In search of support for NY display

LET IT FLY: Vivian Moreno of the Puerto Rican Cultural Festival and Parade of Rhode Island Inc. shows off the flags she’ll be displaying at the national Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON
LET IT FLY: Vivian Moreno of the Puerto Rican Cultural Festival and Parade of Rhode Island Inc. shows off the flags she’ll be displaying at the national Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON

When organizers of the local Puerto Rican Cultural Festival learned this year’s National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City would be dedicated to the state of Rhode Island, they envisioned using the event to showcase the Ocean State before an anticipated crowd of 1 million live spectators and the many more who would see the event through the media.
“Our original idea was to invite a color guard and representatives from every city and town to participate with us,” said Vivian Moreno, president of the Puerto Rican Cultural Festival and Parade of Rhode Island Inc., in Providence. “We thought it was a great opportunity to highlight the good things going on in the state.”
But a number of obstacles, primarily a lack of financial support, have forced Moreno and her nonprofit organization to scale back that vision.
Instead of a fleet of buses packed with local participants, the local delegation now plans to travel to Manhattan for the June 9 parade in a single van and two convertibles that will carry parade participants, including Carmen Bucholz, founder of the local festival, who will serve as the grand marshal for all participating states. Instead of its full performing troupe of 25 Puerto Rican dancers, the group will take just eight.
“We started out at 300 people – that’s where we started,” said Bob Cooper, a publicist for the festival. “It should have only gone up from there, but instead it’s gone the other direction.”
Moreno and Cooper say the last few months proved frustrating as they sought political and financial support from state and local agencies, and private supporters. They say while nearly everyone they approached expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity, few have been able to offer any significant financial backing.
The group’s struggles offer a window into the difficulties facing small nonprofits as public money becomes scarcer and both private donors and corporate sponsors have an ever-growing number of community organizations and events they can choose to support.
Already, the festival organization’s budget is splashed with red ink: The group is in arrears on its rent at its Broad Street headquarters and makes regular payments toward a $30,000 police detail bill with the city of Providence, only to see the bill rise again each time it holds its festival. This year’s festival, planned for Aug. 18, may be canceled as the group diverts resources on the New York event, Cooper said. “We are all volunteers, and we are learning as we go along to do more with less,” said Moreno.
When it comes to the national Puerto Rican Day Parade, which runs down Fifth Avenue and in past years has lasted as long as five hours, the festival organization has had its share of bad luck.
The designation of Rhode Island as the state to which the parade is dedicated this year came in January. A February media event announcing the designation had to be postponed because of a blizzard. When it was held a month later, with Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee formally accepting the designation on behalf of the state, members of the state’s Washington, D.C., delegation were locked in tense sequester-related budget negotiations and unable to attend. And the briefing itself was beset by technical glitches – a video link to a simultaneous event in Puerto Rico faltered – even as turnout from the press proved paltry.
Several agencies said they have met with and sought to help the festival organizers however they could.
Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau Vice President of Marketing Kristen Adamo said the group met with bureau officials to talk about the trip, but is not in a position to provide any funding.
“We don’t provide financial support for these types of things,” Adamo said. “But we do provide promotional materials to groups.”
Moreno said the group was hoping to travel to New York armed with souvenirs, T-shirts or other items to share with parade watchers. “We thought this would be a great way to promote Rhode Island,” she said.
The group also turned to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. EDC Marketing Manager Melissa Chambers said the agency has reached out to its roster of corporate contacts on behalf of the festival. “We have been working with them to identify possible opportunities for sponsorship,” said Chambers.
A local bank has been among those approached about offering support, Cooper said, adding that he held out hope that a last-minute white knight would emerge.
Liz White, deputy director of communications and media relations for Providence Mayor Angel Tavares, said the mayor was formally invited to attend, but has not yet been able to confirm he will be able to make it. White said the group did not seek any direct financial support from the mayor’s office, though Cooper said the city’s Department of Art, Culture and Tourism did boost its annual grant for the local festival from $1,500 to $2,000.
Several national consumer brands, including JetBlue, Goya and CoorsLight, are signed on as sponsors of the parade in New York, and Cooper said Rhode Island tourism and economic development officials could have likewise reached millions by following suit. “Those companies wouldn’t be spending that money if it wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “It would have been an excellent way to market the state.”
In a letter to state officials announcing the dedication to Rhode Island, National Puerto Rican Day Parade Chairperson Madelyn Lugo said the parade’s board voted unanimously to recognize the Ocean State, noting it has 35,000 residents of Puerto Rican descent and pointing to recent work done by the Latino Oral History Project of Rhode Island that suggests Puerto Ricans first came to the Ocean State in the 1920s – primarily to labor on local farms – three decades earlier than previously thought.
Another reason cited for the decision to single out the state: The Rhode Island festival group is a regular presence at Puerto Rican pride events nationwide, often carrying a large state flag wherever it goes.
“The whole idea was to promote the state, to be proud of where we come from, to encourage people to come here and spend money,” Moreno said. “Now we’re afraid it’s going to be an embarrassing showing.” •

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