Popular Culture Review 29.2
oine and culture do not seem to have bothered these park visitors or deter them from celebrating Lunar New Year .
In addition to the Mulan face character , Mushu the dragon is also featured in the parade and as a photo opportunity . Children and adults alike were extremely excited to interact with this character , as he is also rarely seen at either of the Disney parks . Voiced by Eddie Murphy in the animated feature ( Mulan 1998 ), Mushu provides comic relief and occasionally acts as Mulan ’ s conscience and motivator , although many read Mushu as black rather than as any sort of representation of Chinese ethnicity ( Ma 151-152 ). Although included in Lunar New Year celebrations at DCA , there are no characters , face or otherwise , to be found for Vietnamese or Koreans here due to the fact that there are currently very few representations of these ethnic groups to be found within the Disney-verse , outside of some of the characters from Big Hero 6 ( 2014 ).
¡ VIVA NAVIDAD !— CHRISTMAS SEASON AND WINTER HOLIDAYS , NOV-JAN ( 2013-CURRENT )
¡ Viva Navidad ! was offered for the first time as a part of the Christmas holiday season in 2013 , and further expanded in 2014 to take over the Paradise Gardens section . The ¡ Viva Navidad ! event , much like the populations it reflects and represents , has grown , gained traction , and asserted itself as one of the longest-duration events with some of the biggest use of space within the park . This , too , correlates to the growing presence and populations of Hispanics and Latinos in California , as they currently meet or exceed white populations . A growing force to be reckoned with , DCA could no longer afford to isolate or marginalize Hispanics and Latinos since they comprise one of the major park visitor demographics .
With one of the largest populations in the country , California holds a Latino population of nearly 14.99 million , which had
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