Festival celebrates Puerto Rican community in Aurora

The music and cuisine of Puerto Rico were the main attractions Sunday during the 51st Aurora Puerto Rican Heritage Festival downtown.

Thousands filled Water Street Square across from City Hall for the festival.

Janette Rosario, newly anointed president of the Aurora Puerto Rican Cultural Council, was pleased to see the big turnout even before the 1 p.m. opening of the event.

”We are overjoyed, flattered and humbled by the amount of support we have received from the community to organize the festival. People are coming in by large numbers,” Rosario said Sunday.

Rosario, of Aurora, said there was a big push to spread the word about the festival that ultimately became a collaborative effort between the Cultural Council and the community.

”We have a phenomenal team,” Rosario said.

She said the festival is a staple in the Aurora community.

  “This is a celebration of love for our island,” she said.

Lifelong Auroran Minnet Ruiz has been a regular at the annual festival for years.

”I have been coming to the Aurora Puerto Rican Heritage festival for the past 40 years,” Ruiz said. ”This festival highlights the best of our heritage.”

”This is a time for family and friends to see one another,” Ruiz said. 

The festival is a way to honor the Puerto Rican community, she said.

“We are celebrating that we are American and that we have a background of being Puerto Rican,” Ruiz said.

Her father returned to attend Sunday’s festivities but decided in his retirement years to live full-time in Puerto Rico, she said.

”Lots of people return to the island in their retirement years. It’s a beautiful island with lots of natural sightseeing features,” Ruiz said.

Oscar Romero remembered how his father Angel Romero and late mother Lydia made sure their children stayed connected to their Puerto Rican heritage.

”It’s always beautiful to return and see the familiar faces and remember those who passed on like my mother,” said Romero.

While his parents and other relatives were born on the island, he was born and raised in Aurora.

”We treasured our Puerto Rican heritage growing up and now my grown children are doing the same way. My mother often shared about how beautiful the island is,” Romero said.

Laura Gonzalez is a longtime Aurora Puerto Rican Cultural Council board member and scholarship director responsible for raising funds for college students. Gonzalez was recently appointed to the Illinois State Board of Education as well. She is a second-grade bilingual teacher at Georgetown Elementary in School District 204 and adjunct professor at Aurora University.

”We actually had radio commercials and a presence on social media as a way to invite people to come to our festival.  As you can see by the long lines, there were people here before the 1 o’clock opening. This is wonderful,” Gonzalez said.

This year the council raised approximately $10,000 for 20 college scholarships for students at all levels, officials said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.