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Parliament Hill and city hall’s Marion Dewar Plaza exploded in colour, music and costume bedazzlement on Sunday afternoon as the 11th annual Latin American Festival parade and ensuing party beckoned a couple of thousand participants and spectators.
They came in all sorts of outfits. John Alcina took part as Simon Bolivar, wearing a formal and ornate black, red, gold and white military uniform, its fringed epaulets reminiscent of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover.
“Every country from Latin America is here today,” said the 23-year-old Colombian, “and we’re all walking together. We represent the people who came from Spain, and the aboriginal and the black people. That’s how Colombia came to be.”
Another Colombian, 15-year-old Jose Perez, was taking part in his first such festival, dressed in a white shirt and black suit, and top hat of the country’s aristocrats who seized independence from Spain in the early 1800s. “That’s where I was born and I want to tell people that I’m happy to be from there,” he said.
Panamanian Brian Pomares was impossible to miss in his bright Diablico Sucio, or Dirty Devil, outfit. “I love making people smile, or be scared, when they see me,” he said of his outfit historically tied to Christian conversion. “But I’m also proud of my country.”
Three-year-old Amy Tinoco waits for the Latin American Festival parade to start.
Carlos Alvarado and his daughter, Amarilis, meanwhile, wore traditional heavy, hot and hand-made Mayan costumes of Guatemala, with intricate beadwork woven around mirrors and feathers.
“The beads and mirrors,” said Amarilis, “represent what the Spanish gave the Mayans for their gold and jewels.”
Like most others who took part, the Alvarados said Sunday’s event was primarily about representing a culture and a way of life. “It’s important that we don’t lose our roots,” said Carlos.
Numerous tents were set up in Marion Dewar Plaza to cater to late-afternoon appetites, as crowds queued for limonada, tamales, empanadas and such. Not surprising, perhaps, Mr. Churrito’s churros were a popular item, while the longest line formed at a booth with no sign at all save a very small one on the counter, promising El Salvadorian pupusas, or tortillas.
The Latin American Festival parade makes its way along Wellington Street.
At a nearby merchandise tent, all kinds of colourful trinkets were available for purchase: miniature Ecuadorian boxing gloves to hang from your rear-view mirror; Uruguayan bracelets, Real Madrid scarves, wallets bearing Brazil’s flag, lanyards from Honduras, soccer balls bearing any number of countries’ names and colours. Even souvenirs from Bosnia, a country not typically associated with Latin America, could be bought.
“There are 14 countries that come together here,” said volunteer Rosita Pavia, who sported a traditional blue-and-yellow dress associated with Mexico’s week-long weddings. “They don’t always get along,” she admitted, “but they come here to show off their pride and customs, to let people know what they’re all about. Only Chile doesn’t show up. We invite them every year, but they don’t take part.”
Melanie Gallardo takes part in the the Latin American Festival parade.
But Melanie Gallardo would beg to differ. In a white-feathered Polynesian outfit native only to the Easter Islands, a protectorate of Chile’s, Gallardo said this is the third year that she’s been the parade’s sole Chilean representative.
“For years, Chile wasn’t part of the festival,” she explained. “There aren’t many Chilean people in Ottawa. So a couple of years ago I decided to represent in the parade. I’m very proud to be Chilean.”
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
They came in all sorts of outfits. John Alcina took part as Simon Bolivar, wearing a formal and ornate black, red, gold and white military uniform, its fringed epaulets reminiscent of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover.
“Every country from Latin America is here today,” said the 23-year-old Colombian, “and we’re all walking together. We represent the people who came from Spain, and the aboriginal and the black people. That’s how Colombia came to be.”
Another Colombian, 15-year-old Jose Perez, was taking part in his first such festival, dressed in a white shirt and black suit, and top hat of the country’s aristocrats who seized independence from Spain in the early 1800s. “That’s where I was born and I want to tell people that I’m happy to be from there,” he said.
Panamanian Brian Pomares was impossible to miss in his bright Diablico Sucio, or Dirty Devil, outfit. “I love making people smile, or be scared, when they see me,” he said of his outfit historically tied to Christian conversion. “But I’m also proud of my country.”
Three-year-old Amy Tinoco waits for the Latin American Festival parade to start.
Carlos Alvarado and his daughter, Amarilis, meanwhile, wore traditional heavy, hot and hand-made Mayan costumes of Guatemala, with intricate beadwork woven around mirrors and feathers.
“The beads and mirrors,” said Amarilis, “represent what the Spanish gave the Mayans for their gold and jewels.”
Like most others who took part, the Alvarados said Sunday’s event was primarily about representing a culture and a way of life. “It’s important that we don’t lose our roots,” said Carlos.
Numerous tents were set up in Marion Dewar Plaza to cater to late-afternoon appetites, as crowds queued for limonada, tamales, empanadas and such. Not surprising, perhaps, Mr. Churrito’s churros were a popular item, while the longest line formed at a booth with no sign at all save a very small one on the counter, promising El Salvadorian pupusas, or tortillas.
The Latin American Festival parade makes its way along Wellington Street.
At a nearby merchandise tent, all kinds of colourful trinkets were available for purchase: miniature Ecuadorian boxing gloves to hang from your rear-view mirror; Uruguayan bracelets, Real Madrid scarves, wallets bearing Brazil’s flag, lanyards from Honduras, soccer balls bearing any number of countries’ names and colours. Even souvenirs from Bosnia, a country not typically associated with Latin America, could be bought.
“There are 14 countries that come together here,” said volunteer Rosita Pavia, who sported a traditional blue-and-yellow dress associated with Mexico’s week-long weddings. “They don’t always get along,” she admitted, “but they come here to show off their pride and customs, to let people know what they’re all about. Only Chile doesn’t show up. We invite them every year, but they don’t take part.”
Melanie Gallardo takes part in the the Latin American Festival parade.
But Melanie Gallardo would beg to differ. In a white-feathered Polynesian outfit native only to the Easter Islands, a protectorate of Chile’s, Gallardo said this is the third year that she’s been the parade’s sole Chilean representative.
“For years, Chile wasn’t part of the festival,” she explained. “There aren’t many Chilean people in Ottawa. So a couple of years ago I decided to represent in the parade. I’m very proud to be Chilean.”
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
