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The Hispanic Columbus Day Parade Part 2

October 17, 2007

My previous posting on the Hispanic Columbus Day Parade was a little longer than expected, but for someone who was there for only about half of the parade, I sure have a lot more to show.

This post will concentrate on the period costumes and the dancers. I don’t know yet whether it will be one or two posts. Let’s just say that there were a lot of reasons to take a lot of pictures.

The first part of the parade had little music. There were a lot of delays between the groups and I was a little depressed at how sedate it was all going. Over time, the energy began to ramp up until it was…well, a great little parade going on.

First, the costumes and the dancers were highly correlated. At first, there were some people posing nicely in native national dress.

And there were occasional floats, including this odd one that had a small secret packed in there (the second picture)

The secret: kids in costume.

The costumes/native dress were straight out of the picture books.

And other times they were just wildly, wildly colorful. That was especially true with the dancers…and kids like the following.

But it was the dancers that really showed their stuff. The only real problem I had was that I could never figure out who was from where. It seemed like Bolivia showed up a lot. But some were obviously from some other countries. It actually doesn’t matter. What mattered was their enthusiasm and it was great. Another item that was great was that all ages and types were part of the routine.

Here a few pictures of some of the dancing sequences.

The thing that was amazing is that they just kept coming and coming and coming. And they all seemed to be absolutely independently costumed.

Oh, and high-heeled. These ladies danced their way for a couple of miles…except they kept going back and forth across the street so that added a lot of distance for them.

The ones you’ve seen so far are just small groups, but sometimes they came in much larger numbers.

Colorful, colorful, colorful.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I’ve barely scratched the surface. Stay tuned for part 3.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Parades

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The Hispanic Columbus Day Parade (Part 1)

October 16, 2007

I didn’t have high expectations of the Hispanic Columbus Day Parade, but I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay for the whole thing. For the second time in two weeks, I just got weary of the standing around. It was cool and windy, which were a little irritating two hours in (I was only in a long-sleeved shirt) but the fact that it started 90 minutes late (and I got there 30 minutes before that) that was the deciding factor.

Anyway, enough complaining about how the NYC dot gov “events calendar” got yet another parade time wrong! In any event, it looks like parade season is slowing down so that’s becoming a moot point.

Back to the parade. This was one of your top-of-the-line Fifth Avenue parades that starts at 44th Street and goes up to 86th. That takes it right past Central Park. I wasn’t up that high. In fact, I stood at 57th right outside the Apple Store and right across the street from the Plaza Hotel (still closed for huge renovations).

The crowd was pretty good, but the cool wind may have kept a lot of others away. The crowd waxed and waned during the parade, but it was never close to being deserted.

It started in typical fashion: cops on horses, and then a parade standard: a marching band from Mother Cabrini High School. They’re good, but sometimes you wonder if the poor kids in that band ever get to have a weekend to themselves.

I’m expecting to break this parade into two parts, so let me get something off my chest before I get into the typical descriptions that I do.

Hispanic Columbus Day? As opposed to Columbus Day? At first blush, I sympathize: the Italians have co-opted Columbus Day and turned it into their celebration. But it was Spain that sent Columbus. The people of Central and South America want their own parade to celebrate and that’s great with me. But why call it “Columbus Day” as Columbus was definitely not there for the two hours or so that I observed. The closest they came was in the name of the country of Columbia. No mention of Christopher at all. It is a reaction to the perception of his being the spoiler of pristine cultures (not that I accept that view, myself)? As you’ll see in some of the pictures, there’s very little of the European descent in a lot of the participants, but I’m not the one who named the parade after the guy they are ignoring.

End of my minor rant. You know, I’ve done two complaints so far, which is a bit ridiculous. The parade was fine. In fact, it was mighty fine. The crowd looked pretty sedate, and mostly remained sedate; but I tell you that the marchers made up for it. I don’t know if there was something special about being at the location I was at, but when the bulk of the parade came by there was a bit of a “dance storm”. You just couldn’t hold those folks back. They were terrific and their enthusiasm was more than enough to make up for being late or ignoring the parade’s namesake.

I said the crowd was “pretty sedate”. There was one character who wasn’t. Not even close. This guy went the extra mile in showing his enthusiasm. Did he dance? No. Did he call out to the crowd? Nope. Did he wear a funny costume? No…but he had enough piercings to qualify. So, what did he do? Well, he played the conch. Yep, a conch shell. I don’t know how many times the guy let loose with it, but well over a dozen. The poor guy would get so red in the face that you’d worry for him.

The little girl and I share and appreciation of a unique enthusiast. I wouldn’t have any for someone blowing a horn or, worse, using an air horn. But a conch blower? That’s class.

Of course, how that item coincides with some of the cultures (including the landlocked Bolivians who took up a huge portion of the marchers that I saw) is a bit problematic. Nonetheless, it was great.

One of the first marchers was a bit of a herald for what was to come…Bolivians. Yeah, that’s what she was advertising…Bolivians.

The parade started with a lot of the usuals: delays between floats, a lack of music (until the dancers showed up), and the usual groups of unrecognizable (to me) dignitaries.

It also had that very Hispanic sort of group: bagpipers.

But these bagpipers were unique: no kilts! They didn’t even have a tartan! Has the bagpipe truly transcended cultures? Actually, I’d say it has.

Other significant items the parade had were cars. And these cars had a difference. I don’t know if this is some sort of cultural issue, but their hoods almost always looked like this:

Sometimes, like the above, it was household knickknacks like the llamas and musical instruments. But I seemed to notice a lot of them with kitchenware. The next one is from Argentina.

There were quite a few beauty queens (they were always referred to as “Reina”). Here’s one of the few named ones: Mayra Alexandra.

Here’s another: Elizabeth Vila.

The Daily News’ beauty queen.

A queen from Argentina. (She was perched in a car that was advertising a Honda dealership.)

The next were from Chile.

And from Ecuador…or is it Equador? No matter: they had two.

And some young “reinas” who may have been Ecuadorian/Equadorian.

And some from El Salvador.

And, also from El Salvador, Reina Margarita Martinez.

Much like the “Miss Polonias” of my previous posts (here and here), these nations just love to show off their attractive young ladies. And we just love being shown off to.

So, it is at least two posts. Tomorrow I hope to post the native costumes and dancers. They were so very, very, very good.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Parades

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CultureFest 2007 in Battery Park

October 14, 2007

Just a quick post on Saturday’s wandering down to Battery Park. I’ll be posting more on that area soon, but Battery Park is at the absolute southern tip of Manhattan. The “Battery” is actually the site of an old fort that protected Manhattan from enemy navies, should they want to invade (and, on occasion, they did). Nowadays, it’s a wonderful little park and a jumping off point to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Anyway, every year the city holds an event called CultureFest. It’s actually a pleasant and popular event with an emphasis on kids. Not that it is geared toward kids, but that there are definite kid-friendly items including some of the bigger names.

Mostly, the event is a place that national cultural centers love to exhibit their paraphenalia. Mostly, that’s just brochures, but it can veer off into actual items. Some of the national groups that exhibited this year were the French, Irish, Germans, Japanese, Spainish, Chinese, Mexican, and Tibetian. Some not-quite one-nationalities also exhibited like a Carribean group, a Hispanic group, and Scandinavia House. I was speaking with the woman working the Scandinavia House exhibit and, noticing her very black hair, asked if she were a descendent. “No,” she answered, “all the real Scandinavians are working today.” I just loved that response.

And then there were the museums. I’m not even going to try to name them. Dozens. All sorts of museums (to re-classify such things as zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens in addition to more traditional museums) were there, but all they had were brochures and kid stuff. Lots of kid stuff for them.

The fest was performed along a series of walkways within the park. Each of the groups had their own white tent. It was pretty nicely done.

There were also some exhibits. The flax works were moderately popular. Okay, for me it was fascinating. I’ve seen it before, but the process and the results are fun to watch.

The woman would pull the flax through the nails and it would slowly align all of the strands. Eventually, it looked like hair (that’s a final sample drapped around her neck). This would later be spun and woven to become linen. It seemed like a lot of work.

There was a small group of these Historic Richmond Town re-enactors. At one point, they did a little dance performance.

I didn’t think of it at the time, but I don’t know the time period they are enacting. When I first saw them, I thought instantly of the Amish so that was sort of the mindset I had for them, although I knew they were acting. Later, I saw one of the their number, in full costume, going by carrying some Starbucks for the group. It was a moment of cognitive dissonance that made me smile.

My favorite moment of the wandering was a very simple one. I was looking at a Battery Park Conservancy group’s exhibit and the two of them and I started conversing. Just a very simple conversation where they talked about how much better the weather was than it had been the previous day. Their friendliness was very engaging and they really seemed to be happy to have all of the people wandering around their park. Nothing notable was said, but their attitude was really pleasant. New Yorkers are really nice people.

-H

Categories: Battery Park, Events, Manhattan

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New York’s Columbus Day Parade

October 12, 2007

I usually love the Columbus Day Parade. It’s one of the more prestigious parades in the city and can have some absolutely wonderful sights. Sad to say, but this year I missed a lot of them.

Blame the General Pulaski Day Parade. It took a lot out of me as I was there over four hours (even though I enjoyed it thoroughly). The prospect of another four to six hours for the Columbus Day Parade was too much. I did make it there for three hours, though. Only two hours of parade.

Hey, it was supposed to start at 11am! I got there early. Great spot: opposite Rockefeller Center with my back to Saks Fifth Avenue. A view so grand my camera couldn’t catch it in one photo. I’m only going to post one of the two it took to capture the building.

If you haven’t seen it before, the building just keeps going and going.

Anyway, getting to the spot was actually almost as interesting as anything else. I was walking up 42nd Street and I hear sirens and more sirens and a few more sirens. I looked and I saw what I first thought was a Presidential motorcade as it was so big turning onto Madison Avenue. Flashers going crazy.

Once onto Madison, they still kept up the sirens, but they were pretty much at a standstill. By now, I knew what it was: New Jersey was showing up late for the parade and was enjoying the chance to set off their sirens and flashers in the big city. Honestly, I felt it was abusive. Just because you can set off your sirens doesn’t mean you should. Maybe it’s exciting for them, but New Yorkers hear sirens all the time and really don’t need to hear more.

Anyway, they had a lot of their vehicles getting into place. Remember, the parade was to start at 11am and this was around 10:15. Once they pulled off onto the appropriate side streets, they emptied out a number of marchers and they had to go and find their positions.

Anyway, back to Rockefeller Center and my long wait for an 11am parade. The following picture was taken at 11am.

The crowd was gathering. And the marchers were…

…walking in the wrong direction at 11:15am. It’s a northward parade and these folks, who included the Grand Marshall, were walking southward. Why, I remember the days of the Stueben Parade when it started precisely on time. I’m not going to do any cheap shots regarding Italians and running on time. But my feet were hurting and I just wanted to see a few sights.

At 11:35, the first part started (I was only a few blocks north of the starting point around 44th so it wasn’t an issue of travel time from the start). As usual, cops on horses, although they were preceded by some antique cars (alas, no good photos came of that). Then the Marine Corp band came.

I haven’t seen them in a while and they’re always good.

Okay, I’ve posted way too many Miss Polonias, but I did get a couple of equivalents at this parade. Here’s Joella Cuzzo, the Columbus Day Parade queen.

One thing that was different about this parade was the prevelance of official filmcameras. I haven’t seen many film crews covering the recent parades, but there were a number of them on Fifth Avenue. The crowds always love them.

Speaking of the crowd; this was a pretty good one. Nothing spectacular, but almost everyone around me was speaking in Italian. It’s always a good sign when that sort of thing happens. The parade did have some calling back and forth, but not to the conversational level that I saw at the Pulaski Parade. But there was one special moment when a float playing some recorded music was rolling up past us and three or four members of the crowd around me started singing the lyrics to the music. The music itself had no vocal track, instead the crowd members took it upon themselves to sing it out. I’ve no idea of the song’s meaning (national anthem? drinking song? children’s ditty?), but the fact that they started singing it out was nice and may have been one of the best moments of the day for me.

Another pleasant moment was when a cop grabbed a flag and started running with it.

The parade started going in earnest. There were lots of period costumes and the like.

And dignitaries.

And politicians. Senator Chuck Schumer brought his bullhorn and called out in Italian. I always get a kick out of the signs some of them have around them. They want no mistaken identity.

Congressman Anthony Weiner was there…but they must have taken away his bullhorn. Poor guy.

But Mayor Bloomberg did show. He always appears in the middle of a huge crowd. I’ve seen him surrounded by children before, as if daring someone to say something nasty toward him in the midst of kids.

Along with him came some uniformed police. A couple of female cops stopped near me and I got a kick out of their extra handcuffs. This picture captures less than half of them.

Another beauty queen came by. Actually about three of them did, but only one picture came out any good (and not all that good at that). Miss New York.

And another…beauty queen? Or is she just a celebrity? No, she’s Celebrity Queen Sondra Fortunato! (AKA, Miss Liberty USA.)

But, mostly what I seemed to see were people waving flags. Not Italian or American ones. Just generic flags.

(The guys below also threw their flags.)

Okay, the next is an Italian flag and they were just carrying it.

At about 1:40, I left. I was just tuckered out.

I missed the one thing that I was really after. I wanted a picture of my favorite parade costume. It’s always worn by women. It can be modern or ancient. It can be square or round. My favorite Columbus Day Parade costume is…a table. The women attach it around themselves like a bizarre hoopskirt. The table is fake, of course, and it always holds food, also fake. But it symbolizes a wonderful home; or at least that’s how I interpret it. And who could object to such a symbol? Not me. Hey, it’s my favorite costume and I’m really sorry that I wasn’t up to waiting.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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General Pulaski Parade / Polish Parade in NYC – Part 4

October 11, 2007

It’s time for more Miss Polonias. They really made my day.

This is Miss Polonia of Bayonne, New Jersey.

Miss Polonia of South Bergen West Hudson Kasia Sudol and Junior Miss Polonia Alexandra Cison.

Next, another Miss Polonia without a designation that I saw. I don’t know if that’s a Junior Miss Polonia or a member of the “court”.

Miss Polonia of South Amboy New Jersey, Karolina Czarnecki. I’m sorry to have such a poor picture of Junior Miss Polonia Dominique Macanski (I’m not sure of the spelling, but the sign isn’t clear).

Next, Miss Polonia of New Brunswick Magda Kubasek.

Miss Polonia of Perth Amboy, Krolawa Zjednoclenia. Obviously, two additional “Miss Polonias” accompanied (one a “Junior Miss” and the other’s title isn’t known to me).

Miss Polonia of Ocean County, New Jersey.

Miss Polonia of Passaic and Vicinity, Monika Pyryt.

This next one is different. Technically, she’s referred to as Miss ZMP. But to me she’s Diana Sapinski, another excellent Miss Polonia.

We’ve been going all over New Jersey, so you know there’s a Miss Polonia of Newark. This is Sylvia Sobcryk.

Next is Miss Polonia of Clark, Julia Bednarczyk.

Clark seems to be a land of relatively melancholic Polish women with large tiaras, who get their own cars to ride through parades. Here’s a court member of Clark that I caught between smiles and waves.

Next, Miss Polonia of Linden Magda Przybyszewka and Junior Miss Polonia Tiffany Lukenda.

Miss Polonia of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Miss Polonia of the Polish-American Club of North Jersey in Paramus, Natalia Pierog.

I hadn’t expected this one, a Catholic Church had their own Miss Polonia. Miss Polonia of Holy Rosary Church of Passaic, Monica Mynaryk.

Now, right after that was another Miss Polonia of Rosary Church. I believe also of Passaic (the ladies passed by less than 2 minutes apart). Two Miss Polonias from one place? Why not? Here’s Joanna Dziobek.

And so ends my four-part review of the General Pulaski Parade of 2007. I showed up an hour late and I haven’t the foggiest of what I missed. Certainly I missed the politicians…well, only in the sense of not seeing them. There could have been another dozen Miss Polonias, but I shouldn’t even speculate.

Let me end on a more textual note. I really like this parade. It has almost everything that a watcher could want. The crowd, although not a flag waving bunch of wild enthusiasts like the Puerto Rican Parade goers, were a wonderful group as they held conversations with the parade marchers. It was terrific to see the crowds revel in their history and identity. There was great humor and excellent music. I only heard “Roll Out the Barrel” once, but it was sung in Polish! There’s all the difference in the world in that.

To the marchers and to all of the Miss Polonias (past and present): you throw a good parade.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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