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Filipino and Mexican communities in California have come out in droves to show their support for "American Idol" contender Jessica Sanchez as she went home to Chula Vista, San Diego to a hero's welcome on Saturday. It has been a long tradition for the reality singing competition that the Final Three contenders would be featured visiting their hometowns. Aside from Sanchez, 16, the two other remaining contestants in the show are:
Joshua Ledet, 19, Westlake, Louisiana, and
Phillip Phillips, 21, Leesburg, Georgia.
According to a report of the Filipino entertainment news site pep.ph, Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox declared May 12 as "Jessica Sanchez Day" and the city's football stadium was filled with Filipino and Hispanic fans who have come out to welcome her. Pep.ph quoted Aaron Paul del Rosario, the Filipino composer of the popular Phiippine song "Nandito Ako," as saying: "We were there at 9:30 a.m. Chula Vista shut down the whole street leading to the high school, so we had to park almost 5 blocks away in the nearby Eastlake Greens neighborhood. "My 11-year-old daughter Camie was sick that day but she said, 'For Jessica it would be worth it,'" Del Rosario said. "The football stadium was packed with a lot of Filipinos who came to support our Pinay representative," he added. Meanwhile, a report of the news site NBC San Diego on Saturday said the festivities welcoming the Filipino-Mexican-American singing sensation included a mini concert for fans at the stadium of her school -- East Lake High School. On her way to the stadium, fans gathered along the road holding up homemade signs cheering Sanchez.
Sanchez also had a homecoming celebration at the USS Midway Museum where the crowd included County Supervisor Greg Cox and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Sanders had earlier urged the public to vote for Sanchez, saying "Jessica Sanchez is far and away the best performer on this season's 'American Idol.'" Sanchez is the second “Idol” finalist who hails from the San Diego area. The other is Adam Lambert, first runner-up to Kris Allen in the show’s eighth season.
Sanchez was born in Chula Vista to parents Gilbert and Editha Sanchez. Her father is a Mexican-American and a US Navy veteran who fought in the Iraq War. Her mother traces her roots in Samal, Bataan. According to GMA News Online managing editor Yasmin Arquiza, who stayed briefly in Chula Vista in 1995, Sanchez's hometown is a sprawling and fairly affluent city located near the Mexican border. "Chula Vista is close to the Mexican border town of Tijuana. It's very much a mix of white and Mexican residents. Very laid-back lifestyle, quiet and suburban," she recalls. According to official statistics, the majority of people in Chula Vista are of Mexican descent.
"Chula Vista" is Spanish for “beautiful view.” According to the article "America's Most Boring Cities" published in Forbes Magazine in 2009, the city is big but lacks buzz and excitement. "The midway point between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, rarely makes national news, but when it does, it's often in stories about the region's border tensions. How many people even knew Chula Vista was one of the country's 100 largest cities?" Sanchez, apparently, has changed all that... - VVP, GMA News
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