Day of America in Asturias: Parade of floats and Latinamerican and Asturian Folklore

Hi #Hive friends. During this week they are celebrating the festivities in honor of San Mateo in the city where I live which is Oviedo (Asturias-Spain). For about 10 days there are a lot of cultural, folkloric and musical activities scheduled throughout the city.

The days with more activities during the festivities are the weekends before and after September 21 and September 21 itself, which is the big day of the festivities, as it is the exact day of the feast of San Mateo.

However, in this post I come to present the second of the big days and that is the one I like the most. It is called America Day in Asturias, which is the day in which the city of Oviedo pays tribute to the Asturian emigrants who in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century went to Latin America and also pays tribute to the various communities of Latin American emigrants (Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, etc.. ) in Oviedo in which there is a parade with different floats of the emigrant communities, floats of neighborhood associations of Asturias, floats focused on children like Lego, parade of cars from the mid-twentieth century and earlier, parades of bagpipe bands, etc..

The parade and parade of the Day of America in Asturias was scheduled for 17:30 on Monday, September 19, 2022. This parade runs through several of the main streets of the city of Oviedo. It starts at the Faculty of Mining Engineering, goes through the main street of Oviedo which is Uría street and then goes up one of the streets that surrounds the San Francisco field to finish its route at the other end of the city.

Since I live about 300 meters from Uría street, this was the point where I moved to around 17:00. As expected, after 2 years of pandemic, the people of Oviedo were looking forward to this day and I especially saw many children and many elderly people who have had such a hard time with the Covid-19.

As you can see in the following images in this avenue two rows of chairs are placed for those who have made a financial contribution to the festival committee or belong to a cultural association collaborating with the parade. Additionally, within the decorations made by the city council during the festivity of San Mateo, the streets where these parades take place are decorated with flags of different countries of America.

When 17:30 h was reached, the parade of the Day of America in Asturias began, first, as is tradition, paraded about 10 classic cars from the mid-twentieth century and some of them much earlier. In the convertible vehicles, apart from the owner of the vehicle, who are usually collectors in the area, in the back these vehicles carried people dressed in traditional Asturian costumes or people dressed as Disney characters or other cartoons that delighted the little ones.

One of the classic vehicles that I liked the most was one that was painted and decorated like a mid-20th century US police car, whose siren made everyone laugh.

Then, the different floats of the cultural groups, of the immigrant associations of Oviedo and of the Asturian folkloric groups went out. With the intention of interspersed. In this post, in order to make it easier to read, I have decided to group the different floats and parades by groups.

The honorary floats intended for children and grandparents were among the most acclaimed floats. Mainly, the Lego float, since its structure was really impressive and every child has always had or wanted to have a Lego to play with. As for the grandparents float, this float has been parading in the America's Day parade for several years and is the most endearing of all to see a couple of grandparents as the central attraction of the float.

Another of the great entertainers of the little ones, was the part corresponding to the giants and big heads. This type of costume is very typical in the popular Spanish festivities, in which people dressed up with big heads and people who represent a giant by means of a structure are intermingled.

During the hour and a half that the parade lasted, the high points were those in which the different immigrant associations of Oviedo were honored, where they paraded with their floats with the traditional music of each country. Generally, in front of each float paraded different people dressed in traditional costumes from each of the countries performing different types of dances.

The most numerous Latin community in Oviedo is the Colombian, its float is represented by a bus decorated with the flag of the country and bananas, as it is a product exported by this country to the rest of the world along with coffee. In front of this float, several comparsas paraded dancing different Colombian music and in the case of women their dresses represented the country's flag.

The second largest Latin community in Oviedo is the Ecuadorian community. The float of this community was spectacular. I really liked the representation of the head of a kind of goblin and a very strange body representing a kind of turtle without a shell. As for the costumes used by the troupes that led the representation of Ecuador, for me they were eye-catching. Additionally, this association interacted a lot with the people who were watching the parade, which was appreciated.

The Mexican community is not one of the largest in Oviedo; however, their involvement and participation in this celebration is evident with this formidable float and especially for the great time we had listening to rancheras that the musicians on the float offered to the audience.

The float that I present below was composed of two Caribbean countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Their joyful music and the dances of the dancers who were predicting them was very enjoyable. It is a pity that this float was one of those that passed the fastest at the point where I was. Their float was very beautiful, with a tribute to the arrival of Columbus to America, represented by some caravels.

The Peruvian community was one of the first large groups to parade on America's Day. Their parade was very colorful, as most of the people wore masks and represented different eras of Peru in their uniforms and unfortunately they did not have a float.

The last part of this post, I have reserved it for those comparsas or folkloric groups typically Asturian, as well as their most representative floats.

Among the floats of Asturian character I have selected two. The first one is a float that pays tribute to the people who work in the sea, represented by a ship and a lighthouse. The second of the floats I have selected is one that represents the mountain life of Asturias, where the crystal clear rivers provide salmon and trout to the mountain fishermen.

I hope you had fun reading this post, big hugs to everyone.

Own photograph taken with my Iphone SE.

Cover, separators and banner created with www.canva.com (free version).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).