|
{"source_url": "https://www.latimes.com", "url": "https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/rose-parade-2020-floats-spectacle", "title": "Rose Parade celebrates diversity with Rita Moreno, Los Lobos and Maria from \u2018Sesame Street\u2019", "top_image": "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac5f69d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1050+0+135/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "meta_img": "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac5f69d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1050+0+135/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "images": ["https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7c37ae4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4480x4480+1120+0/resize/100x100!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffc%2F4e%2Fcbab209b42299d43be3da631e3dc%2Fla-photos-1staff-464522-me-metpro-class-2019-photos-05-mjc.jpg", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/0e/c6/b86a8b4b43a793259deb28a32a56/latlogoinverse.svg", "data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9d6c913/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1333+0+34/resize/1680x1120!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb5%2F21%2Fbdf0d57e4756b0088f876b89147c%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-19.jpg", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/77b3ab2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4480x4480+1120+0/resize/100x100!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1f%2F44%2F07046a0849fcad15420b0aff6c40%2Fla-photos-1staff-464522-me-metpro-class-2019-photos-06-mjc.jpg", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/b9/f5/1c9278c94a439e28f5150c679d6f/logo-full-black.svg", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/386a2fd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1125x1125+438+0/resize/100x100!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F60%2Fdc%2F5b3ddf60bbdf57ddbadcac0c888d%2Fimg-535fc9ed-turbine-la-bio-hailey-bransonpotts", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac5f69d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1050+0+135/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/17c58cc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1300x1300+350+0/resize/100x100!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe9%2F05%2F4c74943e48cbfe7e980429f2989e%2Ftn-dpt-me-priscella-vega-20170309-001"], "movies": [], "text": "Who could blame Sandra Brockman for strutting through the crowd at the Rose Parade in a pair of red shorts?\n\nWith temperatures in the high 50s, Southern Californians wearing hoodies and stocking caps shivered around her. But Brockman, 60, basked in the sunlight. She had come to the 131st annual Rose Parade from blustery central Wisconsin with her 85-year-old aunt, Helen Haydock, whose hometown of Wisconsin Rapids declared a snow emergency this week.\n\nAfter Haydock\u2019s husband, a man with whom she had traveled the world, died in June and the Wisconsin Badgers made the Rose Bowl to face off against the Oregon Ducks, she decided to come to Pasadena to see in person the floats she had admired on television for years.\n\n\u201cOf course I support Wisconsin,\u201d Haydock said, \u201cbut I really wanted to see the floats.\u201d\n\nAdvertisement\n\nThe Rose Parade \u2014 started in 1890 as a promotional event by a local social club to show off Pasadena\u2019s famously mild winter weather \u2014 kicked off this year under postcard-perfect blue skies, ringing in the new year with the theme \u201cThe Power of Hope.\u201d\n\nFor many, the Rose Parade has become a wholesome annual respite from the divisive politics gripping the nation. On Wednesday, the parade took place at the start of a new decade and the beginning of an election year in which President Trump is running for reelection after being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\nSheldon Fuller, a 39-year-old South Pasadena attorney, first saw the Rose Parade as a teenager with his father but said the cheery display is more powerful than it ever has been, with \u201cso many mass killings [and] impeachment.\u201d\n\n\u201cI think it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cThere\u2019s all walks of life who put on a cultural exposition.\u201d\n\nAdvertisement\n\nSome election-year politics were scattered throughout the parade route. One group of Bernie Sanders supporters walked through the crowd yelling, \u201cFeel the Bern!\u201d to the tune of the classic chant, \u201cOl\u00e9, ol\u00e9, ol\u00e9.\u201d\n\nFor Andy Au, the Rose Parade was an opportunity to promote Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Au, a 55-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from South Pasadena, posted up in the middle of Colorado Boulevard in the predawn hours with a flashing bike light and a Yang sign.\n\nAu, who said he did not work for Yang\u2019s campaign, called the candidate \u201ccompletely out of the box.\u201d A few passersby made snarky remarks when they saw Au passing out fake $1,000 bills with Yang\u2019s face on them.\n\nOne float, featuring a 30-foot Statue of Liberty covered in eucalyptus leaves, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Beside the float, women walked in long white dresses and suffragette sashes.\n\nThe floats rolled along without any significant hitches, unlike last year, when the Chinese American Heritage Foundation\u2019s float caught fire near the beginning of the parade route on Orange Grove Boulevard.\n\nThe UPS Store float, which won the Sweepstakes Trophy for beauty, suffered mechanical issues and had to be towed by a massive white truck \u2014 a rare sight because the balky floats each have their own driver skilled at slowly maneuvering through the 5.5-mile route. The float, which was 35 feet tall and 55 feet long, featured tamarin monkeys with bright orange hair made of layered marigold petals and toucans with glistening black seaweed feathers.\n\nThis year\u2019s parade also was a celebration of diversity, overseen by Laura Farber, the first Latina president of the Tournament of Roses Assn. and an immigrant from Argentina.\n\nThe parade also had three Latina grand marshals \u2014 Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, actress Gina Torres, and Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar- and Tony-award-winning performer Rita Moreno.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nHonored guests riding the route in a 1915 Pierce-Arrow Model 48 were legendary Spanish-language Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarr\u00edn; actress Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on \u201cSesame Street\u201d; and astronaut Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina to go into outer space.\n\nAlyssa Conde, 20, of Downey felt a pride being surrounded by fellow Latinos in the crowd \u2014 a joy that was heightened when she saw Costa Rican and Salvadoran dancers grooving in the parade. A throng of Salvadorans near her waved their country\u2019s flag and cheered.\n\n\u201cI feel very proud,\u201d said Conde, who is Mexican American. \u201cI know our people have gone through a lot, especially in Mexico and El Salvador, but they\u2019re being heard.\u201d\n\nMiguel Santoscoy, 24, of Canoga Park said he appreciated that there was more cultural representation, especially for Latinos, this year.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m glad they\u2019re taking it more seriously than before,\u201d said Santoscoy, who has Mexican roots.\n\nGerardo Echavarria, a 50-year-old South Gate electrician, was attending the parade for the second time and immediately picked up on the increased Latino representation.\n\n\u201cI was pretty emotional because I\u2019m Mexican, and to see bands representing my country was amazing,\u201d Echavarria said.\n\nHis friend, Luis Recalde, a 54-year-old Huntington Park salesman, has attended for six years and said that in the past the event looked \u201cvery commercial.\u201d But Wednesday\u2019s lineup helped bridge a gap for those who \u201cwant to feel near their country,\u201d said Recalde, who is Argentinian.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nA float by the Sikh American Float Foundation featured a colorful tree made of walnut powder, lemon seeds, coffee and coconut powder, as well as a huge figure of Bhai Ghaneya Singh Ji, a devout Sikh known for giving water to wounded soldiers on both sides of an armed conflict.\n\nMarching bands from Japan, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico performed, and a group called Helsing\u00f8r Pigegarde from Denmark made a statement by being the only all-female marching band in the parade.\n\nThe crowd danced \u2014 and Twitter lit up \u2014 as East L.A. rock band Los Lobos performed \u201cLa Bamba\u201d from atop a float.\n\nEsprit Jones, 39, of Pasadena staked out a spot near the end of the route, where she hoped to \u201ccheer on the bands as they finished.\u201d She held her 7-year-old daughter, Brielle, who sported pink earmuffs with a unicorn horn.\n\nJones has been bringing Brielle, who noted that she could \u201csmell the ponies\u201d from the sidewalk, to the parade for the last four years because she wants her to be exposed to all kinds of people coming together to have fun.\n\n\u201cThere are so many ideas and different cultures here,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful to see us all together for one cause, even if it\u2019s just for a day.\u201d\n\nWearing an Oakland Raiders hoodie under a black pea coat and gray scarf, his mitten-covered hands clasping a hot cup of tea, Stephen McGee was attending his first Rose Parade.\n\nThe 39-year-old from Long Beach has watched the parade for years on television and finally came this year with his girlfriend, whose family has been attending for a decade.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been putting it off every year,\u201d McGee said before the parade began. \u201cI\u2019m ready to experience it. ... Everyone has been so nice and engaging.\u201d\n\nProving that even the less glamorous parts of the Rose Parade can be festive, two volunteers cleaning up horse manure with a shovel and barrel strutted down Colorado Boulevard wearing poop emoji hats.\n\nAnother volunteer, Ger Alderson, compared being part of the pooper-scooper squad to going to Disneyland.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the funnest, most exciting thing!\u201d said the former kindergarten teacher from Thousand Oaks.\n\nAlderson, 68, and her husband, Will, both grew up watching the parade every year. They keep up the tradition to honor Will\u2019s late father, who loved the event.\n\nThis year they enlisted the help of their neighbors, Rich and Cathy Hanson, to clear manure from the parade route. The four wore Dr. Seuss costumes handmade by Alderson, drawing roars of cheers and laughter.\n\nWill Alderson, a retired firefighter, was dressed as the Grinch. But he couldn\u2019t hide that he was giddy. He loved being a pooper scooper.\n\nTimes staff writers Laura J. Nelson and Erin B. Logan contributed to this report.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": ["Things to Do"], "authors": ["Priscella Vega Is A Reporter For The Los Angeles Times. She Previously Covered City Government", "Education For The Daily Pilot. She Received A First Place Award The Los Angeles Press Club In For Her Reporting On Whether The City Of Huntington Beach Had Overcome The Racist Episodes Of Its Past Following The Arrest Of Four Members Of A Local White Supremacist Group. Before Joining The Pilot In", "She Worked For The Daily Breeze Covering The Palos Verdes Peninsula", "For The Long Beach Press-Telegram As A General Assignment Intern. Vega Earned Her Journalism Degree Cal State Long Beach In", "Is A Native Spanish Speaker. She Enjoys Traveling", "Practicing Yoga", "Live Music.", "Emmanuel Morgan Is A Reporter For The Los Angeles Times. Prior To Joining The Times In October", "His Work Appeared In The Charlotte Observer", "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He Also Traveled The Country Reporting On Hate Crimes For The Prestigious Investigative Reporting Project Based At Arizona State University. A Native Of Charlotte"], "publish_date": "Wed Jan 1 00:00:00 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "There was one minor mechanical problem, but no fires, at the 131st Rose Parade, which was lauded for its theme of embracing diversity and hope.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/apple-touch-icon.png", "meta_data": {"og": {"title": "Rose Parade celebrates diversity with Rita Moreno, Los Lobos and Maria from 'Sesame Street'", "url": "https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/rose-parade-2020-floats-spectacle", "image": {"identifier": "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac5f69d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1050+0+135/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "url": "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac5f69d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1050+0+135/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "width": 1200, "height": 630, "type": "image/jpeg", "alt": "476893-me-rose-parade_20.jpg"}, "description": "There was one minor mechanical problem, but no fires, at the 131st Rose Parade, which was lauded for its theme of embracing diversity and hope.", "site_name": "Los Angeles Times", "type": "article"}, "article": {"author": "https://www.latimes.com/people/hailey-branson-potts", "content_tier": "metered", "published_time": "2020-01-01T23:39:31.762", "opinion": "false", "section": "California"}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "creator": "@vegapriscella", "description": "There was one minor mechanical problem, but no fires, at the 131st Rose Parade, which was lauded for its theme of embracing diversity and hope.", "image": {"identifier": "https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/530f5c4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1125+0+97/resize/1200x675!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2F5b%2Faf4669614f0cb1ed55188525b1a0%2Fla-photos-1staff-476893-me-rose-parade-20.jpg", "alt": "476893-me-rose-parade_20.jpg"}, "site": "@latimes", "title": "Rose Parade celebrates diversity with Rita Moreno, Los Lobos and Maria from 'Sesame Street'"}, "fb": {"app_id": 119932621434123, "pages": 5863113009, "profile_id": "latimes"}, "viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=5", "description": "There was one minor mechanical problem, but no fires, at the 131st Rose Parade, which was lauded for its theme of embracing diversity and hope.", "brightspot.contentId": "0000016f-5da6-d233-abef-dff687800000", "brightspot.cached": "false"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-01/rose-parade-2020-floats-spectacle"} |
