County Fair Is Traditional, but With a World of Difference

County fairs are about as American as hot dogs and apple pie. And although the 1997 Ventura County Fair is as much a festival born of American tradition, it has left plenty of room to celebrate the multitude of cultures that have given the region an identity distinctly its own.

Strolling down the fair’s bustling Main Street, the mark of multiculturalism is as striking as the teriyaki-scented ocean breeze.

Next to booths boldly advertising fine-spun cotton candy and golden corn dogs are smoky grills sizzling with carne asada and tables loaded with bowls of piquant habanero salsa.

Adjacent to Stetson-topped vendors peddling leather belts and silver buckles are shelves of African fertility statues sculpted from cream-colored soapstone by Masai tribesmen.

And across from salesmen touting the efficacies of carbon water filters are counters full of scallop shells fashioned into rings by artisans in Jalisco, Mexico.

“When we develop the program for the fair we try to do it in the broadest way we can,” said fair publicist Devlin Raley. “We all feel it’s important to make the fair as diverse as we can to give people a window into other cultures.”

There is definitely something global about the county fair and people seem to like it.

For the past eight years, Ildefonso Diaz has come from Rialto and paid about $1,900 to set up two booths filled with Mexican clothes and other imports from south of the border.

“This one’s really good for me,” Diaz said, gingerly laying a silver ankle bracelet on a velvet-covered table. “The people are very, very good here and they always want ponchos.”

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Cameron Smith, a vendor with dreadlocks selling a variety of African art and trinkets ranging from carved giraffes to teak xylophones, said it’s his out-of-the-ordinary merchandise that keeps his 10-by-20-foot stall busy with customers.

“I do OK here,” he said, lightly tapping a manyaga, or maraca-like instrument made from a hollow gourd, dried beans and small, beaten-brass cymbals. “A lot of people here aren’t used to seeing this sort of stuff so there’s always a lot of lookers.”

In addition to the small carved animals, exotic instruments and soapstone zebras, Smith is hoping to find buyers for his delicate statues of tribal elders hewn from ebony, and fly swatters made from hairy goat tails.

But the international flavor has gone far beyond the eclectic collection of goods for sale. Even the livestock exhibits have gone multicultural with specimens from the planet’s mythic hinterlands.

Santa Barbara rancher Will Goldthorpe thrilled hundreds of wide-eyed gawkers with his exotic Watusi cattle from Africa and two-ton Asian water buffalo.

Although the two Watusi did little except sit and chew their cud, their elephant-tusk-sized horns drew a crowd of gawkers.

“What’s wrong with that cow?” asked one woman.

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Goldthorpe told a group clustered near the corral that the oversize horns are used for regulating the animal’s body temperature in the hot African sun.

“They’re like the radiators in your car,” Goldthorpe told them. “They’re like honeycombs inside and the blood fills them up to keep ‘em cool.”

The notoriously ornery water buffalo, he told others, produces a milk so rich in fat that it’s used in Europe to make some of the finest, most flavorful mozzarella cheeses.

“They’re extremely popular right now and the market for them is really very good because of their milk,” he said. “And their meat’s not too bad either.”

Not far from the Watusis and water buffalo, Trudy Wirthgen, a native of Germany, was busy stuffing her coveted bratwursts into hot doughy buns and slathering them with spicy brown mustard.

Wirthgen and her husband, Wolfgang, touted the taste and pure ingredients of their 7-inch links.

“The secret to a good bratwurst,” the 63-year-old Corona resident said, “is to start with pure pork and then add nothing. No preservatives, no filler and none of that monosodium glutamate.”

The Wirthgens, owners of the banana-yellow stand called “The Original Bratwurst,” said the distinctive sausage has been a way of life for more than 40 years.

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Manfred Schoppel, another native German at the fair selling western wear, said the Wirthgens’ bratwursts are the same you’d find in Bavaria.

“These are very good,” he said, pointing at it. “Exactly what you’d find in Germany, exactly.”

Nearby, seven members of the Oxnard Buddhist Church worked feverishly over hot stoves preparing their popular udon, a noodle dish served in a beefy broth and tangy beef cutlets marinated in a sauce whose ingredients are known only to a few select temple members.

“We work pretty hard in here and everybody seems to like it OK,” said church historian Helen Inouye, looking over at the dozen customers waiting in line. “You know everything is made from scratch, no cans, no jars, everything is fresh and that’s probably why people like it.”

The fair, which continues for the next 10 days, will feature a number of multicultural exhibits including ballet folklorico demonstrations and a salute to Mexico during the rodeo.

“It’s such an important part of the fair,” Raley said of the festival’s diversity. “It adds a whole other dimension to the already great attractions we’ve got here for the county to enjoy.”

* FAIR SCHEDULE: B2