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¡Lorain International Festival was fantastico!
By
Ingrid Rivera, Special to La Prensa
It’s a festival that celebrates worldwide diversity. This year,
nine Latinas said they were proud to represent the Latino
community as Queen and Princesses of the 42nd Annual
Lorain International Festival and Bazaar. Another Latina has
been involved with the festival for over a decade.
The week-long festival, June 22 – 29, 2008, featured a parade, a
Princess Pageant, live outdoor band concerts, car shows, Black
River boat tours and about 40 different booth vendors of 12
different ethnic foods. All festivities were designed to
celebrate the rich cultural, ethnic and other diversity of
Lorain.
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Natalie Rodríquez was named the 2008 Lorain
International Festival and Bazaar Queen. With Natalie is Terri Soto |
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Lorain International Festival President and Pageant Chair
Terri Soto said the greatest
benefit of the festival is its ability to bring a diverse
community together for a variety of ethnic music and food. “I
want people to walk away from this festival gaining five
pounds,” Soto joked “that means they ate and liked the food.”
Soto, of both Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, said she has
been involved with the festival for about ten years beginning as
a trustee in 1998 and vice-president in 2006 and 2007. Soto ran
as Mexican princess in 1990 and has worked both the Puerto Rican
and Mexican food booths with her family.
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Natalie Rodríquez,
2008 Lorain International Festival and Bazaar Queen, said “it
feels really good” to represent her Mexican heritage. Rodríquez,
20, said she’s been involved with the festival for several years
by setting up a Mexican food booth with her Mexican and Irish
parents, Natalio and Mary Rodríquez. She said the food and the
unity between family is what she enjoys most about her culture.
Rodríquez, who has never been to México
but plans to in the future, decided to compete in the pageant
for the first time this year.
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The festival “allows everyone to really show who they are, what
they represent,” Rodríquez said “This just allows everyone to
have one week where they can just go at it, do the dancing, make
the food and really be excited of who they are.”
Twenty-seven women from 12 nationalities competed to be elected
queen or a member of the court. The court included third
runner-up Victoria Colella, Hungarian descent; second
runner-up Lauren Pressick, Italian descent; and first
runner-up Wendy Kurianowicz, Hungarian descent.
After the parade, several of the Latina 2008 Lorain
International Festival princesses representing either
Puerto Rico or México gathered
in a circle to discuss what representing their Latina ethnicity
meant to them.
Melina Rosas,
17, represented her Puerto Rican heritage. “I feel very honored
to represent Puerto Rico. It’s a beautiful island.” Rosas said
she had an aunt and cousins that were also former International
Festival princesses. Elizabeth Hernández, 17, also
representing Puerto Rico said “I feel very proud to be able to
show what I am. It’s an experience of a lifetime.”
Rosas and Hernández wore the traditional folkloric red and white
dress of Puerto Rico with a poinsettia in their hair.
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Marisol Arzuaga,
17, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, represented her
Mexican culture this year. Arzuaga wore the “traje de charro,”
a popular Mexican suit used by female Mariachis. Arzuaga said
this experience has helped her learn more about her Mexican
heritage.
Unlike other festivals of the state, the Lorain festival
“celebrates our ethnicities and that’s really what our city was
based on," said Lorain Mayor Anthony Krasienko. “We
(Lorain) have a lot to offer and we want to show that to the
people of Northeast Ohio.”
The mayor should know—he is of European descent and his wife,
Melissa, is of Mexican and Puerto Rican origin.
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