Desfile Mariano

Every Saturday, the Upper West Side becomes quiet. Shops are closed, restaurants are slow, and the streets are empty except for the steady stream of families, young couples, and groups of young people on foot, who stroll the sidewalks in observance of weekly Shabbat. But yesterday afternoon, the lazy calm of the afternoon was interrupted when Amsterdam Avenue was suddenly flooded with music, color, and the Virgin Mary.

I jumped up to look outside the window, and I was stunned by the array of colors and the sheer volume of people on the street, wearing traditional garb and joining in dance and song. Most shocking of all were the floats: huge, crepe paper displays of the Virgin Mother, crucifixes of Christ, enormous rosary beads carried by children up the avenue.

Catholic Hispanics of New York were parading to celebrate the tenth annual Desfile Mariano, a parade of floats in honor of the faith of the entire Hispanic world. Sponsored by the Office for Hispanic Subjects of the Arquidiocesis of New York, people representing twenty-four Hispanic countries gathered on the street to honor the different representations of the Virgin Mary in these cultures.

Everyone in the neighborhood was speechless and stunned by the beauty of the commotion. Jewish families observing Shabbat stopped walking to gather on corners and watch the parade go by. People danced, clapped, and joined in song; some shouted from the sidelines when their country's representatives passed by.

The beauty of that hour on the street was in the seeming spontaneity of the whole parade: no police guarded the street, no streets were blocked off. It was up to the passers-by (and one lone priest) to stop cars from chopping across the Amsterdam parade. Everyone of every culture and socio-economic class was fascinated by the display of Hispanic pride and Catholic faith, and everyone stopped to savor the moment. The Mariano Parade was, to me, a cultural feast.

Desfile Mariano Photo Album