Latino Heritage Parade and Festival Activities Launch With a Celebration

With new Pasadena City Manager Miguel Márquez in attendance, members of the Pasadena Latino Heritage Committee welcomed legislators, City officials and members of the local Latino community to the kickoff party for the 24th Annual Pasadena Latino Heritage Parade and Festival activities Thursday at local brewery Cervecería Del Pueblo.  

The Committee announced its theme: “De Colores.” 

“This year’s theme … looks to honor the diversity within the Latino Community,” said Teresa Deukmedjian, 2022-2023 Chair.”This kickoff party is one of several fundraising events throughout the year leading up to the parade on October 1st.”

Also among guests at the event were Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and California State Senator Anthony Portantino, as former Tournament of Roses President Laura Farber, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Said Gordo at the kickoff, “This is yet again another celebration of our diversity in Pasadena. Pasadena’s diversity is not only one of its biggest strengths, it is its biggest one. We have a great city with people from every station in life, every walk of life. And every part of the world.”

Gordo again emphasized his familiar theme that “Pasadena is the center of the universe.” “We have so many institutions, but it’s not the institutions, it’s the people of Pasadena that make the city the center of the universe.” 

Gordo also revealed that he will be bartending at El Portal restaurant on September 15 as part of that popular restaurant’s Mexican Independence Day ”El Grito” celebration. 

“I was telling (owner) Abel Ramirez recently  about my recipe for margaritas, and he invited me to come and bartend for an hour!” For his part, Ramirez would only reveal that the recipe for the “Alcalde Margarita,” as it is being dubbed, involves peppers.

Committee member Richard Monzon introduced the 2022 Grand Marshal for this year’s October 1 parade,  Liliana Perez, the Cultural Affairs Director for the Los Angeles Chargers, and the parade’s Community Marshal Yolanda Trevino, Executive Director of the Pasadena/Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders (PACTL).

“This event and this month really means cultural pride,” said Perez. “It means celebrating yourself as well as celebrating differences, because when you celebrate your difference, you’re able to recognize  this and honor other people.”

More information on the Latino Heritage Parade and the month-long celebration is shown below: