{"id":280725,"date":"2026-06-28T22:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280725\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T22:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:50:33","slug":"news-12-brooklyn-toita-festival-returns-to-williamsburg-honoring-community-matriarch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280725\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Brooklyn | Toita Festival Returns To Williamsburg Honoring Community Matriarch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The To\u00f1ita Festival in Williamsburg surged through the streets Sunday as thousands gathered to celebrate Puerto Rican culture with food, music and the neighborhood spirit that has defined the area for decades.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Crowds were so dense around To\u00f1ita\u2019s Caribbean Social Club, the longtime community anchor that inspired the festival, that the storefront was barely visible. Festival\u2011goers gathered for domino games, live music and a wide range of Puerto Rican dishes as the third annual event hit its peak.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">At the center of it all was To\u00f1ita herself, the woman credited with shaping the neighborhood\u2019s cultural heartbeat for more than half a century. Admirers surrounded her throughout the afternoon, lining up for hugs, photos and a chance to thank her for keeping the community together.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez said Tonita\u2019s legacy is a testament to perseverance.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cTo\u00f1ita, a single mother who purchased this building, for 52 years the real estate market has been using every tool to get her out, and she is still here; this is about community, strength and resiliency,&#8221; said Rep. Vel\u00e1zquez.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The festival was scheduled to run until 6 p.m., but with crowds spilling into nearby streets, the celebration showed no signs of slowing into the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The To\u00f1ita Festival in Williamsburg surged through the streets Sunday as thousands gathered to celebrate Puerto Rican culture&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-280725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}