Parade Watch: Puerto Rico

This past weekend Franklin Park again played host to the annual Puerto Rican Festival. Boston seems to have lost interest in the festival overall. The only imagery, besides our own, found in local media came in the form of a single picture run in black and white in the Boston Globe and in color in the Metro. The Boston Herald used some imagery from the parade to discuss the recent filing in U.S. District Court that Boston failed to fulfill it's obligation to furnish election related materials in Spanish as well as English. The festival spanned three days in Franklin Park filled with food (some really good food), music, carnival rides, and anything you could ever want with the flag of Puerto Rico on it. Anything you could want, and more, that is, from hats and shirts, to Sponge Bob, to items heavily lacquered which, as best as Bostonist could tell, were meant for mantle decoration all carried the flag.

Disinterest today has become the norm when years past the Puerto Rican Festival was synonymous with a stabbing or shooting in or around Egelston Square. With a virtual lock down. the Boston Police Department put a damper on the area from the Stony Brook T stop and Amory St. to Franklin Park (not to mention the coverage they had through the park). Could this be what "operation rolling thunder" looks like? Rerouted traffic and a cruiser at every intersection in a quarter mile radius with the officers just observing? The Boston Police Departments efforts may have led to the lack of violence, or maybe the Puerto Rican community in Boston is getting along a bit better these days.

Sunday brought the Mayor marching through Egelston Square, surrounded by supporters. As the parade made its way from Roxbury Community College, down Columbus Ave., to Franklin Park Bostonist captured some images, even caught the boredom of some (pictured right). We also overheard a few key comments as Maura Hennigan’s truck rolled by. "Is she trying to brainwash us?" and "no one is gonna take Menino’s spot." With a low, monotonus Maura muttering in Spanish barely audible over the Latin-infused hip-hop Bostonist thinks she very well might have been trying to brainwash parade watchers. Menino, of course, had first billing in the parade route coming only steps after the color guard. The parade gave a forum for city council and all the mayoral candidates to showcase the diversity of their support. However, it may have been the sleeper I'm-so-geeky-I'm-cool Sam Yoon that stole the show. Speaking of the color gaurd Bostonist thought you might have missed the fatigued man, masked in a Puerto Rican flag, fraternizing with the police.