The Florida Puerto Rican
Parade and Festival in Orlando celebrates Puerto Ricans’ public service and achievements.
Hundreds of parade-goers clad in Puerto Rican-flag Tshirts, hats, towels and dresses danced and screamed as floats carrying Puerto Rican celebrities and community leaders went down Orange Avenue on Saturday.
The Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival took place to celebrate Puerto Ricans in public service and “promote achievements by Puerto Ricans,” City Commissioner Tony Ortiz said.
“[We want to] strengthen the bonds between Puerto Ricans and the multicultural community in Orlando,” Ortiz said, before declaring Saturday “Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival Day” in Orlando.
Puerto Rican delicacies such as alcaporrias and bacalaitos — which are Puerto Rican fritters — were available at the festival. Dozens of tents selling drinks, gifts and arts and crafts lined the lawn in front of the Dr. Phillips Center.
Bands performed Latin music as festival attendees danced in the grass. The festival was scheduled to last until 8 p.m.
Throughout the parade and the activities that followed, participants hollered “Yo soy Boricua, pa’que tu lo sepas!” — a song lyric meaning “I am Puerto Rican, so you know!” that is often chanted like a rally cry at annual the New York Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City.
The same organizers of the New York event helped put together Saturday’s parade, but it
was not the first of its kind in Orlando. There have been previous parades celebrating the island’s culture, but Ortiz said he hopes Saturday’s affair becomes a new annual tradition.
“Now that it’s finally official, we have to push so next year and the years after are even better,” Ortiz told the crowd in Spanish.
George Antoshka, a selfdescribed “Nuyorican,” grew up in New York City with a Puerto Rican mother and a Polish father. He said he hopes the Orlando event can grow in the future to become even more similar to the Puerto Rican Day parades he remembers going to in New York.
“The momentum is started and is better,” Antoshka said. “We’re coming together as one in the land of opportunity.”
As the first Puerto Rican descendant to represent Florida in Congress, Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, was one of the leaders in public service celebrated at the event. Born in the United States to a Puerto Rican father, Soto said his heritage influences many things in his life, including his politics.
“Our culture is infused in many things,” Soto said. “Food, music, language, as well as the policy issues that I continually am tasked to address.”
Soto said he was glad to see the celebration come back to downtown Orlando.
“Orlando is home to literally hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican descendants,” Soto said. “We had a parade for many years, but it faded away. It’s a place to show our pride. What a better place than to do it on Orange Avenue?”
He also hoped the celebration’s message of lifting up Puerto Ricans to serve the public would inspire the youth of Central Florida.
“There are many [public servants] who have emerged in the last 20 years,” Soto said. “It’s certainly a tradition that we will be focusing on to encourage the next generation.”