Longwood Avenue was crowded with generations of Nuyoricans, Dominican Americans and Bronxites on Saturday, June 21, all there to kick-start summer and celebrate Puerto Rican culture at the annual Longwood Festival.
Puerto Rican flags—with their bold red and white stripes and blue triangle—were plentiful, along with festive hats, umbrellas and clothing. Meanwhile, there was a variety of tchotchkes at merchandise tables throughout the venue.
Attendees lounged in foldable chairs facing a large, elevated stage where live music played, while others stood in animated circles, laughing and exchanging playful banter. And there was dancing everywhere— Salsa of course as the Bronx is, “El Condado de la Salsa” (The Borough of Salsa), but also Merengue and Bachata. Couples danced, fathers with their daughters, younger generations took the hands of older generations and began moving their hips to the beat and vice versa. The crowds had smiles spread across their faces and not a word about the oppressive heat.
Leila Ramirez and Edgar Cruz danced with a skill and familiarity of seasoned partners. They knew one another back in Puerto Rico in 1979 when they went to the same high school. Later they separately moved to the Bronx but found each other and reconnected once they both lived in New York. Ramirez said that dancing is just a part of life on the island.
“Over there you don’t have to take classes,” she said. “You learn on the streets.”
Instead of dancing to the music, others opted to sing along. Mother and daughter Olga De Aza, who both share the same name, sat beneath a large umbrella under portable camping chairs leaning their heads together as they sang along to a familiar song by Frankie Ruiz Jr., also called “The Son of Salsa,” after his father who was also a musician.
De Aza’s daughter came into the Bronx from Connecticut, where she lives, to visit her mother who lives in the Longwood neighborhood so the two could enjoy the festival together.
While the festival was high energy, the atmosphere was family-friendly, with youngsters sitting on their parents’ laps or chasing each other through the streets with bubble guns or super soakers.
Parents Andrew Bello from Castle Hill and Adelle Rosa from Hunts Point Avenue brought their young girls who are two-and-a-half and five years old to the Longwood festival because they wanted to celebrate Puerto Rican culture together and they missed the parade due to rain.
Bello told the Bronx Times that despite missing the Puerto Rican day parade, his family was having a great time at the Longwood Festival.
“There’s a lot of people…and it looks like everybody’s enjoying themselves,” Bello said. “It looks very cultured, very family oriented, and it’s just all out fun.”
Rosa said that the couple’s daughters, Madison Ruiz and Avyanna Rosa, have something in common with their mother.
“ They love dancing, especially the Spanish music with the Salsa, Merengue, Reggeaton,” Rosa said.
Rosa was a dancer who specialized in Mambo Hip Hop, a style with roots in the Bronx, Caribbean and African cultures. She said she used to dance at festivals around this time each year.
The festival, which has included the support of Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., wasn’t just a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, but a passing of it—older generations teaching younger generations and both building a blended culture together.
Salamanca Jr., who represents District 17, which includes Longwood, has long backed cultural festivals like this one as a way to celebrate Latino heritage and build community in the South Bronx.
