ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The sounds of upbeat music and smells of delicious food means the return of the Lehigh Valley Puerto Rican Parade and Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It happened all day Sunday in Allentown, and folks say it’s a place for people and their cultures to connect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Show up, be proud, be proud of being Puerto Rican, and then, you know, raise our flag,” said Edmarie Rodr\u00edguez Medina, who was named the parade’s 2026 “Godmother.”<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley Puerto Rican Parade is back! The event was immediately followed by hours of festivities at the Allentown Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n
“I feel really good. The music’s really good. The food’s good,” festival attendee Maya Rivera Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n
“It’s perfect. Over here in Pennsylvania is beautiful. The day, the weather, everything is beautiful,” added Marcos Rodriguez, another attendee.<\/p>\n
It’s a day when the island of Puerto Rico comes to us here in the Lehigh Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Rather than just going to an island to connect, they can connect all in the city,” Maya said.<\/p>\n
“It feels like family,” Rodr\u00edguez Medina said. “It feels like you’re being in Puerto Rico actually in an event.”<\/p>\n
“For me, it’s really important to celebrate the Puerto Rican parade here in the Lehigh Valley because we have a lot of culture to actually share with the youngest, with our next generation,” Rodr\u00edguez Medina said.’<\/p>\n
The celebration was complete with delicious food options. Vendors served up traditional favorites like pastelillos, alcapurrias, pinchos, and bacala\u00edtos.<\/p>\n
“It’s authentic. That’s what I say. It’s authentic from the heart, the love,” festival-goer Jimmy said.<\/p>\n
It’s a place where Puerto Rican heritage, along with other cultures, can connect.<\/p>\n
“Not only our culture, a mix of cultures all having a great time,” Jimmy said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people are from Puerto Rico and everyone’s just connecting one-on-one, and I think it’s really good,” Maya said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The sounds of upbeat music and smells of delicious food means the return of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,232,153,155,154],"class_list":["post-247440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown-area","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}