For 40 joyful minutes this morning, hundreds of people joined in and along South Park streets to celebrate Latin American heritage and culture, participating in or watching Seattle’s annual Fiestas Patrias parade. Above is our unedited video of the entire parade, with musicians, folkloric and Indigenous dancers, scooters, unicyclists, floats and vehicles from sponsor Sea Mar Community Health Centers (representing their locations from Clark County in the south to Whatcom County in the north), concluding with more than 50 horseback riders, Grand Marshal was West Seattleite Teresa Mosqueda, District 8 King County Councilmember from North Delridge, riding in a classic Mustang convertible:
Other West Seattleite sightings included Chief Sealth IHS football players and the Proyecto Saber program from Sealth and neighboring Denny IMS. The parade just concluded at its ending point at the South Park Community Center (we recorded video from its starting point at 14th Avenue South and South Henderson), but the Fiestas Patrias celebration continues all weekend with a festival at Seattle Center downtown, also presented by Sea Mar.