It’s been a busy year for Ramona Santelises, organizing a parade and festival Connecticut has not seen before. As a woman from a small Dominican town, she never thought she’d be organizing something so big.
“I'm telling you, sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I almost want to cry,” Santelises said. “I say, but oh my god, this is a reality. I can’t believe it.”
Santelises is from Sajoma of the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic. Also known as San José de las Matas, Santelises described the municipality as “the biggest little town” of the country.
Now, she’s an organizer with the Dominican American Coalition of Connecticut in Bridgeport.
“We have in all the cities [in Connecticut], but especially in Bridgeport, a lot of people that are moving from New York,” Santelises said. “They come to the center all the time, [saying] ‘Oh, please, we never have a parade here in Connecticut. Could you please start doing this?’ And then we decided it's the time to do it.’”
Dominicans make up the third largest Hispanic group in Connecticut, behind Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, according to census data.
While the Dominican community in Connecticut has had cultural festivals in the past, including a second annual festival in Downtown Norwich back in 2022, co-organizer Maria Matos explained the parade is what makes their upcoming event historic.
“The Dominican parade in New York is a famous parade,” Matos said. “Also, Boston has a parade. New Jersey has a parade where they showcase the queens and all that. They do all kinds of stuff. But Connecticut doesn't have anything, and we think it’s time already.”
Bridgeport’s Dominican Parade and Festival on Sunday, August 17 will feature themed floats, traditional outfits, and well-known Dominican musicians, government representatives, kings and queens, and sportsmen including boxers and basketball players.
Attendees can also expect to see Diablos Cojuelos, these colorful masked mischief-makers, and Roba la Gallina, a popular Dominican character of a woman chicken thief.
This year, the parade is honoring the city of La Romana, Matos said, because of all the support many La Romana residents provided when they were organizing the event.
During the event, however, judges will be there keeping an eye out on which Dominican cities or towns are best represented amongst the crowd.
“So everybody be ready to represent their city,” Matos said, “because whoever is best represented is going to be the next parade for the next year, we're going to be celebrating their city.”
During the festival, Matos said there will also be all different kinds of Latin food and live performances, including from well-known merengue artist Fefita La Grande.
Santelises is encouraging all Hispanics in Connecticut to come celebrate Dominican culture.
“Because if we’re united,” Santelises said, “we can achieve big things [like this] and keep making sure that all our celebrations are done in a big way, just how we like it.”
Learn more
The Dominican Parade and Festival will be held on Sunday, August 17. The parade will start at noon at Seaside Park, 1 Barnum Dyke, Bridgeport.
The parade will go around the park and end at Park Avenue where the festival will take place through the rest of the day.
You can also sign up for more information about the parade/festival and future events.
