Taos High throws flashy parade on Salazar
Taos High School typically trots out their floats for the Homecoming Parade in the daytime, and the route usually runs along Paseo del Pueblo. But in recent years, the format has switched to a night parade, where trucks, trailers and even an 18-wheeler are set aglow with a large amount of string lights and other festive decorations.
According to Rivera, who helped organize the parade: “The first night parade was last year. And then, this is the second year. So, they’re usually in the day on Friday, and they go down the main road, but because of the construction, we have to go down the route we did.”
“I think people got the hang of it from last year,” Rivera continued. “And they kind of knew what to expect and how to do the float and figure out the whole light stuff.”
On Thursday (Oct. 20), there were over 30 floats that drove along the route that started out from the Juan I. Gonzales Agricultural
Center parking lot, which then headed west along Chamisa Road and then pivoted onto Salazar Road, where a long line of cars and pickup trucks were parked along the side of the street.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen it that big before,” said LMNOC broadcaster Jojo Valdez.
A couple of weeks prior, Valdez and his crew did interviews with Camille Rivera and the parade coordinating staff. “We had them in the station to do their thing,” Valdez said. “They really built up Homecoming big time.”
In addition to dealing with all the moving parts of a procession of large vehicles with students standing on top of them, Rivera had to do some groundwork as well, such as getting the parade permit from the town, organizing all of the roadblocks and fire and police and personnel.
It took close to two hours for the floats to reach the decided destination at Filemon Sanchez Park, which was just under a mile
away. Former Taos Youth Hockey coach and current KNCE partner, John Henderson, served as the Grand Marshal for the parade and was chauffeured around by the LMNOC truck that slowed down the parade by stopping frequently to hand out candy.
In the dimly-lit streets of Salazar Road, there was no shortage of light coming from bright bulbs from all the floats or from the many glow sticks waved around by the Taos Tigers football team on the back of a trailer. Arguably, the showstoppers of the parade were the Native Winds Radio “Gameday” Truck, the New Mexico Young America Football League 18-wheeler fitted out with straw beds for the Young Tigers on board and giant ghoulish balloons overhead, the Taos Xtreme Cheer castle float, the bright neon glow of the Seniors float and Mateo Chavez and Ashlee Montoya riding in the back of a Cadillac as Homecoming royalty.
Steven Vigil of the Taos Tigers New Mexico Young American Youth Football League team, spoke with the Taos News about the effort involved with fully decorating the big rig.
“It was a really nice group effort from all of our parents to support the kids and make sure that they’re having a good experience, through their youth, you know, not just football, just friendship and having fun with their friends,” Vigil said. “When it comes to the floats and the kids in the community, we’re always willing to step up and put a semi in there or a nice truck and trailer or something to make it fun for them.”
Sasha Mascarenas and Martin Dimas contributed with the massive balloon figures — one of them being a skeletal Tasmanian Deviltype of beast. Most of the decorations for the float were from previous halloween adornments that some of the parents had acquired.
The parents even went the extra mile and spray-painted the pumpkins on the big rig with a glow-inthe-dark spray that would have displayed the number of the Tiger sitting in front of it, but the spray didn’t work out as intended.
The Taos Tigers soccer team, still riding the jubilation off a victory against Moriarty, spared no time to transition from their evening match in Eco Park to hyping up the crowds from on top of their float.
Once the last float reached the endpoint of the parade, some people went over to the parking lot of the high school football field to enjoy the warmth of a bonfire.