LITTLE VILLAGE — After a few dozen floats crossed the endpoint of the Mexican Independence Day Parade Sunday afternoon, spectators were almost starting to get bored. But when Alfredo Valle and his group turned the corner of Kostner Avenue, the crowd was fixated.
Valle, dressed in frilly red-and-white rodeo pants, picked up his dance partner, Alejandra Hernandez, and twirled her around his head like a baton. In a fast-paced demonstration of Mexican quebradita dancing, Valle flipped and tossed Hernandez in every direction, drawing amazed cheers from the hundreds of onlookers lining the street.
Valle and Hernandez represented Universal Dancers, a dance studio based at 21st Street and Damen Avenue in Little Village, in Sunday's annual parade. They joined more than 100 floats representing a massive array of schools, businesses, political agendas and cultural institutions marching through Little Village.
The parade, organized by the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, capped off the three-day Festival de la Villita, an annual street fair celebrating Mexican culture. Now in its 46th year, the parade blanketed a more than two-mile stretch of 26th Street — from California Avenue to Kostner Avenue — in red, white and green.
"We always look forward to this every year — it's just a great way to showcase all kinds of Mexican culture, with food and dancing and everything," said Universal Dancers president Ramiro Samano, who participated in his 10th consecutive Independence Day Parade Sunday. "We like to show what we do and to invite other people to do it, to make sure this kind of dance stays popular and to keep people interested."
Those who marched in the parade weren't the only ones who participated in the day's festivities. The parade route was dotted with booths selling fruit juices, empanadas and grilled corn on the cob.
Jutting south of the parade route along Keeler Avenue, congregants of the Iglesia La Luz del Mundo church set up booths selling Mexican staples like pork tacos, enchiladas and tortas. The money they raised went toward repairs and upkeep of the church sanctuary.
Marco Salgado, a member of the church, said carving out a role in the festival was an important tradition for his friends and neighbors.
"It's a way to reinforce our identity, to remind ourselves where we come from and how we got here," said Salgado, who's lived in Little Village his whole life. "My parents raised me to understand my heritage, and I raise my kids the same way. Today's the day we celebrate that."
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