‘Cancel, cancel, cancel.’ How coronavirus crashed party for traditional Valley celebrations
Adam Haro spins a DJ set inside his central Fresno office as colorful lights fill the room and music blares.
Normally he’s in front of dozens of people at parties up and down California’s San Joaquin Valley. But on this night, his only audience is a dozen or so watching on a Facebook livestream. His business hasn’t been the same in weeks.
“It’s kind of just in limbo right now,” Haro said. “It’s very much out of the box thinking right now.”
As a pandemic caused by a new strain of the coronavirus sweeps through the world, Haro and people like him – DJs, musicians, party planners and the very people they serve – have been forced into an unfamiliar pause in their lives.
Almost overnight, they are having to adapt to a new reality.
As the number of infections from COVID-19 rises in California and the country, gatherings and events have, for now, turned into a thing of the past. It was just two weeks ago that governments began ordering mass shutdowns of schools, churches and businesses to slow the progress of a virus that many believe had already spread far before anyone took action.
Valley residents aren’t allowed to gather in groups larger than 10. They must stay six feet apart from anyone infected or at risk of being infected. And they are recommended to stay indoors – all to stem the virus.
This new reality has brought the pain of not only being apart from each other, residents say, but putting off important celebrations many Valley families planned to celebrate in the new year.
‘This is something serious’
“I sat down with my children. We had a conversation. I could never remember a time growing up when we had this type of concern. This type of scare,” Raquel Piz, a Fresno mother who was planning her daughter’s quinceañera for June, said.
Piz said her daughter Nevea was learning to play the bass guitar and is still practicing her waltz for her 15th birthday celebration. The celebration is a rite of passage for Latin daughters entering womanhood. Now, Piz says she has to weigh a heavy decision of telling her daughter whether or not her celebration may be canceled for their safety.
“There’s so many things that I wanted to do for her and I couldn’t,” said Piz. “This was the day that I was going to make it all up to her.”
Similarly, Jessica Maria Bejarano, a mother from Plainview, a small community in Tulare County, said her daughter Victoria’s quinceañera would have been held last weekend, but they were caught in the middle of the pandemic.
“We were continuing, continuing until we got to that last day, everybody was telling us it was getting serious,” Bejarano said.
The original date of the party would have been “perfect,” Bejarano said, because normally it rains on her daughter’s birthday. Not this year. Instead, she and many families faced a challenge unlike any other they can remember.
Already, the death toll worldwide from the coronavirus has reached over 20,000 and has infected half a million people. State governments are issuing shelter in place orders to keep people from spreading the infection farther.
Bejarano said some of her daughter’s friends who planned to join her daughter at the party backed out last minute over fears they could become infected and then infect their grandparents. Bejarano tried to stay optimistic, but state orders forced her venue to close, she said.
Just days before the celebration, she told her daugther the news.
“This is something that I didn’t want to cancel for myself,” Bejarano said she told her daughter. “This is something nationwide. She has to understand that this is something serious.”
Bejarano and her family still celebrated her daughter’s birthday. They kept a mariachi group, who presented Vitoria with a rendition of Las Mañanitas, a Spanish song typically played on birthdays. A video recording shared by Bejarano shows her daughter wiping away tears during the song. Bejarano said it was the best she could do for her daughter during the crisis.
“We have everything already. The money is still in the bank. So whenever the venue is available, I will definitely continue to have her party,” she said.
United in pain
As governments aim to reopen businesses and resume life as normal, sometimes against the caution of health experts, families say they still feel the pain of the economic and social pause that has gripped much of the country.
And so do business owners who work in the party and entertainment industry. They say they stand to lose thousands of dollars from lack of business.
“This is truly the first time that we have had to step back and engage in this way – listen and dialogue,” said Susan Vang-Xiong, owner of Circle of Life events in Fresno.
She said the crisis has kept her glued to news reports and information coming from health officials and the government. She watches closely to know what her next steps could be.
Since the shutdowns began, her business has also slowed, she said. The biggest questions business owners like Vang-Xiong have is how much damage the closures and the spread of the virus will cause to communities and business.
“Nothing is guaranteed at this point,” she said. “We don’t know how long this will go for.”
Katie Houliahan, owner of Best Party Rentals in Clovis, said there is also concern for her workers – about 35 of them. Some are older and take risks doing a job that requires extensive contact with people. Houliahan said she is helping employees she had to lay off apply for unemployment through a state website. They join over three million people nationwide who have sought unemployment benefits.
The party rental business is in its slower period this time of the year, according to Houliahan. But she had begun to see business pick up for spring and summer events. Now most of them have been postponed. In just two weeks, she lost $140,000.
“Our phones were ringing, all of a sudden they’re off. Cancel, cancel, cancel,” Houliahan described it.
Expert shares how to cope
The stress that has come from the COVID-19 pandemic is not unusual.
University of California, Merced professor of health psychology Dr. Martin Hagger likened the sudden changes to daily life to those that have come from other disasters, like California’s deadly Camp Fire and, to a smaller degree, the power shutoffs that were conducted in the state in order to prevent wildfires last year.
“There are costs and there is going to be short term pain,” Hagger said.
But there are ways to navigate the paralyzation of daily life, Hagger said.
People should try focusing on controlling “the controllables,” meaning those things that are possible to manage with the limits in place, Hagger said. He also said social support is essential as residents shelter in place. That can include calling friends or family to stay in touch. Another solution includes writing down “to-dos” in order to organize one’s life amid the disruptions.
“You can’t control the virus. You can’t control what the government says,” Hagger says. “What you’ve got to do is control the things that are most important to you and the things where you can make a difference.”
Moving forward
For the time being, businesses and residents have no choice but to wade into a future that is mostly unknown. That’s the case for Judy Gaither, owner of Lou Gentile’s Flower Basket in Fresno.
She wants to stay confident. But she already has been purchasing fewer flowers since shipments have slowed and people aren’t buying as much as they used to. In recent weeks, she has canceled about 25 orders and has cut down on staff. She worries this trend will continue.
“Flowers, I know for a lot of people … does an awful lot for your feelings,” Gaither says. “It just kind of makes you feel sad.”
Musicians like Trevor Church are also contemplating what it could look like in the months ahead. His band, Haunt, spent the last seven months planning a spring tour. All of it is unclear now.
“Touring is out of the question, right now, indefinitely,” Church said. He recently returned from a European tour and has been in self quarantine out of due diligence, he said.
‘What a year’
The feeling of confusion has also reached Evely Gomez Jarquin, a Fresno State senior set to graduate in May, but who will not be having a celebration that she planned.
She said the recent sudden changes to life, although important to keep people safe, have felt like “taking away something that felt so comfortable.”
Family from as far as Mexico planned to travel to celebrate with her in Fresno. But on the day Fresno State announced there would be no graduation, she texted her family and let them know they should no longer come.
“This is the first time that all my family was going to be here to celebrate me,” Gomez says.
Despite all that is unknown, Gomez says she still looks forward to celebrating her accomplishment. She pauses to think when that could be. It’s hard to say.
“What a year,” she says.
Reporter Joshua Tehee contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 11:56 AM.
