The Puerto Rican flag was raised at One Aurora Plaza in downtown Aurora Friday morning to celebrate the city’s Puerto Rican community.
The event, organized by the city in collaboration with the Aurora Puerto Rican Cultural Council, is part of Aurora’s Puerto Rican Heritage Week, which officially began on Monday and will conclude with the 52nd annual Aurora Puerto Rican Heritage Festival from 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday at 129 Water St. in downtown Aurora.
The flag-raising ceremony Friday included remarks from local officials as well as recognition of the 2024 Puerto Rican Court featuring Miss Puerto Rico of Aurora Danielle Hernandez, First Princess Jeniyah Hood and Second Princess Karyna Anaís.
Hernandez, 18, of Aurora, said she earned the title “while competing in a pageant with some other girls” and had to undergo “many different gradings including an interview, a speech, wearing certain dresses and answering on-stage questions.”
“Then the judges had to determine who would be the best candidate for this title,” she said. “It’s an honor and I want to do a lot of things for this community.”
She said it is “great to get closer to the community and be a role model for younger women. I’m really honored.”
Aurora Chief Engagement and Equity Officer Clayton Muhammad said that “flag-raisings are becoming a staple here in Aurora and we are doing upwards of 15 of them a year now.”
“The Puerto Rican flag-raising was the first and they’ve been doing it – this is their 52nd year for the festival and pageant so they have been out there leading the charge and we have built our flag-raising concepts around them and now they partner with the city,” he said. “It’s been 52 years since they launched their parade and got a letter from President Nixon celebrating them for kicking off in Aurora.”
Muhammad said the growth of the Puerto Rican heritage group locally has been great, saying that “when they founded things back then, there was a small but mighty community.”
“We watched them continue that tradition and it’s kind of generational. You see people participating now on the Puerto Rican Cultural Council with parents or grandparents that participated and I call it a small but mighty community here,” he said. “And they really are becoming a central hub of Puerto Ricans in the western suburbs. The Puerto Ricans from Elgin and Carpentersville and Joliet are looking at Aurora as the hub and you connect with Chicago and you get a good energy link there.”
Janette Rosario of Aurora said she is serving in her second year as president of the Puerto Rican Cultural Council and has “been on the board for 15 years now.”
“The growth of this and the support … what I see is a sense of overflowing love and a sense of community and lots and lots of support and pride in our Puerto Rican heritage,” Rosario said just before the flag-raising on Friday. “I feel like over the years people who aren’t Puerto Rican have become more involved and want to see what we do, the food we have, the music and how different we are and they have embraced it. So many attend our events and enjoy them as well.”
Cynthia DeJesus of Aurora was among the more than 150 that turned out for the Friday ceremony and said she “was excited about this weekend.”
“I do feel like this is an important connection for the Puerto Rican people,” she said.
Her daughter Joslyn Munoz, 20, was carrying a Puerto Rican flag and said she was “enjoying time with my family and I’m very proud of my culture.”
“I’ve very proud to be included with everything that they do,” she said. “I like living in a community that includes everybody no matter where they come from.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
