by Sonia Ahmed
Marisol sat under a tent frying up some bacalaitos and pastelillos for her family to enjoy as a large Puerto Rican flag waved in the wind.
She was one of hundreds of attendees at New Haven’s ninth annual Puerto Rican fest, which saw the Green filled with music, food, and cultural pride.
This year’s Puerto Rican Festival took place Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. on the Green. In addition to the hundreds of attendees, there were also 30 vendors serving up various Puerto Rican foods, such as piragua (a shaved ice treat) and tostones (fried plantains).
Marisol was one of the many happy festival-goers to show up Saturday. She said that culture is very important to her and her family. As Marisol cooked food outside in her tent, she recalled her grandmother cooking sancocho, a Puerto Rican stew, outside when her family didn’t have a stove. She said these traditions and family gathering are what make the festival important to her.
“It gives me great pride to be Puerto Rican,” she smiled. “[Being] Puerto Rican is unique.”
A New Haven native, Marisol said her family is from the town of Guayanilla in Puerto Rico. Her family attends the festival every year. Besides cooking capacity, Marisol’s tent also had a portable private toilet, and some dominos sprawled out on a table. The family was well equipped to enjoy the festival for a long time.
Among the many food vendors was L&M Desserts, where attendees Nancy Estrada and Zelena Sanchez stopped by for some biscochos and iced tea. They had just arrived at the festival, but were looking forward to trying more vendors.
When asked to describe the festival in three words, the pair settled on “fun, heritage, and enjoyable.”
On the stage set up on the Green, many sponsors spoke about how they were grateful to be part of the festival. Besides sponsors, there was also much entertainment, including performers dancing a traditional Puerto Rican dance called bomba.
Miss Junior Puerto Rico, Sophia Olivia Quiñones, was one of the people who took to the stage to introduce herself. She is one of this year’s pageant winners from Puerto Ricans United, the same organization that put together the festival.
“Our young Boricua are forgetting about their culture and not really caring, and I just want to show that our culture is still alive,” she said during an interview Saturday regarding why being a pageant winner is important to her.
Some ways she said she keeps her culture alive are by sharing Puerto Rican events on her social media pages, and telling her Puerto Rican friends to apply to become the next Miss Puerto Rico. The deadline to apply for next year is Nov. 14.
“I want to keep my pride alive for generations,” she concluded.
Sonia Ahmed photos
Marisol at her tent.
Nancy Estrada grabbing some sweet treats.
L&M Desserts, the vendor that Estrada visited.
Miss Junior Puerto Rico.
The outside of Marisol’s tent, complete with a private toilet (green tent) and a giant Puerto Rican flag.