she said.
Liam, almost 3, stood agape in his red, plastic helmet as a fire engine roared past, lights and siren blaring.
“Look Liam, firefighters!” his mom yelled in Spanish.
All along the periphery of the parade, which began at 10 a.m. and looped around Courthouse Square, thousands of families in camping chairs and wagons cheered and waved small flags at the procession. From glittering hats to quilted vests, people and dogs alike were clad in all varieties of red, white and blue. Few wore masks.
Among the parade’s participants were Supervisors Kevin Mullin and David Canepa, as well as five members of the Redwood City Council, including Mayor Giselle Hale, who rode in vintage cars courtesy of Billy Mann and Broadway Auto.
Other members of the procession included Los Trancos Woods Community Marching Band, members of the Bay Cities soccer team and a large contingent of the Buddhist community Falun Dafa, vibrant in their matching yellow silks. Cheerleaders from Sequoia High School waved their pom poms while Mexican folklórico dancers twirled in ruched, floral skirts.
Anita and Ben Kapur were also attending for the first time after having recently moved to Redwood City from Menlo Park.
“It’s amazing—a lot bigger than I expected,” Ben said.
Though his wife said she was a little nervous about COVID exposure, she was relieved that their 14-month-old son, Bodhi, had recently received his first dose of the vaccine. They agreed that being outside felt safer.
“Having things to celebrate feels good,” she said. “A sense of normalcy.”
Asked whether the event held any patriotic significance, they both shrugged. “Yeah, sorta.”
As the parade came to a close, attendees streamed towards Courthouse Square. On the plaza, party-goers enjoyed hot dogs, Hawaiian barbecue and shaved ice, while listening to music or watching the chalk artists at work. Kids, dressed in star-spangled dresses or tiny top hats, splashed their feet in the fountain to cool off.
Costumes weren’t limited to the younger generations, however.
“The Fourth of July has always been bigger in Redwood City than any other city, and my family really celebrates it,” said lifelong resident David Elsenbroich, who was sporting a Paul Revere-esque get-up. “One year I thought, screw it, I’m going to get a costume just for fun.”
He’s been wearing his tricorn hat, button-up jacket and a battered-looking Betsy Ross flag for the last decade.
“My mom’s side goes back to Lexington,” he said. “I’m, like, 12th generation east coast so I dress up like an idiot every year.”
Yet—with his flag in one hand, beer in the other—he wondered whether a day might come where dressing up as an American revolutionary was more provocative than amusing.
“This costume embodies the people who wrote the Constitution,” he said. “And I feel like the Constitution is better than the people who wrote it.”
Elsenbroich wasn’t the only attendee with some curiosity about the future of American patriotism.
Council member Lissette Espinoza-Garnica, who rode among her colleagues in the parade, called July Fourth a “weird holiday” to celebrate in the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade and with other civil rights at risk.
“Not everyone’s free in America,” they said, criticizing July Fourth as an unchallenged tribute to American exceptionalism. While celebrations are important, Espinoza-Garnica added, they’re also opportunities to reflect and critique.
“We should have some speakers talking about the struggle for independence,” they said.
Hale also contextualized today’s celebration within the nation’s larger narrative.
“It was great to be back at the fire station for breakfast, followed by the return of our beloved parade,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “And yet, it is another tough year to feel truly independent as rights are taken and lives are lost.”
Referencing the loss of reproductive rights and the mass shooting in Chicago, she added: “This isn’t freedom, it’s chaos.”
But as to whether Redwood City’s July Fourth event is a place for more critical conversation, Hale demurred.
“Events like that are for celebration.”
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