The smell of tamales and elotes filled the air as crowds gathered and cheered Saturday along Division Street as the Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade returned to Humboldt Park.
Parade-goers embraced the sunny, warm weather but stayed cool by setting up folding chairs in the shade and sharing shaved ice bought from vendors who lined the nearly mile-long parade route.
The parade was a family affair for many, even calling home relatives who had left Chicago but found Chicago hadn’t left them.
“It brings back memories of my childhood, of being here with my parents,” said Eddie Correa, who grew up in the West Side neighborhood but now lives in Tennessee. “I’m just enjoying every minute of it.”
Joined by his nephew and grandnephew, Correa said it was his first time at the parade in a decade and that he was happy to “be part of the community” again.
“Embrace the culture, embrace the people, and have a really good time,” he said he’d tell anyone going to the parade for the first time.
One of them was Kyra Navarrete, a lifelong Chicagoan who lives in Lake View. Navarrete said her family always attended the the Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas, a festival dedicated to Puerto Rican culture that the parade is part of, but never made it to the parade because they were always late.
But this year she made it and brought her sister Vanessa and father Manny, who was in from Buffalo, New York.
“The spirit, the camaraderie, being with people who are likewise to yourself just celebrating the culture,” Navarrete said. “That’s the most important thing to me, just showing my sister where we come from.”
She said she planned to “go crazier with the outfit” next year and hoped to find the cropped shirt emblazoned with “Puerto Rican Princess” that she used to wear to the festival years ago.
Leslie Rupp, a Palmer Square resident who has attended the parade since she was a teenager, said seeing everyone’s Puerto Rican-themed ensembles was the big draw of the parade.
“Everyone spends months planning their outfits,” said Rupp, whose friends sometimes even dye their eyebrows to match their clothes. “Being Puerto Rican is Chicago culture.”
