Jacob Rios, a Humboldt Park native, used to attend the Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade every year with his father.
It often landed on Father’s Day, so the two would spend the weekend together.
But even though his father passed away in 2015, the 38-year-old has kept up the father-and-son tradition. On Saturday afternoon, Rios brought his youngest, 5-year-old Jovani, to the parade for the first time.
“This was like his heart and soul; this is the beauty of Chicago,” Rios said of the event. “Now I’ve got my little guy with me. … It feels like a blessing. I know he’s watching from heaven right now.”
Rios and his son were among the hundreds cheering from the sidewalk of Division Street as the 46th annual Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade passed through Humboldt Park Saturday.
The father-son duo had arrived from Jovani’s baseball game on the West Side at 10 a.m., with Rios proudly displaying the Puerto Rican flag on his sleeve in two ways — his shirt and a tattoo he got shortly before his dad died.
“I’m late to everything in my life,” he said. “To this, I’m not.”
Dayanne Ivera, a Humboldt Park resident who moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico when she was 18, said she was attending for the first time because she “wanted to be in the mix.”
Now 32, she said though she returns to Puerto Rico every November for her birthday, always making sure to visit her grandparents, being at the parade feels like home.
“This is the closest you’re gonna get to Puerto Rico over here,” she said. “It gives you that nostalgic feeling going around smelling the food and hearing the music and the vibes of everybody. … It’s a great way to explore the culture authentically.”
Ivera and her sister showed up in matching — almost — outfits: Roberto Clemente jerseys, a Puerto Rican MLB player and the first Latin-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, though Ivera opted for an alternate jersey to differentiate herself.
“He’s an icon. This is the Puerto Rican parade; you have to,” Ivera said. “It’s law by now. … It’s like Jeeps, we all just give the little head nods.”
The parade was once again held at Paseo Boricua, the heart of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community — home to many of the 93,000-plus Puerto Ricans in Chicago, or 3.3% of its population according to the 2020 Census — as part of Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas.
The festival hosted new activities through the weekend, including a cookoff between firefighters and a 20-foot-wide map of Puerto Rico where guests can use stickers to mark the towns they are from — which organizers said aimed to bring people together — as well as the usual arts, food vendors and dancing.
Charlie Mango, a Puerto Rican Logan Square resident, moved to Chicago from New York five years ago and has attended the parade every year since. He said while the New York parade is often larger, it’s the soul of Chicago’s celebrations that makes it stand out.
“It’s hard to beat New York, but I really love the spirit of Chicago,” Mango, 26, said. “It’s very local. … I love the neighborhood feel. I think New York can feel very isolating; people don’t always get to know each other.”
Mango bought a handcrafted Puerto Rican flag with a golden tassel border because he didn’t want to be “cheap” this time around, and he also wore the symbol on a thong over jeans and carried a rainbow Puerto Rican flag.
“It’s good to remember that we’re here because our identity can be erased; there’s no look to being Puerto Rican,” Mango said. “The flag is the only thing that unites us all. We all look different, but we share the same culture.”
He said the majority of the flags he’d seen were resistance flags, referring to the lighter blue rendition of the flag. He said his friends who aren’t from Puerto Rico had asked him about the Caribbean island and U.S. territory’s push for independence after seeing them.
“Not only does it remind us Puerto Ricans of the final objective, but it gets non-Puerto Ricans to ask about the battle no one’s talking about,” Mango said. “It’s one of the last major colonies — they need independence.”
