The list of this year’s Puerto Rican parades and festivals is out now. In a state with the largest proportion of Puerto Ricans, Connecticut’s annual parades serve as a connection point, not just for the Boricuas in the diaspora but the Nutmeggers who live amongst them.
Puerto Rican leaders from across Connecticut gathered at the capitol Wednesday to share their celebration themes and pride.
Waterbury’s grand entrance included bomba, the Afroboricua music genre, performed by Western Massachusetts dance company Bomba de Aqui. Founder Brendaliz Cepeda, granddaughter of the genre’s modern patriarch and matriarch, twirled into the legislative meeting room with spinning skirts to the sound of drums and güiros, the Puerto Rican percussion instrument.
Waterbury officials honored the island’s Indigenous roots, as well. Alderman Rafael Feliciano-Roman took the podium in a feathered headdress, traditionally worn by the Taíno peoples of Puerto Rico.
“We're one of the baby organizations, but we are so proud,” Feliciano-Roman said.''
Waterbury has the fourth-largest Boricua population in the state, according to data from UConn’s Puerto Rican Studies Initiative. And its festival organizers are getting the honor that usually goes to Hartford’s 62-year-old parade: closing Connecticut’s parade season.
The Waterbury Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival’s theme this year is Taíno culture. The city’s Afro Caribbean Cultural Center, founded by Feliciano-Roman, is set to inherit the Smithsonian’s “¡Taíno Vive!” exhibition from Yale’s Peabody Museum this summer. The center was also the site of the reading of the state’s resolution last year, recognizing the contributions of the Caribbean's Indigenous people. Since then, other New England states, like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have followed suit.
Feliciano-Roman was recently named the first-ever kasike, or chief, for Connecticut by the Higuayagua Taíno of the Caribbean tribe.
“We are honoring our Taíno descendancy,” Feliciano-Roman said. “We're going to be offering language classes and courses.”
Boriken United of Eastern Connecticut’s festival in New London will also center Taíno heritage, said organization Vice President Liz Quiñones.
Meanwhile, Milta Feliciano announced the wildlife-related theme for The Puerto Rican Parade of Fairfield County: “El sonido del coquí, reminding us and everyone around the world how important that little frog and the sound that it makes and connects us back to the island is.”
Rep. James Sánchez said these celebrations are as much about education as they are about fun. The Hartford Democrat says he was surprised while speaking to an elder from a different culture earlier in the week.
“What he told me was ‘Puerto Ricans need to go back to their country.’ I had to educate him and let him know that we are born Americans,” Sánchez said. “I don't blame him for the ignorance, because this is the problem in our education system as well.”
Learn more
Connecticut’s annual Puerto Rican parades kick off in June and run through September.
New London
Saturday, June 27
Fairfield
July 10 through 12
Meriden
Sunday, Aug. 2
New Haven
Aug. 7 and 8
Greater Hartford
Sunday, Sept. 13
Waterbury
Saturday, Sept. 19
