In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Waterbury is highlighting its Puerto Rican community all weekend long. On Sunday, they will finish the celebrations with the first Puerto Rican Festival in two decades.
The City of Waterbury kicked off a weekend of Puerto Rican festivities to one of their largest Hispanic communities as part of Hispanic heritage month.
The celebration began on Friday at Waterbury’s City Hall with the Mayor for a Day ceremony followed by the raising of the Puerto Rican flag.
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. was present at the event along with other city and state officials.
"The Puerto Rican community has been here and it's been such an important part of this city and its development whether it's in commerce or in our government,” Pernerewski said.
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This year, the person selected by the Hispanic Coalition of Greater Waterbury Inc. was Jacqueline Matos, a retired educator and multilingual staff developer for the city of Waterbury.
“They called me up and said, 'do you agree to be mayor for the day?' and I was like, very happy and very excited to be,” Matos said.
Following the ceremony, the Puerto Rican flag was raised at City Hall.
The festivities will continue into the weekend with “Bori-Fest” happening on Saturday at Hamilton Park from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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Then on Sunday, the city will host a Puerto Rican Parade, which will be the first in the city since over two decades.
Rafael Feliciano Roman, the founder of the PR Parade Committee said the committee has been preparing for three years to host the festival and are honored to have it back in the city.
“We’re going to have over 15 to 20 different marching contingents, we’re expecting thousands of people in the parade route here from the city, it's going to be a good time,” Feliciano Roman said.
The parade will take place on Sunday, Sept. 15 from 10 a.m. to noon.
