BUFFALO N.Y. (WKBW) — After a long two years, the Puerto Rican and Hispanic Heritage Parade is making its way back to Niagara Street. One of the performers, Erica Leon Torres with El Batey, said it's crunch time for preparations.
"In the past few weeks, I say, is crunch time. So we've been practicing early hours in the day and in the late evenings to make sure our kids are ready to perform," Torres said.
She said preparing for the parade has been eventful, but now its time to put all the pieces together.
"We've been practicing, singing and dancing our Bomba our Puerto Rican Bomba. And also putting our float together," she said.
Hear the drums and feel the beat - the countdown to the Puerto Rican and Hispanic day parade of WNY is on. I checked on how preparations are going and you can see it all on @WKBW pic.twitter.com/k5ndrwZsCG
— Krizia Williams (@krizia_williams) August 19, 2022
Torres stated the final touches on the performances and float will come together soon. She wants the float to remain a surprise but gave hints.
"I'll give you a little clue its going to have something to do with the ocean and sand. We're representing our island Puerto Rico," she said, "I don't want to say too much because I want them to be surprised when they see it."
The President of the Puerto Rican Heritage Parade, Charles F. Torres, said the community's energy is high during this countdown.
"Oh this is exciting you can feel the excitement building up in our community," he said. "We lined the Niagara street, Avenida San Juan, with all the flags of Puerto Rico and all the flags of the Hispanic countries. That signals our community that the parade is coming."
The parade steps off tomorrow at noon starting in downtown Buffalo near City Hall. And a list of events to follow can be found at this website.
