Boricua pride | Fair Haven | Festival Puertorriqueño | Puerto Rico | Arts & Culture | Public Health | COVID-19
Salsa filled the park Saturday afternoon. Lucy Gellman Photos.
Andres Seda had been waiting for a single moment all afternoon. He watched the glinting horns and speckled blue conga drums as they went through a soundcheck, and then another. He inched his way up to the lip of the stage. With a single raised hand from Guillermo Rivera, Agua Pa Chocolate exploded into sound. He extended his arms, planted his feet in the grass, and started to dance.
Saturday afternoon, families, friends, and some fierce salsa dancers braved the heat for a scaled-down, Covid-cautious Puerto Rican Festival, moved from the New Haven Green and branded “Music In The Parque.” A now-annual production of the all-volunteer group Puerto Ricans United, Inc., the event drew over 500 to the park for food, bomba and salsa dancing, vaccinations and live music that lasted into the evening.
PRU Board President Joe Rodriguez said he was excited to see the festival bounce back after a year online. Normally, over 10,000 people flock to the Green. This year, the group wanted to have a smaller event, where beating back Covid-19 was part of its work.
Top: Members of Baila Con Gusto and Duvall Dance and Adventures both performed Saturday afternoon. Bottom: PRU Spokesperson Jhonnathan Rivera. Rivera, who lives in Fair Haven, said he's been fighting vaccine skepticism and misinformation in his own community.
“It feels so good to gather as a community,” Rodriguez said between performances from Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental and Agua Pa Chocolate. “A year ago, we sat down and we didn’t know what the festival was going to look like. Today, the community is out here.”
Over five hours, it became a celebration of both Connecticut’s Puerto Rican community and of protecting residents against the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus. Before the festival, members of PRU held a car caravan through Fair Haven, cars decked out in Puerto Rican flags and blue and orange banners promoting vaccination. As they made their way to Chapel and James Street, many honked, blasted salsa music and used air horns to advertise a free pop-up from Griffin Health.
As drums rang out and games of dominoes popped up across the grass at Criscuolo Park, representatives of Griffin Health, PRU, and JUNTA for Progressive Action urged attendees to protect themselves against the virus. As an incentive, PRU announced that it would raffle off two tickets to salsa artist and nineties heartthrob Marc Anthony, who is performing at Mohegan Sun in September, to anyone who opted to get vaccinated.
Members of Agua Pa Chocolate. A video from the group's performance is at the bottom of the page.
The musician, who is Puerto Rican, drew cheers, screams at the mere mention of his name alone. Phones came out to film the raffle announcement. It worked: Rodriguez said that Griffin Health vaccinated a total of 15 people by the end of a two-hour shift.
Hartford resident Sofia Mantilla was one of them. Born and raised in Connecticut to a proud Puerto Rican family, Mantilla didn’t know about the raffle when she arrived at the festival to help her mom, Evelyn Mantilla, run a booth from Access Health CT.
As bomba echoed from the stage all the way to James Street, she made her way over to a tent from Griffin Health to receive her first dose of the vaccine. She later won the tickets, delighted because she grew up listening to Marc Anthony at home.
Top: Young festival goers kept cool in the park's splash pad. Bottom: Evelyn Mantilla and her daughter Sofia.
As a new mom to a 7-month-old son named Luka, Mantilla said she has spent the last several months debating whether the vaccination is safe. During her pregnancy last year, she read that vaccines can cause miscarriage, stillbirth and infertility—none of which is true. When the first batch of Pfizer vaccines arrived in the state last December, she was still breastfeeding and worried that she could pass something harmful to Luka through her milk (the CDC recommends the vaccination for parents who are breastfeeding). Her mom, a former state representative for Hartford, got vaccinated as soon as it was available.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Sofia Mantilla said. “Ultimately, I made a decision to protect my son’s health.”
She said she now faces a different dilemma: whether to take her mom or her boyfriend as her plus one. Because her boyfriend is not yet vaccinated, she is hoping that her decision will “just point him in the right direction.” It may also make it easier for her to choose who to take, as an increasing number of entertainment venues implement vaccine and testing mandates.
Marangely and Mia Flores.
Closer to the stage, 24-year-old Marangely Flores crouched down to her 2-year-old daughter Mia and started swaying from side to side, arms stretched out in an invitation. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and raised in New Haven, Flores said that the music makes her feel closer to her family. While she lives in West Haven, her aunts, uncles and cousins have remained on the island.
As she grooved to a set from DJ Richie Rich, she swung her hips gently, laughing as Mia watched with huge, melty eyes. Flores’ blue and red Puerto Rico jersey caught the sun as she twisted at the torso. After a moment of befuddlement, Mia extended her small palms, fingers wiggling, and joined in.
“This is my race,” Flores said, motioning to the couples salsa dancing and sipping sodas nearby. “It’s great. It reminds me that I’m from Puerto Rico.”
Top: Lori Rodriguez and her granddaughter, Sophia. Bottom: Elizabeth Torres and Malika Sharif.
Nearby, designer Malika Sharif compared moves with 10-year-old Elizabeth Torres, the granddaughter of her longtime friend Beth Morrow. Torres stepped her feet back and forth, then shook out her multicolored tutu. Sharif took handfuls of her dress in her hands and swished it, sending oranges and pinks rippling at her sides.
For years, Sharif ran Dare To Be Different Boutique in New Haven, a small business that became a casualty of the pandemic last year. This summer, she savored the chance to dance outdoors after a long winter and pandemic that still isn't over. Her husband Robert Forman, a retired teacher at James Hillhouse High School, sprawled out on the grass soaking up the sun.
“I always come through to community events,” she said.
Andres Seda, who said that dancing keeps him fit at 71.
As she and Torres side-stepped on the grass, Agua Pa Chocolate vocalist Guillermo Rivera invited all salseras and salseros to a shaded patch in front of the stage. This year, the group shared the afternoon’s festivities with Movimiento Cultural, Orquesta Afinke, Baila Con Gusto CT and rappers from Fair Haven. All of the groups come from New Haven and the surrounding region.
“We know that artists are suffering right now, and we wanted to put some money in their pockets,” Rodriguez said.
As horns blared and Rivera lifted the mic to his mouth, it felt as though the whole park was dancing. Couples locked arms and twirled out on the grass, soaked in sweat but smiling. Grandmothers pulled their grandchildren in tight and and walked them through basic salsa steps.
Seda spun himself in front of the stage, in no need of a partner. A few feet back, someone turned an empty water bottle into a makeshift percussion instrument so they could tap along.
Top: Jason Ramos and Amanda Duvall of Baila Con Gusto CT. Bottom: The Antojos Criollos food truck makes a triumphant return.
On the edge of the park, a few people stepped and pumped their arms as they waited for still-steaming tostones, beef and chicken empanadas and yucca and meat alcapurrias at the Antojos Criollos food truck. Owner Miguel Quinones said that he was happy to be back: the truck was closed for a year and a half due to the pandemic. The festival felt like a homecoming.
Warm from the stage, Seda walked toward the truck for a cold soda. Born and raised in New York, he moved to Connecticut 10 years ago, and has been attending the festival since 2016. At 71, he said that dancing keeps him fit.
While both he and his wife are vaccinated—he joked that they are a divided household, with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines—he still worries about the Delta variant because of “some health problems.” Saturday, he opted for elbow bumps with old friends and kept a mask on hand. That didn't make it any less fun, he said.
“I look for where there’s music,” he said. “It’s my culture.”
To learn more about Puerto Ricans United, Inc. visit the group's website.