ARIZONIQUES

ARIZONIQUES SIZZLING CINCO DE MAYO

Cinco de Mayo, “Fifth of May,” is celebrated throughout Mexico and the southwestern United States to commemorate the victory of Mexican soldiers over French troops at Puebla in 1862. Arizona's Hispanic community and friends throw colorful fiestas in many cities, with those in Phoenix and Tucson drawing the biggest crowds.

Phoenix stages the Cinco de Mayo International Mexican Food Cookoff and Fiesta on May 2 and 3 at the Phoenix Civic Plaza. More than 50,000 people are expected this year to enjoy performances by local entertainers and musicians and folk dancers from Mexico City, the colorful costumes, and mucha comida deliciosa, “lots of delicious food.” On Sunday, renowned Mexican chef Diana Kennedy, author and TV personality Rita Davenport, and others will judge recipes and dishes prepared by amateur cooks from throughout the Southwest. And mayors from municipalities throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area will compete in their own food cookoff, judged by members of the audience. Tucson's Cinco de Mayo fiesta, May 2 through 5 at Kennedy Park, features children's events on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and in the evenings, folk dancing and music ranging from traditional cumbias and corridos to the latest in salsa and Latin jazz. Food and arts and crafts booths tantalize the more than 70,000 celebrants during this four-day extravaganza. Many smaller Arizona communities also hold Cinco de Mayo fiestas. For information on them, contact local chambers of commerce. As they say in Mexico, ¡Vamonos a la fiesta! “Let's go to the party!” - Eileen Bailey

CRAFTY CACTUS COPS

How do you catch a cactus thief? In Arizona, a little orange paint, or lack of it, helps.

“Cactus cops,” plant theft authorities from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture, recently devised a way to deter the theft of cacti and other native plants from BLM or state land. Here's how it works. A cactus cop accompanies a person who has obtained a permit from the state Agriculture and Horticulture Commission to remove plants, and paints an orange dot, about three inches in diameter, near the base of the plant. The special paint contains a tracing element that distinguishes it from other paints and does not harm plants.

What it does is make it easier for authorities to prosecute thieves-because the burden of proof that a plant has been stolen lies with the authorities. Cactus cops in the past had to catch the thief in the act, or find where a suspect plant was removed and match the plant's roots with remnants in the ground.

But now, if authorities find someone on public land in possession of a native plant, there'd better be an orange dot on it or there's a good chance there will be an arrest.

Under Arizona law, conviction for a first offense for unlawful removal of plants is punishable by a fine of up to 500 dollars and/or thirty days in jail. Second offenses can cost 1000 dollars per plant and six months in jail.

AWESOME ORCHARD

The world's largest pecan orchard is in Arizona. Farmer's Investment Company cultivates 300,000 pecan trees on 5000 acres at Sahuarita, south of Tucson.

TALIESIN WEST HONORED

Taliesin West, the one-time western home and world-renowned school of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, has recently been named a "National Historic Landmark," a federal designation reserved for our most prestigious historic locations.

Administered by the National Park Service, the historic landmark program identifies, documents, and protects buildings, sites, historic districts, structures, and objects that possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. An act of Congress is required for a property to be so designated. Arizona's twenty-five NHLs range from prehistoric Indian villages such as Snaketown and Awatovi, to the Spanish Mission San Xavier del Bac, to historic districts in Tombstone and Jerome and the early twentieth-century technological marvel Hoover Dam. Taliesen West, Arizona's newest historic landmark, today continues as a school of architecture operated by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. For more information on Arizona's National Historic Landmarks, contact the National Park Service at 261-3303.

HALL OF FLAME

Did you want to be a fire fighter when you grew up? If you fulfilled your ambition, or even if you got sidetracked into a less glamorous career but still love the gleaming machines and trappings of the firehouse, be sure to visit Phoenix's Hall of Flame, 6101 East Van Buren Street. There you'll find the most complete collection of fire-fighting equipment in the United States. Handand horse-drawn pumpers, hook and ladder wagons from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and antique fire trucks from all over the world fill two galleries. For information and admission prices, call 275-FIRE.

THE RETURN OF THE THICK-BILLED PARROT

Once great flocks of brilliant green and red thick-billed parrots wheeled through the skies over the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. By the 1930s, they were gone, as their wooded habitat was cleared to fuel nearby copper smelters. Relatives, however, survived in Mexico. Today, smuggling of the birds into the United States for sale as pets is rampant, and law enforcement officials are seizing scores of them.

Ordinarily the confiscated birds would be sent to zoos and aviaries, but now, in a landmark experiment, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U. S. Wildlife Service, and the U. S. Forest Service are trying to reestablish the parrots in their old habitat. Twenty-nine birds were set free last autumn, and more were released early this spring. If the birds survive to breed, they will become the only resident parrots in the United States. Unlike their tropical cousins, the thick-billed parrots are pine cone eaters quite at home in cool coniferous forests. They fly in noisy V-shaped formations, and sound, one expert says, "like laughing geese."

You can help the reintroduction effort by reporting any sightings to Noel Snyder, P.O. Box 105, Portal, AZ 85632. Arizonans may also support the project by checking the Non-Game Program on their state income tax forms, or by sending tax-deductible donations to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, 2222 West Greenway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85023. -Millicent V. Hay

CALENDAR

May 8 through 10, Lake Havasu City. Hobie Cat Regatta. It's more than a boat race; people of all ages also compete in tennis, golf, even "water walking contests." Special games for the youngsters. Telephone 855-4406.

May 9 and 10, Kingman. Festival of the Arts. Fine arts, crafts, food, and live entertainment fill downtown Kingman. Telephone 565-3213.

May 10, Tucson. Jazz Sundae Festival, Tucson's rite of spring, regularly draws more than 8000 music fans to Reid Park Performance Facility for an afternoon and evening of free jazz entertainment. This year's festival will feature Carla Bley directing the renowned Tucson Jazz Orchestra, the Benny Carter Quartet, and top local artists. Telephone 623-2463.

May 16 and 17, Jerome. Home tour. Step back in time and explore restored homes and buildings in this unique coppermining ghost town turned arts center. Telephone 634-5716.

May 22 through 24, Williams. Bill Williams Rendezvous Days celebrate the mountain man and his times. Costumes, a black powder shoot, a parade, arts and crafts, hay rides, barn dances, Indian dances, and historical tours at this gateway to the Grand Canyon. Telephone 635-2041.

May 23 through 25, Prescott. The George Phippen Memorial Western Art Show draws more than 125 of the top Western artists to the Courthouse Plaza to display their work. Quick-draw painting events and auctions Saturday and Sunday. Telephone 445-2000.

May 23 through July 26, Mesa. Capturing the Canyon. The Mesa Southwest Museum exhibits more than sixty paintings, etchings, and drawings of the Grand Canyon by forty artists-from early explorers through contemporary observers. Telephone 834-2230.

May 29 through 31, Tombstone. Wyatt Earp Days. Relive the events at the OK Corral. Reenactments, Western entertainment, food. Telephone 457-2211.

May 30, Douglas. The Great American Bed Race, perhaps southern Arizona's premier sporting event, rewards the fastest, most humorous, and most original bed racers. Fun with four-posters. Telephone 364-9410.

For a more complete calendar, free of charge, please write the Arizona Office of Tourism, Department CE, 1480 East Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, 85014. Unless otherwise noted, all telephone numbers are within area code 602.

Edited by Robert J. Farrell