St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Superior is gearing up for a weekend of fun para toda la familia at the 35th annual Fiestas Patrias, which celebrates Mexican independence from Spain.
The Superior Car Show and Fiestas on Saturday, Sept. 13, will kick off this year’s independence-day bash. More than 100 vehicles of many makes and models are expected to be on display on both sides of the town’s main drag.
The Fiestas Patrias celebration will continue Sunday, Sept. 14.
“A parade, the car show, music entertainment, food, games and more will make up this year’s event, to be held on the church grounds at Church Avenue and Main Street,” said Yolanda Najera-Ewing, who’s handling publicity for the event.
Mariachi Alma Mexicana from Tucson will provide music, along with DJ David Sinteral, Billie Jo’s hip-hop group and rapper J-Rydah, who lives in Superior.
Vendors will sells menudo, chili-bean burros, meat empanadas, Indian fry bread, nachos, snow cones and soft drinks.
More than 100 plaques will be awarded for best of show in all categories of cars, motorcycles and customized bicycles. Other categories will include best 1950, ’60s and ’70s vehicles.
Pati Castaneda of Superior will cruise to the fiesta in her champagne and candy-apple red 1969 Chevrolet Impala lowrider.
Castaneda purchased the car for her husband, Joe, as a Father’s Day gift in 2007 so he could build his dream car.
“He passed away in July of 2013,” she said. “The car was painted the color he wanted it to be but it wasn’t completely restored when he passed away.”
Castaneda and her nephew, Mario Lopez of Superior, completed the restoration in Joe’s memory.
The duo then set a goal for showcasing the Chevy at the Las Vegas Super Show in October 2013 and at the Arizona Super Show at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale last March.
“These events were Joe’s goals as well, and we did it with the help of family, friends and the Society Car Club of Mesa, where Joe was a member,” Castaneda said.
The Impala is powered by a 350-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 mated to Chevrolet 350 Turbo-Hydromatic transmission.
The hydraulics are powered by six 12-volt batteries for that classic “low and slow” style.
Custom champagne paint is on the body with candy-apple red paint on the hardtop and hand-painted pinstripes.
“My husband started hosting the car show for the Fiestas six years ago,” Castaneda said. “It started off small, and the most entries we ever had were 122 vehicles. We hope to break that record this year.”
Ted Eminowicz, a retired auto-shop teacher who also lives in Superior, will display his 1933 Ford three-window coupe.
This is the second time he has owned it.
“My coupe is not a reproduction body, it’s original ’33 Henry Ford steel,” he said. “And it’s not all chopped up, it has original body parts from bumper to bumper.”
Eminowicz purchased the Ford in 1975 from a friend who was living in El Paso. The friend bought it back from Eminowicz in 1984, and after the friend died four years ago, Eminowicz inherited the coupe.
“I had to pull the car out of a pigeon coop in Texas,” he said. “It hadn’t been on the road for 20 years; I had to redo the entire car.”
The engine compartment was empty.
“I looked all over my friend’s property for the original flathead; I don’t know where it went,” said Eminowicz, who dropped in a 302-cubic-inch Ford V-8 from a 1984 Mustang.
A Borg-Warner T5 five-speed manual transmission with overdrive, plucked from a 1994 Mustang, is linked to 9-inch positraction Ford rear end with 4:11 gears.
Eminowicz spruced up the interior with black and red vinyl, and this summer installed air-conditioning.
He does all his wrenching but leaves the paint and body work to others. One of his former students painted the ’33 silver and black with purple flames on the hood.
The coupe rides on ’40s-style chrome wheels shod with raised-white-letter BF Goodrich tires.
“For a small town like Superior, the car show is huge,” Eminowicz said. “There’s always lots of people and lots of cars at the show.”
Anglos often mistake Cinco de Mayo for Mexican Independence Day. Fiestas Patrias honors the courage of the Rev. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who called for the end of Spanish rule in Mexico with the declaration of “El Grito de Dolores” on Sept. 16, 1810. Hidalgo later was executed by the Spanish, and it took more than a decade of fighting to win Mexico’s independence.
Superior Car Show and Fiestas: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13. St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 11 Church Ave., Superior. $20 to enter a car or truck; $10 to enter a motorcycle; free for spectators. 520-827-9960, facebook.com/SuperiorFiestas.
