More ‘modest’ Puerto Rican Day Parade returns to Bridgeport
BRIDGEPORT — The annual Puerto Rican Day Parade is back after being limited last year by the pandemic to a small caravan, and this Sunday’s event is not just focused on celebrating that community — but protecting it against COVID-19.
“This year we’re honoring our health care workers and helping promote vaccinations by doing a clinic in conjunction with Griffin Hospital and the Connecticut Department of Public Health,” said Frankie Colon, the July 11 parade’s lead organizer, on Tuesday.
That is because members of the Hispanic community still have some hesitation about being inoculated against the coronavirus, which first struck Connecticut in March 2020, canceling or severely restricting most public events and festivities last year and early this year.
“I think we’ve hit a plateau,” said Colon, who in May joined with other community leaders in launching an online bilingual public service advertisement trying to tackle some of the misinformation or lack of understanding about the three available vaccines. “That’s why we have to continue to do our best to get people the information. ... That’s why this is important for us to do. We know some people are still afraid to come out . ... They still aren’t sure about the after effects of it (the shots) and the accessibly of it.”
Vaccine demand overall has dropped off in Connecticut, with the state administering a fraction of the doses it did in the spring, with over 67 percent of residents having received the shots. And just under half of Bridgeport’s population — 46.75 percent — has been vaccinated, according to state data as of June 30.
Because of the vaccines, Connecticut has lifted most of the restrictions in place during the height of the health crisis. But Colon said that decision came a few months too late for the Puerto Rican Parade to fully return to normal. He said planning for the upcoming year typically starts in November.
“We didn’t think we were going to have a parade,” Colon said. “We were starting to plan for a caravan. We got word a month or two ago the city and health department was allowing us to do a full parade. So we got busy, started making calls and getting businesses to sponsor floats . ... We had to work really quickly to make it happen.”
Colon said the festivities will be “modest” with no grand marshal, but “it’s going to be a great event.”
“We don’t know how many people are going to come out to see it. People were thinking it still isn’t going to happen,” Colon said. “It feels great. The community is looking for something like this. They want to get back out, to have some kind of normalcy.”
The weekend will begin Saturday with a flag raising at City Hall, at 45 Lyon Terrace, where Samuel Diaz III, chief strategy officer at Southwest Community Health Center, will also be honored.
The parade will start Sunday at 11 a.m. at Central High School, traveling down Madison, North and Park avenues and ending at Seaside Park. There will be a couple of food/drink vendors, a live salsa band — Orquesta Afinke — and, from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. the vaccination clinic.
“Despite all the pain we’ve gone through because of this COVID, we want our people to know we will be again alive and moving this parade,” said City Councilwoman Maria Valle.
Valle is glad organizers prioritized distributing vaccines. She works at one of the city’s senior centers and continues to field questions from people who have not been inoculated.
“I guess they’re afraid it’s the government doing a test trial,” Valle said.
She tells those people that she received her shot to safely see her loved ones, particularly her grandchildren.
Valle noted she and her husband demanded hesitant relatives in Puerto Rico get vaccinated before the couple planned a visit.
“My husband said, ‘If you want to see us, you need to get vaccinated,’” Valle recalled. “If not, we would not be going to Puerto Rico to see them.”