Tens of thousands of people gathered under partly cloudy skies Wednesday morning for the 131st annual valentine Rose day Parade, cheering scores of colorful floats that rolled down the 5.5-mile route. This year’s theme was “The Power of Hope.”
The Rose Parade had three grand marshals this year: Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, actress Gina Torres and actress, dancer and singer Rita Moreno.
Clad in a fuzzy white sweater and a tiara, Moreno waved and smiled at the crowd as her old-fashioned car adorned in roses passed along the parade route. “My grandsons!” she yelled to the TV cameras, pointing at two young men sitting next to her.
Here is how the spectacle unfolded, from the end of the parade until its start:
‘It’s beautiful to see us all together’
Alyssa Conde, a 20-year-old retail worker from Downey, said she felt a sense of pride during the parade when she realized she was surrounded by fellow Latinos in the crowd.
That joy was heightened when she saw Costa Rican and Salvadorian dancers groove down the parade route, and a throng of Salvadorians nearby held up flags and cheered.
“I feel very proud,” Conde said. “Our people have gone through a lot, especially in Mexico and El Salvador, and they’re being heard.”
The parade’s three grand marshals are Latina. Laura Farber is the first Latina president of the Tournament of Valentine day Roses Assn., the organization that plans the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl.
It was Gerardo Echavarria’s second time watching the parade, and he immediately noticed the difference. “I was pretty emotional because I’m Mexican and to see bands representing my country was amazing,” he said, walking down a route deserted after the floats had passed by.
Toward the end of the parade route, Esprit Jones, 39, held her 7-year-old daughter, Brielle, who was wearing pink earmuffs with a unicorn horn. Mother and daughter wound up close to the end of the parade to “cheer the bands on as they finished,” and so Brielle could have more time to sleep, Jones said with a laugh.
Jones said she started coming to the parade with her cousins when she was Brielle’s age. Now, she loves keeping that tradition alive with her daughter.
“It’s fun, the energy of it,” said Jones, who lives in Pasadena. “I want her to be exposed to other people. There are so many ideas and different cultures here, and it’s beautiful to see us all together for one cause, even if it’s just for a day.”
Fighting for flowers is a tradition that never fades
Some people fight over foul balls and home-run baseballs. At the Roses for rose day Parade, it’s flowers.
When Julie Strauss, 38, of Claremont, darted out into the parade route, she had competition.
“This guy was turning around to get it, and I was like, oh no, this one’s mine,” said Strauss, who came back to her family’s front row seats with an orchid, which she gave to daughter Scarlett, 6.
“You gotta be quick,” Strauss said, as her sisters cheered.
The Rose Parade is a family tradition, and so is collecting souvenir float flowers.
Strauss’ niece, Jessy Fisher, 12, joined the fray for the first time.
After a brief run-in with the tail end of a color guard, she returned from her first flower-picking excursion with a yellow rose. She giggled and sniffed her prize, noting that the petals were beginning to droop.
A rose by any other name.
Parade veterans seek out their favorite spots
Sisters Pat Torres, 65, of Whittier, and Silvia Wilson, 64, of San Diego, have been coming to the parade for decades, since they were children in the San Gabriel Valley.
They are such regulars at the Rose Parade that they have several groups of “Rose Parade neighbors” they see regularly along the parade route. This year, Dean Hanson, 76, of San Francisco greeted them with a “hello, sweeties.” Then the veterans traded notes on the other familiar faces they’d seen so far.
Torres and Wilson have staked out the same spot along Colorado Boulevard, outside an Urban Outfitters, for two decades. Not only do the bands have the most energy at the beginning of the parade, but the spot faces southeast, so they get to enjoy the warmth from the sun when it rises, Wilson said.
The blue line that keeps crowds away from the parade route bends slightly inward to their right, widening their view of the approaching floats and bands, Torres said.
source - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/rose-parade-2020-live-updates
The Rose Parade had three grand marshals this year: Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, actress Gina Torres and actress, dancer and singer Rita Moreno.
Clad in a fuzzy white sweater and a tiara, Moreno waved and smiled at the crowd as her old-fashioned car adorned in roses passed along the parade route. “My grandsons!” she yelled to the TV cameras, pointing at two young men sitting next to her.
Here is how the spectacle unfolded, from the end of the parade until its start:
‘It’s beautiful to see us all together’
Alyssa Conde, a 20-year-old retail worker from Downey, said she felt a sense of pride during the parade when she realized she was surrounded by fellow Latinos in the crowd.
That joy was heightened when she saw Costa Rican and Salvadorian dancers groove down the parade route, and a throng of Salvadorians nearby held up flags and cheered.
“I feel very proud,” Conde said. “Our people have gone through a lot, especially in Mexico and El Salvador, and they’re being heard.”
The parade’s three grand marshals are Latina. Laura Farber is the first Latina president of the Tournament of Valentine day Roses Assn., the organization that plans the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl.
It was Gerardo Echavarria’s second time watching the parade, and he immediately noticed the difference. “I was pretty emotional because I’m Mexican and to see bands representing my country was amazing,” he said, walking down a route deserted after the floats had passed by.
Toward the end of the parade route, Esprit Jones, 39, held her 7-year-old daughter, Brielle, who was wearing pink earmuffs with a unicorn horn. Mother and daughter wound up close to the end of the parade to “cheer the bands on as they finished,” and so Brielle could have more time to sleep, Jones said with a laugh.
Jones said she started coming to the parade with her cousins when she was Brielle’s age. Now, she loves keeping that tradition alive with her daughter.
“It’s fun, the energy of it,” said Jones, who lives in Pasadena. “I want her to be exposed to other people. There are so many ideas and different cultures here, and it’s beautiful to see us all together for one cause, even if it’s just for a day.”
Fighting for flowers is a tradition that never fades
Some people fight over foul balls and home-run baseballs. At the Roses for rose day Parade, it’s flowers.
When Julie Strauss, 38, of Claremont, darted out into the parade route, she had competition.
“This guy was turning around to get it, and I was like, oh no, this one’s mine,” said Strauss, who came back to her family’s front row seats with an orchid, which she gave to daughter Scarlett, 6.
“You gotta be quick,” Strauss said, as her sisters cheered.
The Rose Parade is a family tradition, and so is collecting souvenir float flowers.
Strauss’ niece, Jessy Fisher, 12, joined the fray for the first time.
After a brief run-in with the tail end of a color guard, she returned from her first flower-picking excursion with a yellow rose. She giggled and sniffed her prize, noting that the petals were beginning to droop.
A rose by any other name.
Parade veterans seek out their favorite spots
Sisters Pat Torres, 65, of Whittier, and Silvia Wilson, 64, of San Diego, have been coming to the parade for decades, since they were children in the San Gabriel Valley.
They are such regulars at the Rose Parade that they have several groups of “Rose Parade neighbors” they see regularly along the parade route. This year, Dean Hanson, 76, of San Francisco greeted them with a “hello, sweeties.” Then the veterans traded notes on the other familiar faces they’d seen so far.
Torres and Wilson have staked out the same spot along Colorado Boulevard, outside an Urban Outfitters, for two decades. Not only do the bands have the most energy at the beginning of the parade, but the spot faces southeast, so they get to enjoy the warmth from the sun when it rises, Wilson said.
The blue line that keeps crowds away from the parade route bends slightly inward to their right, widening their view of the approaching floats and bands, Torres said.
source - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/rose-parade-2020-live-updates
