Jacob Rios, a Humboldt Park native, used to attend the Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade every year with his father. It often landed on Father’s Day, so the two would spend the weekend together. But even though his father passed away in 2015, the 38-year-old has kept up the father-and-son tradition.
On Saturday afternoon, Rios brought his youngest, 5-year-old Jovani, to the parade for the first time. “This was like his heart and soul; this is the beauty of Chicago,” Rios said of the event. “Now I’ve got my little guy with me.
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It feels like a blessing. I know he’s watching from heaven right now.” Rios and his son were among the hundreds cheering from the sidewalk of Division Street as the 46th annual Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade passed through Humboldt Park Saturday.
The father-son duo had arrived from Jovani’s baseball game on the West Side at 10 a.m., with Rios proudly displaying the Puerto Rican flag on his sleeve in two ways — his shirt and a tattoo he got shortly before his dad died.
“I’m late to everything in my life,” he said. “To this, I’m not.” Jacob Rios carries his half asleep son, Jovani Rios, 5, as he watches the Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade on Saturday in Humboldt Park.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Dayanne Ivera, a Humboldt Park resident who moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico when she was 18, said she was attending for the first time because she “wanted to be in the mix.” Now 32, she said though she returns to Puerto Rico.