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Festival Salutes Puerto Rico

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

Kenny Luciano readies a coco frio (chilled coconut) to cool a customer on a sultry Sunday at Festival de San Juan Bautista.

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By RICH SHOPES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2008

BRANDON - Sunday's Puerto Rican heritage festival had all the ingredients of a Latin celebration in late June:

Salsa and meringue music; favorite foods, such as empanadas and arepas; vendors selling bracelets, T-shirts and flags; and sweltering heat reminiscent of the Caribbean in summer.

With afternoon temperatures hovering in the 90s, many who showed up at the festival ended up turning around, promising to come back when the sun had set and the mercury had descended a few notches.

Still, about 200 braved the muggy temperatures at the First Hispanic Baptist Church grounds on Taylor Road to hear musical favorites such as "Los Dos Paquitos," Paquito Acosta and Paquito Guzman, and to celebrate the Festival de San Juan Bautista, which celebrates St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital and largest city.

The festival, a national holiday in Puerto Rico marked by picnics, trips to the beach and religious ceremonies, migrated to the United States as Puerto Ricans came to this country. The celebration here is much more about cultural identity.

"I'm proud to be Hispanic. I'm proud of my music and my heritage. It's important when we can express our Hispanic culture," said Yolanda Hernandez of Brandon. "It's very important not to forget where we came from."

Hernandez arrived at 11:30 a.m., when the all-day festival started, and planted herself alongside family and friends under a patch of shade near the bandstand. The group tossed umbrellas into the tree to produce more shade.

Children bounced for what seemed like hours inside an inflatable playpen. Latin music poured from speakers, and folks noshed on roast pork, chicken, rice, beans, empanadas (fried dumplings) and arepas, corn pancakes stuffed with cheese. Many cooled off with coconut juice direct from the coconut or with a cup of shaved ice flavored with syrup or fruit juice.

The festival was organized by the First Hispanic Baptist Church, which teamed up with Tampa-based Papagallo Productions. People paid $8 to get in, and came and went as they pleased.

"We're hoping this becomes an annual event," said Daniel "Popz" Ortiz, son of the church's pastor. "Mainly we're trying to make this a community, family festival."

Elizabeth Saldana, president of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce of the Gulf Coast, based in Tampa, said about 60,000 people of Puerto Rican descent live in Hillsborough County. They are the county's second largest Hispanic group, behind Mexican-Americans.

"When you emigrate, you want to learn about American culture and citizenship, but you also want to support your tradition, where you are from," she said.

For Janet Stringfellow, 39, of Tierra Verde, who moved to the United States 11 years ago, the festival's sights, sounds and smells created some homesickness. "It's a little bit of your country outside of your country," she said.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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