From WXXI news.

This is connections I'm Rick Stephen.

Every summer, thousands of people gather in Rochester for one of the city's most beloved celebrations, the Puerto Rican Festival.

It's music and food, dancing and community, but it's also something deeper.

For many families, the festival is a symbol of heritage, a space to be fully seen and heard, and a reminder that Puerto Rican history is Rochester history, and it continues to be written every day.

This year marks the 55th annual festival, making the Puerto Rican Fest the longest running cultural festival in Monroe County.

And with that legacy comes both pride and responsibility.

Because even as we celebrate, we know this community is still navigating serious challenges, from economic inequality to safety concerns to everyday work of cultural preservation.

Today, we're joined by three guests who know the festival and the community inside and out.

With us in studio, we have Angelica Perez Delgado, the president and CEO of the Ibero-American Action League, one of Rochester's cornerstone organizations for Latino families.

Thank you for joining us, Angelica.

Thank you.

We have Adrian Franco, long time host of the Puerto Rican Festival.

He's been on the mic for a full ten years now.

Raquel.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Can I call you Francesca?

Okay.

Thank.

And we also have Orlando Ortiz, the president of the Puerto Rican Festival.

He has helped lead its expansion.

Thank you for joining us, Orlando.

My pleasure.

Now, as we all know, our loving listeners, if you want to join in on the conversation, you can call us at 1844295 talk 8255 or at (585) 263-9994.

Or you can email us at Connections at Dawg or just comment right in our YouTube channel.

All right, let's start.

I'm excited to talk about this okay.

I'm excited about the food.

I'm excited about the fun.

55 years.

That's a little bit over a half a century.

Okay.

What does that milestone mean for each of you?

Whoever wants to join in.

Okay.

Well, for me, it's very exciting.

Yes.

When you think about how the festival started in 1970, an element to the group of people that came together at that time in the community to make the festival what we know today.

To me is just exciting.

One of the great prizes that I have from leading Iberia is we were such a big part of some of these things in the early beginnings, and it's nice to see such an iconic institution like the Puerto Rican Festival Incorporated standing today.

Not every community, has that great cultural aspect.

So it's something for us to be very, very proud of.

And I love how you said it.

It's a lot of responsibility, and no one in our community should take that lightly.

You.

In Franco, you've been hosting for about a decade now.

About a decade.

About a decade.

Okay.

So what does this mean for you?

55 years?

You've been doing this for ten years.

What have you seen?

Change.

What have you seen grow you as a host?

The community.

What's going on from your viewpoint?

From your standpoint?

Well, it's it's it is personal for me, right?

Being the first generation born in the United States, what makes me your ties me to being Puerto Rican is is my family, my food and the music.

It's incredible the amount of respect and love and the joy that is experienced that weekend.

It's almost like a family gathering.

There's people that come every year from Ohio that is like, look at my son.

Right?

He's.

We've taken pictures every year.

Since he's been, like, four years old.

Right.

So you kind of get to grow up, with the community, with the people and the love and respect that they, that they have towards the organizers, towards me.

It's something that is actually mind blowing, right?

Because I'm there to do a job.

However, they they, they receive me with open arms.

So that's incredible.

And it is it is a very important job.

Right.

Leading a whole event space and making sure that the community enjoys themselves.

You set the tone right for the festival, I would say.

Right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And Fill space is so humble.

Orlando.

The president.

Right.

Such a huge, big shoes to fill.

From your standpoint, 55 years, how do you feel about that milestone?

Well, it's, it's an incredible milestone right now.

Many organizations can can say that they've been around for 55 years.

We have a, team aboard.

That is very, very, committed to putting this event together every year.

Myself, this is my 20th festival that I've been part of this board.

And every year is something new that we bring, the renewed excitement and energy that we have as a board to be able to put this event together every year.

How well is received as, as Franco mentioned, how well it's received by the community is amazing.

We continue to get support not only in, just in Rochester, but the the surrounding, cities, in states too.

We get people from Cleveland, Toronto and other parts of the country.

So it's it's it means a lot to us to be able to put something like this together.

For our community.

Yeah.

It's 20 years you've been president, right?

Two decades.

So you've seen you've you've seen the expansion.

What are you continuing?

What are you doing to make sure that this festival continues?

Bringing joy to the community.

And and it continues to expand.

Yeah.

So this is my 15th as president.

2020 on the board.

Okay.

That was, other things within the board.

Yeah, but 20th Festival.

But, yeah.

So I would say last year we made a major change in moving into parcel five.

And, you know, the last couple of years we've been attending different conferences that are related to bigger events, big, bigger spaces and festivals throughout the country.

And one of the things we always try to do is, at least for the last couple of years, is trying to improve the experience of the festival or to differentiate ourselves from other events that might be happening.

So sponsor activations on site.

So when, when a, when, patron comes to the festival, it's not just I know agents that the food the music which is great but what else can we provide education wise community resource, resources that are available.

Children's activities.

How do we educate?

We're there to celebrate, too, but we want to be able to take that opportunity to educate others about the Puerto Rican culture.

Yeah.

So we're trying to engage the youth, as Adrian mentioned.

The more and more youth that we bring to the festival, not many of them have experienced Puerto Rico.

So for us, we take pride in and almost showing them the next to Puerto Rico.

But Puerto Rico is and you know, how do we celebrate, you know, in a safe and playful manner to our young generation?

And this is, I believe, the second year to pass all five.

That's great.

How how are you how are you enjoying that?

Oh, I love how was that shift for you?

That's good.

So in 2021, right after Covid, we did a one day festival and we hosted it at parcel five just for one day.

We had a lot of really good, positive feedback from folks that attended that event, and last year it was even even much better.

So we had a lot of good, good feedback.

And, you know, partial fire has become the festival kind of space for the for our larger events.

So we're happy to be able to provide that as well.

And Franco hosting at parcel five.

Right.

How is that energy for you and in that space?

Oh, no, it's completely different.

Completely.

It feels it's like parcel five has become our our very own Central Park.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

So just just being in comparison amongst the buildings and just as City Energy and, downtown is beautifully lit.

Right?

So it just adds to that experience.

The space is wonderful, too.

And with everything, there's there's a give and give and take.

But I think that the switch and the pivot has been incredible, and it's beautiful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so, Angelica, I want to talk.

I want to pivot a little bit and talk about Puerto Rican community in Rochester.

Right.

The first big wave of migration began in the 1940s.

Mostly through seasonal farm work.

And in contracts.

How has the community involved evolved since?

Since then?

Yeah, I mean, we we continue to be a Puerto Rican dominant community, although those demographics, are changing and growing.

We are, Puerto Rican dominant, community.

I think just listening to what you guys were saying, the reason why it's important today is because we have it used to be that our Puerto Rican community, we all knew each other.

My grandfather was one of the first 200, Puerto Ricans to come.

And the big migration to happen in the 50s to work in the farms and back in the days we all knew each other.

I mean, Orlando and I know each other since we were children.

That has changed.

We have a diaspora now that has no direct connection to the Latino history in the Rochester community.

And we're also welcoming members from other countries like Dominican Republic, Cuba.

I mean, I bear itself, you know, brought thousands of, helped integrate thousands over 4000 Puerto Ricans after Maria.

We also brought in thousands of, asylum seeking families here.

So that in that concept, the community has kind of decentralized, not everybody, like, like Orlando and I have deep connections with North and Avenue.

Our families grew up there.

Everything for us started there.

We either went to Saint Michael's or we went to Mount Carmel.

There is always this connection.

Right now, our community.

The only real connection that they have is the Puerto Rican Festival.

That's where everybody comes.

Whether you were here from the originating families and you're a first generation, you know, family member or somebody that just got here five years ago and it's looking for its community.

For me, the festival is not just a festival is really a community asset.

That brings visibility to our community.

And a Latino arriving in Rochester is going to seek that out intentionally.

They're going to say, where are my people?

And the Puerto Rican Festival makes that.

I think right now the most visual way, to achieve that, to say I have to go there because that's where my people are.

Yeah.

So so let me get this clear.

So you are you saying that the Latino community, there's no real sense of community other than the Puerto Rican festival?

Not so much that there's no sense of community is we're decentralized.

We used to that.

The Latinos are driven by their barrios, their neighborhoods.

We usually tend to be in the same spaces.

And for a very long time, the Rochester community had that.

North Clayton Avenue was and still in many ways is that of barrios.

But a lot of us grew up and moved.

You know, I live in around the coyote.

There's a ton of Puerto Ricans, you know, living in and in Webster, there's Latin American people living in Chile.

And what that kind of did is decentralize the community in a way that we're not able is harder to organize.

You know, back back then, we just left outside of our neighborhood, walked down the street, you know, talk to each other and said, hey, this is happening.

Let's go do it.

That communication has dispersed.

So places like the festival is one of the more central allies in community assets, because it doesn't matter where you live in Monroe County or even surrounding, you know that this is the place where you're going to find your community.

Another place that another thing that does that for me is for them, because they are able to break the barriers of the neighborhood, the constraints of the neighborhood.

So it's not that we're not organized is just word dispersed.

So is is is harder for us to organize ourselves as a community.

Yeah.

On a positive note, you know, Puerto Ricans moving to different the suburbs and and elevating.

Right.

Can we can we say that the goal is to to get out, but we become the minority in those places.

So the power that we had in our community, in the city is that we can say 60% of us are in the city.

We can try to unite those 60% of the voices to advocate.

But to be a Latino and around the quote, to be a Latino in Webster to be in Latino in Greece.

There's not enough power in that.

So the thought of bringing a community together continues to be, I think, our greatest, superpower because in there we are the minority.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Orlando pressure to bring the community together with the Puerto Rican festival.

Do you feel that pressure when you're organizing the festivities?

We do, in the sense of understanding the the history and the deeply rooted, you know, organization that we have.

For us, we as a board, we have we have a good time.

We we enjoy putting this together.

We're all volunteers, putting this event together.

And when we go to different conferences and I share that many other organizations are like, what?

Like you guys been around for 55 years and it's still 100% volunteer run.

That's amazing for us.

So that's a sense of pride for us as organizers that we're really doing this for, for the love of our culture, for our community.

And yeah, it's we understand the, the, the pressure.

But we don't, you know, you know, we don't cave to it.

We, we want to thrive and continue.

That's moving forward.

Yeah.

Perfect.

I, Franco yes.

He has the right.

You become.

Yes.

You have talked about pressure, right?

You have that pressure to keep that spirit alive, right?

When you get on that stage and you're setting, you're curating that vibe.

Do you, do you feel this pressure to be like, yes, I love the pressure.

Definitely feel the pressure.

Because at the end of the day, people want to be entertained, right?

They're there to be entertained.

And sometimes we have technical issues.

Sometimes the stage preparation takes a little bit longer than expected.

I remember one year, the artist took almost, like, an hour and 20 minutes to be able.

And it was one of our biggest festival is with the Bambino.

There was almost like, 14,000 people waiting, and I had to somehow entertain them.

Yeah, I did, yeah.

But it was, it was a challenge and it was, it was a whole lot of fun.

And I actually, I like the de-escalation process a little bit.

It's like we're here to have fun, like, come work with, like, work with me.

But absolutely, it's it's extremely important.

Hard work.

But I enjoy it.

You enjoy it?

Absolutely.

We can tell.

That's always great to know.

You definitely tell that you take pride in what you do.

Angelica, I want to talk a little bit about the Puerto Rican community.

Right.

69% of the population is Puerto Rican here in Rochester.

But we also know that the community continues to face some challenges, right?

Like concentrated, concentrated poverty, under-resourced schools, lack of housing.

What do you see as the most urgent issues right now for the Latino community in Rochester?

For me, one of my our most pressing issues is education, and it has been for for a very, very long time.

I mean, that's the cornerstone to all of our successes, right?

Without education, we're not able to bring up our own businesses.

We're not able to reach high paying jobs.

We're not able, to to influence, I think, our community, in the same way.

And I don't mean that just like post-secondary, you know, I got a master's and a doctorate degree.

I'm talking about education, trades and everything that, is required, for to, for us to uplift our community.

And that's really a challenge now that that I actually lose some sleep over at this moment because of what's happening at the federal level, what's happening and what has been happening, and our Rochester City School district, what's happening in our neighborhoods, with our children.

Right.

And and some of the, the crime and, and behavior that, that we're seeing not just from children, from adults.

So I think for me, that's one of the most, pressing, pressing issues because it really anchors everything else.

And then going back to what happens when we are decentralized, when, when, when a lot of the pioneers had these wonderful ideas.

Right, like the Puerto Rican festival Libero, the bilingual, education that was established through a settlement that was led by community members and I libero, it was really because we were all impacted our their kids went to city schools.

Everybody lived in that community.

But as we moved on and kind of went out to the suburbs, there's really this concentration of people that really need the rest of us to show up in a big way to advocate for them.

And that part is the part where, I think the motivation needs to continue because I made my, my child goes to east around the coast.

So I may not necessarily be impacted by what's happening in the Rochester City School District.

But you know what?

65% of my people are impacted by that.

So there's some level of of responsibility and taking events to, to bring.

I love that Orlando mentioned about the focus, the focus on youth, right.

Bringing the youth to the festival is really important because it's a way for us to show our culture.

At I, we have a saying, Nuestra Cultura done right, our culture done well, and that's very important because we are full of liveliness.

We are the most we love a party.

Yeah, we will party through death, through marriage, through struggle.

I mean, music is our liberator.

And we have to teach that there is a way to celebrate Latino culture in a way that is responsible, that will teach other people what we want them to know about us.

And one of the things that Orlando and I have actually been working on for a very long time now, I want to say maybe seven years is the Northeast Safety Committee, because there was a lot that was happening in North Clinton after the festival that had nothing to do with the festival.

And there I miss for the past six years, a group of us have missed the last day of the festival because we're running around on North Clinton Avenue, engaging our community, preventing the unofficial parade, preventing some of the stuff.

And we've actually been really successful at doing that so that the festival doesn't get a bad rap so that they're not connecting things.

But that has a lot to do with engaging our youth.

And for me, that really starts with education.

Yeah, yeah, I got so many things I want to touch on.

But first I want to we mentioned federal funding.

Has I been affected as of yet and in which ways when it comes to federal funding.

Yeah, we are we are blessed right now.

I mean, we have not been, affected.

We do have a lot of scenario planning that we've put in place to protect ourselves.

You know, we we joined in a lawsuit against the Trump administration around sanctuary cities.

So we've we've we've so far so good.

But we are prepared for when it lands on our door in the best way that we can.

And I know that that's not true for every institution, but I, I'm always just amazed that the genius of the founders of Iberia, they really did create an institution that can outlast any leader.

You know, I can now last me just the same way that outlasted every other CEO that has led it.

And I think we see the same thing in the Puerto Rican festival.

Orlando mentioned about it.

Being volunteer is key because when it's from the community, the community carries that sense of responsible city.

And, you know, when I talked to who Leo Vasquez, who was one of the pioneering people, that is very important to him, right?

That there's certain things that I Barrow does that the Puerto Rican Festival does, that, other iconic institutions like Genio Maria de Hostos Charter School, we do it for something that is greater than the business itself, is really to anchor the community and make sure that these community assets outlast all of us.

And that only happens when you have volunteers, right?

Yeah, yeah.

The responsibility and and the pride exist because it's volunteer based.

Orlando, we want to talk about the S-Word safety.

Yeah.

Right.

Safety surrounding the Puerto Rican festival.

How are we handling that this year?

Are we are we increasing safety measures?

Is the focus security?

How are we handling this?

Yeah.

So I would say in the 20 years that I've been part of this festival, safety has always been our number one priority.

We've had, we work with Black Hawk security for probably 25 years.

And every year, we have a debrief every night after the festival to talk about what happened, what could we do better the next day?

And then afterwards, have a debrief for the entire festival?

We just met with them three weeks ago or two weeks ago to talk about anything we're doing differently.

The good thing is for us is, since we've always kind of had this in place, there's not a lot of changes that we're doing other than just confirming things.

And, you know, we only do this once a year.

So making sure that we're reviewing our policies, we have a whole policy, securities, policy that we review with the entire security staff the day before the festival on site and show them around where things to be on the lookout for.

But we're very fortunate that at least in the 20 years that I've been a part of it, we've never had any like major incidents.

Yeah, you get maybe 1 or 2 fights here and there, but even that over the last five years we've haven't had any.

So I put that up against any festival that has over 20,000 people and say, we didn't even have a fight.

Yeah, over three days where I'm very proud that we have a very safe and, and family oriented, festival.

And like Angelica mentioned.

Right.

The after the post festivities that that usually does happen at not quite an avenue.

Right.

Are we.

How we handling those?

I know we're trying to take a yeah.

A step back from that and not associated with the festival but we the pride is there.

Yeah.

We know who is on North Clinton Avenue after the parties.

Right.

The Puerto Rican flags are flying.

It's a little bit hard to disassociate the festival from from those events, isn't it?

Well, I would say, like Angelica mentioned that, we've had this, I would call it an issue for 20 plus years, and people that grow up here think and grew up thinking that that is what we did and, you know, just everything we did.

But they didn't really understand the impact that it was having on the festival.

Every year for many, many years, on Monday morning, I would get, you know, wake up and have ten missed phone calls from news people asking me about what happened.

I don't even know what happened.

I was asleep by then.

But I would say, what's something that changed about?

I would say when I came in as president was, don't say that.

I mean, it wasn't our issue, but we wanted to be part of the solution.

And we were having those conversations with RPD, with the city officials, with organizations like I barrel with the Northeast Safety Committee that, was started, as you mentioned, 7 or 8 years ago, to try and have dialogs as to what we could do year round versus trying to change something on, on a weekend.

And that has proven very worthwhile for us.

You know, I think the Northeast Safety Committee and all the volunteers that we meet constantly throughout the year, not just a month before the festival, to to hash out ideas and think about what could we do differently, talk to RPD, understand what is there, maybe not necessarily the full plan of action because they can't share that with us, but at least for us to share words of what are some of the concerns that we're hearing as to some of the tactics that they've used in the past?

So those conversations have proven very worthwhile for us, and that has changed the dynamics of the festival after, you know, when when the festival ends.

And I would say the last two years we haven't had any incidents.

And we want, you know, we just met this past week and we don't foresee any issues.

So but it's engaging, educating the community to understand what, you know, what their actions are causing within the festival, in our in our general community.

Yeah, yeah.

But that sense of pride is so magnetic, right?

I think the pride when it comes to the Puerto Rican culture is unmatched.

It's, that I want to Puerto Rican flag on my car, you know, like, well, you can tell the pride is beautiful.

You could tell the festival was coming, like two weeks before you start seeing the flags that's coming.

And, you know, and with that, we do have a Puerto Rican parade.

So we want to, you know, channel that energy and pride to the Puerto Rican parade, which is on Saturday, August 2nd.

So we want folks, to go to our website and, and look at the information festival that.

Com and get more information about the parade and join us and show that pride in a safe and, and, you know, harmless way environment.

Yeah.

I love that.

Orlando.

You just can't you just know, you know, when it's time.

Yes.

When the season is here.

You just know.

And I love that about the Puerto Rican culture.

Franco, from what you're hearing, the community.

Right?

Especially from young people.

What does the festival represent to them with your peers?

So a lot of people, a lot of people look, again, a lot of people look forward to this, right?

Because you get this once a year, which to me is slightly frustrating, right?

Because it's like you're allowed to be or express who you are just once a year.

I've dealt with children and young people that have no idea they have a Spanish last name.

And they know what grandma cooks but that's not there for them.

Right.

So like music is important is a is a is a huge drive.

It's a huge asset.

Some people only know how to speak Spanish through the music.

Right.

So being able to provide this experience which is like the closest thing you can get to being in the Caribbean, right.

Is extremely important.

I think that, the work that everyone has been doing for a very long time is, underappreciated.

I'll say that because it takes a lot, it takes a whole lot.

And of course everybody wants to see their favorite artist.

And of course people have an idea of what they want to experience.

But we have three days to fit our entire culture, package it and make it look nice for people to experience, not just our culture, but, you know, everyone else.

So it is very important work for me to be able to be that bridge.

Right?

There's so many kids that they'll come up to me and they'll give me a hug and I'll speak to them deliberately, just in Spanish, and they'll look at their, their parent like, well, he say, yeah, because we have to keep art, we have to keep it alive.

You know, it only takes one generation to lose it all.

Yeah.

Does that attest to what you were saying, Angelica?

Yeah.

I mean, the loss of decentralization, this centralization.

I think, relating to the original concept of the Puerto Rican festival in different ways.

I mean, the whole idea originated as almost like copying the patron Alice in Puerto Rico, which those of us who have had the opportunity to live in Puerto Rico know that's a big festivity that goes from town to town.

And I think as we began to build volume, you know, I'd have more people live in Rochester.

There was that craving to have that happen here?

But there's children here that have never experienced last year, patron Alice in Puerto Rico.

Right.

Like they don't know what that is.

So, you know, I think it's it's it is the decentralization, I think, is the evolution of our Latini that as as people who live in the United States, you know, Latino looks different, feels different.

And making sure that the children feel a part of that, is really important.

You know, I was never a bad bunny fan.

Never until he came up with his nice owl started.

Right.

You know, but why?

His last album did was make a bridge for the younger generation.

Even my daughter is singing songs that, you know, she has no concept of the island.

She's only been there as a tourist.

She's never been a resident of that culture.

So I think it's so important to make sure that the Puerto Rican festival continues to bridge that for for generations now and for generations to come.

And I, I must add to that that, you know, Bad Bunny being the number one artist in the world right now.

Right?

We have we have an amazing one time opportunity to really showcase who we are as a people.

And the whole world is watching.

And that's the thing.

The whole world is watching.

Yeah.

And I, Franco, you do some events as well, right?

Because you try to keep that your culture going beyond the festival.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So can you talk about some of the events that you do.

Yeah.

So I curate different events.

And I'll join with chefs and we'll curate certain events.

We have a have an event called Salsa Roots, which we just dig into this older music.

And that's where our music come from as well as, I do a bachata brunch.

And the important thing is just, just create spaces for people to just enjoy something that is other than tap 50, because there's a whole lot of music and, we're in the industry, right?

We know what what what is forced, to to be heard.

And there's so much great music out there and sometimes people have no idea how to even access it.

Right?

So to me, as a DJ, I, I'm a tastemaker.

And I want to play your new favorite song.

Orlando, we're going to talk about how is the Puerto Rican festival bridging the gap between generations, right.

When you do create your itinerary for the festival.

So how do you make sure that each community, each generation is satisfied?

We're going to take a quick break.

We'll be back.

We're talking about the Puerto Rican festival right here on Sky.

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The kinds of things that you should really be recycling or sometimes not trying to recycle because you can.

The experts are going to answer your questions next hour.

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Today we are talking about the Puerto Rican Festival, one of Rochester's most beloved long the longest running festival 55 I'm going to put some respect on your name.

Yes, the longest running festival 55 years now.

Orlando, the president of the Puerto Rican festival.

We before we went to break, I put you in a hot seat.

Right.

I hope you were thinking about your answer.

How?

When planning the festival activities, how do you make sure that you are satisfying each generation?

When you do pick your artist, when you do pick the different, the different events that are occurring within the festival?

Well, that's one of the toughest ones that we, we have to do.

And, you know, I think the, the biggest thing is we have such a big, so different amount of genres from music.

We have different amount of folks that are know that know different genres of music.

So for us to understand, which, who to bring.

Right.

There's a balance with that.

The other thing is, even though the Puerto Rican festival is called the Puerto Rican Festival, as Angie, you mentioned earlier, we have a lot, a lot of population from other countries, right?

But they listen to similar music.

For example, we have, Acura, Coastal Torito.

He is a Dominican singer.

We listen to bachata.

So for us is to not only just how do we I guess please the Puerto Rican community because we are Puerto Rican Festival.

But how do we sprinkle in other, other, communities that are also represented here in Rochester and make them feel like this is also a festival for them?

So that's another element of, inclusion that we're trying to also incorporate.

But every year we're trying to see how we can bring the older generation together, the younger generation.

And as Adrian mentioned earlier, we have three days to package it all.

And oh, by the way, we have an amazing amount of local artists here that we also want to give a platform to.

And allow them to showcase their talent.

And, you know, the biggest celebration here.

So all of those things and we can't please everybody, every year there's always people that are there not happy with what we did, but for us, we really want to take all those, into account, through the music.

You know, this year we think, thankfully we got a grant through the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

We're adding a component to the children's area.

We're giving away book bags with, books that are Latino or Puerto Rican themed.

So, we, I think over 200 books, that we're giving away to children at the festival that are Spanish and, you know, they see themselves in these books, again, trying to educate them.

And we also have a bridge the gap, conversation that agents also being a part of, with the influencer Dean, with us on Thursday at 3:00, and that's to have a conversation about what's happening in the island, how we can help from here and ensure that we're bridging that gap between us living here and in Puerto Rico.

And we're speaking about, like, a literacy movement.

Right?

Angelica.

And being able to distribute books to, to the younger generation.

How is what is Iberostar?

And when it comes to making sure that the literacy is is a focus within the Puerto Rican, the Latino community.

So when it comes to education, we've we've always been an advocate for a while there.

We've provided services through the city school district.

We run the, outside of the Rochester City School District.

We run the bilingual Yup'ik program.

We have about 100, plus children in our early childhood center that do, that are nurtured in this dual language space, which we take a lot of pride of.

But I think the biggest role that we've always played, has been advocates, really, one of our priorities is to always uplift the voice.

I mean, just like in our mission, we uplift, empower and advocate.

And because education has always been such a big issue, and especially right now when we're under attack as a people, I mean, you know, being Latino, I say we went from being cool to not so cool.

But, you know, it's really important that we continue to be proud of our Latina, that that we continue to share our values, that we continue to share our history, specifically with Puerto Ricans because we're Americans.

You know, I'm about as American as apple pie as Mark Anthony loves to say.

Even though people may make me feel like I'm not.

And I think I love to hear, you know, the, that you have never given all those books because I think this is a time where, being Latino is hard.

We are being targeted and, and people are not teaching us about our culture and about what's happening in our island or our respective countries.

So I'm really proud that that's the focus.

But for us is always advocacy.

That's the role that we play.

We're conveners.

I always say in I, we do three things like, the three C's.

We either convening people together to talk about an issue, to bring light into an issue where either, being catalyst to that change, we're forcing change to happen, like we did when we started this first, you know, when we helped start this festival 55 years ago.

Like what?

Mario, I know the Oscars and anything else that we do or we're conduits, we're usually a bridge to a community that's hard to reach.

So, within that context, we're always plugging and playing when it comes to different issues.

Yeah.

And Franco, what do you look forward to each year with the Puerto Rican Festival?

You know, I, everybody has has rough lives, right?

Or experiences I look forward to when people come and enjoy a weekend of just fun and food and family like the one hour that I'm on stage with you, we're going to have a good time, you know what I mean?

And that is for me what I, what I, try to instill and and my platform, I respect it, you know, I mean, so it is important for people to have a good time, right, to, like, forget your problems at home, like, we're here, we're having a good time, and we're celebrating with pride and joy.

And it's beautiful when people walk out and and, like Orlando said, like we didn't have any issues.

Right?

It's it's a beautiful thing.

Yeah.

It in Orlando.

What what can we expect this year?

The old and new I know we have the new panel discussion.

Is that something new.

That's that is something new.

This area what else is new?

I feel like there's a lot of new happening.

Well, we are trying to really embrace and elevate our, like, our branding, and utilize our platform to just expand our reach so that more people can, can experience what we have at the festival.

A lot of the things that we did last year was, convert more to the digital side.

So as far as ticketing, we went fully digital with the ticketing this year, we're adding a component to even just our, our bar where, you know, we're having like wristbands.

If you go to like Disney World, you can kind of, you know, I don't know, spend money with the, with the, with the wristband.

But that's all branded as well.

So trying to elevate our branding, so that we can, then leverage that with other partners to be able to provide more services at the festival.

So it's like, every year we try to do something different.

But as I mentioned earlier, we have one opportunity, right?

We do it.

And then we're like, all right, that went well, or what do we need to change?

And then we do it again next year.

Yeah, yeah.

So what are some things that you've seen?

Maybe it wasn't too good.

We'll we'll fix that up next.

What you got last year, which is being our first year parcel five.

You know, before that we were 15 years, at the Red Wing Stadium.

And, you know, when you're doing it for so long as, like, every year, we know what we're doing last year was, was a way for us to kind of start green slate.

Yeah.

At parcel five.

And I know last year we were thinking, you know, even the layout we added two inches, for example.

And the first, the first day there was nobody entering the backside through to the by the stage.

And you know, we had double stars.

We're trying to figure out what to do with these people now.

And that same night we moved all the tents over.

We combine them into one.

But that's our ability to be flexible.

Have those conversations on a nightly basis, not not only with our board, but also security and everybody else, and kind of pivot as, as we as we have to.

Right, to make sure that the next day when people showed up, they were, you know, they were greeted, you know, faster instead of, you know, long line because we had two different things.

So those are the kind of the little things that maybe people don't see happening.

They just show up like, oh, there's only one inches now.

Okay.

I didn't even know there was a second one.

So those are the kind of things that we pivot and and be flexible.

As event organizers.

You're doing a great job with 55 years, right?

Why?

Why do you think the festival has lasted this long 55 years?

Well, I do include two things.

One, is the community, you know, supports it, right?

I mean, if nobody shows up, then we wouldn't be here.

But I also think, as we mentioned earlier, just the pride and commitment of the organizers over the years, not only with myself and our current board, but everybody else that had done it prior to us.

You know, that's a sense of pride for us.

And I don't you know, there's been many times even when things were really bad, you know, after the festival, they kept saying, oh, the festival should be canceled, then.

I mean, that's the last thing you want with a community that is committed to, you know, what we do and this organization.

So, we were very, I guess, proud to have the support of that community and make sure that, you know, we continue moving forward.

Yeah.

Because the festival has faced the challenges.

Right?

Absolutely.

Face cancellation.

How I could imagine how that made you feel and how you had to navigate that to prove that, no, we're not going to cancel this event.

Like how how was that experience for you?

Well, I would say the the festival itself has never been canceled to me, at least not in 20 years.

That was part of it.

I think two years ago, there was an issue with the parade on a Saturday morning maybe two years ago.

And, you know, there were saying the festival was canceled on Saturday.

And, you know, I think for us as organizers, we need to be one understand what we have.

Yes.

Separate different things that happen because nothing happened at the festival site.

But yet different folks were saying we needed to cancel that day.

And, and for us to have allies, you know, within the community, different government agencies and things of that nature.

I think for us that proved to be positive because we were able to have those conversations and really say, no, this is this is not doesn't have anything to do with that.

This is what we do.

These are our policies and procedures.

And basically, there's no way you could cancel this festival today unless you want bigger problems without saying no.

Oh, yeah.

Beyond beyond the entertainment.

Angelica.

The festival is also an expression of cultural resilience.

In what ways do you see it empowering the broader community?

Well, it gives us this.

It gives, everyone visibility to our community.

I think is probably the most visible we are throughout the year.

Everybody, like you said, everybody's talking about it, everybody seeing, the flags.

So I think that's number one, you know, and just to piggyback, you know, the festival can never be canceled.

And I think our community and our leadership and all the powers that be have to always understand that, I do think we have to separate, the things that are for the festival belong to the festival.

The things that happen outside of the festival happen outside of the festival.

And I think that's the other injury that we suffer, that there's always this generalization that happens in Bipoc communities.

You know, we're where we hold the, you know, the the scenes, the sense of want are paid by many.

And that's something that we also have to resist and correct people.

You know, one of the things that I always say to people is there's never an incident in the festival.

And I, I say we can I love our lens to put that against any festival.

There's never an incident.

The festival.

And we wouldn't do that.

You know, we don't generalize, you know, every Caucasian person because of what happens at the East Band or anything like that, right?

We we're able to compartmentalize that thing.

But something happens when you're talking about Bipoc communities.

The sun and the sin of one becomes the sin of all.

And then the next thing you know, we we want to be canceled.

So, you know, as long as I barrel is standing, we will always fight with the Puerto Rican festival against any pushback for cancellation or any defunding, that occurs.

The Puerto Rican festival led the path for Italian festivals, for Polish festivals, for every other kind of festival that we have, because we want first, and no one should ever take away from that.

And, Puerto Rican festival, the other thing that should never happen with the Puerto Rican festival, and I think you mentioned, is we shouldn't be limited to one thing.

You know, at barrel, we have a rock composer concert that I intentionally named the concert because I don't ever want anybody to think that I'm throwing a festival, that it's in direct misalignment with the Puerto Rican festival and funding, one shouldn't mean defunding the other.

And the minute that I find out that funding one meant defunding the other, they will get a letter from me saying that is not acceptable because we are worthy and we have enough of a density in our representation that we deserve more than one thing.

But I think that's the unfortunate reality of the challenges, right?

The Bipoc communities are faced with where it's like, well, we can only fund one thing, you know, so this year we we applied for some county funding.

And, you know, I wrote Orlando a letter of support, and Orlando wrote me a letter of support, just in case there's any confusion.

Or someone may think that these two things are in competition.

And that is.

And that is critical, for us to preserve our assets, we have to preserve our cultural assets.

I work, you know, I want Orlando to do this, like, regionally sometimes, you know, we have a small presence in Amsterdam, New York, where there's a large Puerto Rican community.

We did a series of roundtables to talk about issues.

We ran a report on their local data.

And I said to the group of 25 people from that community, what do you want I to work on?

I said, we need a festival.

So I do A15 hour festival.

The 2000 people from Amsterdam show up to.

And the reason why we do it is not because we want to throw a party, is because they're invisible, they're invisible, and they want, a space where they can showcase that Latino culture.

We may be lively.

We may be loud.

Sometimes we may be many things, but we're not violent.

Where the most welcoming culture, everybody's family, like, literally everybody's family, we allow people to come in and out of those spaces.

And I remember doing that festival in Amsterdam and, you know, like a six of us trying to plan this.

And then 2000 people showed up, and now we're trying to build it so that it can be just like the Puerto Rican festival, that they'll have a community board where we just kind of play backbone support, and they can become an iconic institution.

But that was the first thing that that community asked us for, not for go advocate for my education or go find me better jobs.

But they're like, how can we do all of that if these leaders don't know that we're here?

So see what you started earlier.

All right.

And one thing you mentioned too is, I know you mentioned other events and things of that nature.

One of the things that I'm happy to see the Dominican on, that they're having a Dominican festival and they've had it for a couple of years now, but it's great to see other communities, you know, build something of their own with our help as, as needed.

Right.

And we're here to and they they know that we're here to help and advice.

But it's great for them to take ownership of their own culture and everything and being able to celebrate in their own way as well.

Yeah.

Let's talk about celebration.

The headliners.

Who are we expecting this year?

Well, on Thursday, July 31st, which is a free day, for everyone.

So we're very happy to continue that tradition.

We have Jose Alberto like scenario, salsa legend.

So we're very happy to see him perform here.

Next Thursday and Friday, we have, Coastal Torito, again, huge bachata artist.

And then on Saturday, August 2nd, we have Luis Vasquez, who's, we talk about the young generation.

He's a young, up and coming salsa artist.

And then we end the festival with, let's see he feel that there.

I mean, Adrian right there.

Yeah.

He does.

You pitch it to Adrian, dawg?

Yeah.

No reggaeton legends.

Yes.

They, they're actually making a comeback that has sped up for quite some time.

So it's really exciting to have them on that stage.

And then, you know, all the local bands.

Anthony the African, Lola morales.

Banda like so many of them that, we, we're happy to be able to provide that platform for them to, to showcase their talent.

So I have a fun fact.

So I was raised in Santa Cruz, right, the Virgin Islands, and there's a very big Puerto Rican community.

Right.

So I, you know, and every in my backyard, if there's music playing at 4 a.m., you know, we know which neighbor is partying and having a good time.

And I just wanted to say, like, I, I really embrace the, the Puerto Rican culture, the food.

Yeah.

Emphasis on the food and the music and the people.

So I love that you have this festival 55 years running.

What's your hope for the next five, six years?

What's going on.

What can we expect?

You know, I hope somebody else with the board, my board has that money.

So what is listening?

So hopefully when I don't takes it.

Yeah.

I'm bad bunny here.

Before we wrap up, Orlando, can you give us the basics when, where how to get tickets?

When is the parade?

Let the people know what's going down.

So Puerto Rican festival next Thursday, July 31st through August 2nd.

So Thursday, Friday, Saturday at parcel five.

All the information can be found on that PR festival.

Whatcom and the parade on Saturday, August 2nd.

It was a pleasure.

Franco.

Angelica.

Orlando.

Thank you.

Puerto Rican festival, July 30th 1st to August 2nd.

All right.

Thanks.

Yes.

We'll see you there.

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