MARILYN CEPEDA: The parade starts at 10 o’clock in the morning from Broad Street, the corner of Broad Street and Thurbers Avenue. The grand marshals, we have this year six grand marshals, including our special guest: Manny Ramirez, ex-baseball player from Boston Red Sox. That parade route will go down Broad Street into the entrance of Roger Williams Park.
JAMES BAUMGARTNER: Does that take you right by the Juan Pablo Duarte statue then?
CEPEDA: Yes, that’s where we finish.
BAUMGARTNER: What’s the significance of that statue?
CEPEDA: Those are the founders. The founders of our country. So we have a group of Dominicans, Quisqueya in Action, who started the project with the city of Providence. And we have other individuals, Victor Martinez, who was part of that initiative to create that plaza, in conjunction with some of the city elected officials and the community as a whole. And I think we needed to have like a presence, because we always end up the parade there. So Victor Martinez came up with the idea. Let’s have a presence there with the statue of our founding fathers.
[music: EhShawnee, “Mas Mala Que Tu” ]
CHUCK HINMAN: So this is all at the Temple to Music. The bands will be on the stage there and everything takes place in the grass right in front of that?
CEPEDA: The event is at the Temple to Music from 12 to eight. We have EhShawnee, who is a local talent, female local singer, internationally very well known now. And Karlos Rosé. He’s one of the youth that participated in Quisqueya in Action when he was younger, and he’s very well known internationally. Also, we have Kano Keys, Juancky La Diferencia, Michael Nina. Oh my god, we have so many. And the special guest that’s going to be closing the festival is Miriam Cruz, which is an international artist who has a long track record of excellence in the music industry.
HINMAN: How about the food?
CEPEDA: Oh, yes, we have a lot of food vendors, a lot of the typical food, traditional food, right? We have a lot of food trucks. We have piña colada, trucks, novelty trucks, we have a variety. We have a lot of games for the kids.
We’re gonna have a great event. It’s always great. We have a lot of cultural groups. I think we’re going to have an average of about maybe 10 to 13,000 people.
We have mostly families that come in the morning. And they line up on Broad Street to watch the parade and this year is going to be more special than ever. Because, you know, we didn’t celebrate the festival last year but we’re doing the parade and the festival and then we have Manny who you know, he has finally said yes to us.
HINMAN: Oh, you’ve been trying to get him for a while?
CEPEDA: Yeah, I’ve been trying to get him and David and Pedro.
HINMAN: Oh yeah, of course.
[music: Miriam Cruz, “Esa Loca”]
CEPEDA: I just want people to see the positive that we bring to Rhode Island, especially Providence, the impact that we make, And we bring a lot to this community and I just want people to know that.
The Dominican Parade starts at 10 AM on Sunday on Broad Street. The festival and concert is from Noon to 8:00 PM at the Temple to Music at Roger Williams Park in Providence. Both events are free.
