Centennial Show: Stage, Fashion, Music, Videos Bring Back Memories

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Flashbacks to events over the last 100 years in Los Fresnos were packaged into two hours.

Los Fresnos CISD students and staff performed before more than 500 people in two Stage Shows Thursday and Friday at Los Fresnos High School, looking back at the history of Los Fresnos and events around the world.

The show is part of the Centennial Celebration for Los Fresnos CISD during the 2015-16 school year. The first school opened in Los Fresnos in 1915.

The Stage Shows included fashion, dance, music appropriate to the decade by students. LFHS Theater Arts students performed two scenes depicting the first classroom in 1915 and a breakfast table scene from the 1940s.

“This performance represents our genuine attempt to capture the history, the memories and the resolve of a community that has long valued education and the promise it holds of providing a bright future for our children,” Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar said. “A large portion of this presentation is our interpretation of the history of our beloved District as shared through the voices of the elders in our community.”

Master of Ceremonies was senior Kathleen Clark, the reigning Miss Los Fresnos.

The fashion shows featured students in all grade levels dressed in the styles appropriate to the decades. There were also characters from movies and video games, including Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Super Mario, Karate Kid, and Doc and Marty from Back to the Future. Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were also in the building.

“I cried all night flashing back to the past,” said Mark Milum, Los Fresnos City Manager who attended Los Fresnos schools. “I kept asking my wife for more tissue.”

Liberty Memorial Middle School cheerleaders danced to 1920s music in vintage glamorous dresses.

The music from different decades served as a backdrop to the fashion shows. The seven videos, which drew emotions ranging from tears to laughter, symbolized historic events in Los Fresnos history. They included the opening of the Whipple Library, the transitioning of the old Olmito Elementary and Las Yescas Elementary into the fold of Los Fresnos CISD, a 1968 science lab, and the move to the “new” Los Fresnos High School in 1992.

Olmito Elementary school, later named Villareal Elementary School, was part of the Cameron County School System before it was consolidated with Los Fresnos in 1970. Three former Villareal principals – Joe Ceballos, Antoinette Connaughton and Bertha Zamora – shared their memories of Olmito. Janie Cortez, who has worked as the school secretary for 47 years shared many memories as well.

Las Yescas Elementary, which is located four miles of Rio Hondo, was consolidated into the Los Fresnos CISD in 1972.

Several hundred pictures on display showing a timeline of Los Fresnos and world history were posted around the cafeteria, as were LFHS yearbooks from the corresponding years. Many people stared and took pictures of the displays and thumbed through the yearbooks. Some elderly showed their children and grandchildren what they looked like in high school.

Among the recent highlights was Los Fresnos High School’s Inspiration from the College Board in 2013, the Hello Navi App created by Resaca Middle School students in 2014 which earned them a trip to the White House Science Fair, the school district’s state awards for post-secondary readiness in 2015,

Upcoming Centennial events include the planting of fresno (ash) trees at all Los Fresnos CISD schools on Feb. 2, which is the 100th day of the 100th school year. The final celebration is scheduled April 16 at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.

More photos at The Los Fresnos CISD Flickr Page