Viva La Rosa returns for Texas Rose Festival Parade with over 50 quinceñeras from across region

Published 5:45 am Friday, October 20, 2023

After a small dance practice more than a week before the 90th Texas Rose Festival Parade, mothers sat with their daughters inside Paulina Pedroza’s office. Pedroza is one of the organizers of Viva La Rosa, a tribute float and group created to include Latinos and showcase their cultures.

Alyssa García, 15, was so scared to dance at her quinceñera that she sang instead. As one of over 50 quinceñeras involved in Viva La Rosa, she is learning to be more comfortable with herself and dancing.

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“Something that I realized by building this project, [the quinceñeras] feel powerful,” Pedroza said. “They feel like now they can do everything.”

She studies graphic design at Tyler Legacy High School and aspires to go to college and study art. García was one of the first quinceñera applicants and joined because of her mom. Her mom heard about the event from her boss, whose grandson was an escort for one of the princesses in the Rose Festival. She never thought her daughter could participate in the parade unless she was in an extracurricular activity like band.

“I am very emotional that she is participating,” García’s mom and Tyler resident Pamela López said. “It’s going to be a very unique experience.”

García is excited to wear her celestial blue quinceñera dress again. Initially when she went dress shopping, they intended to get a pink dress. But she tried this dress on and texted her mom, “Mami, this is my dress,” López said.

The second year of Viva La Rosa is bringing girls from all over East Texas. To apply they had to write an essay and put down their goals. For a lot of girls, the excitement is being able to share their culture and wear their dresses again. Many are first-generation Mexicans raised in Texas.

Geraldine Nieto, 15, of Athens, received a message about Viva la Rosa from her mom followed by the eyes emoji. She read through their site and applied. Nieto dreamed of her quinceñera and remembers her first time trying on her dress, a rich emerald color with sequins.

“I just remember thinking ‘this is the one,’” Nieto said. “I am not searching anymore. This is my dress. This is my dream.”

Nieto aspires to be a pediatrician. As the oldest, she helps take care of her younger brother, who has Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, a rare, progressive and degenerative central nervous system disorder. , Their mother Karla Nieto said to show up for the small dance practice, she had to make plans ahead of time since Geraldine usually helps out with taking care of her brother.

“The way that this experience has helped me is I learned more confidence; I usually am shy,” Geraldine said. “But meeting these girls is just amazing. I made new friends.”

Valeria Vazquez, 15, is the first quinceñera to join from Marshall. Her mother, Diana Saucedo, heard about Viva La Rosa after some waiters she contracted posted photos of her daughter on social media. A Viva La Rosa organizer, Yackie Ramírez, reached out to her about her daughter applying. Afterwards, she got the application from Ginger Young, immigration lawyer at Flowers Davis, sponsors of the float, and organizer of Viva La Rosa.

Vazquez wants to attend East Texas Baptist University and become a lawyer. She plans to pay for school through doing nails. Her off-the-shoulder dress is an emerald green . For her quinceñera, she got her braces to match her dress. She is changing the colors ahead of the festival.

Alya Puñoz, Whitehouse High School student, 15, feels this experience has opened her more as there are girls from all over East Texas. S She wants to focus more in school and go to cosmetology school after. She is very often representing her Mexican culture, according to her mom.

“She dreamed about her quinceñera,” mom Alejandra Garcia said. “The day of her quince, when she went to the venue, she cried.”

Her quinceñera was Jan. 2, 2023. Her dress is sage green with sleeves that drape off the shoulder and long in the back.

Suzanne Valle-Tellez, 15, received a phone call from her grandmother, telling her about Viva La Rosa. She was deciding between all the extra-curriculars she wanted to do and Viva La Rosa. In the end, she decided to apply.

“It’s once in a lifetime, let me be happy,” Valle-Tellez said. “In the future I’ll be like I was in the parade, it was so much fun.”

She plans to go to business school in Dartmouth and be her own boss.

For the first time, Viva La Rosa has a choreographer: Francisco “Baldo” Sanchez. The weekend before the parade, Sanchez, Paulina and Young gathered the quinceñeras for the second big rehearsal the Sunday before the festival. The songs used for the dance portion includes Como la Flor by Selena, Cielito Lindo, La Bamba by Ricky Valens, El Tapatio and Pelea de Gallos.

Sanchez has a degree in bailé folklórico from Mexico. He has been choreographing quinceñeras for 19 years. He started with the Zavala family. At Sunday’s rehearsal, he recognized some of the quinceñeras as his alums from their quinceñeras.

“It’s something important for the Latino community to participate in this altruistic activity, to be a pioneer for the Latino community,” Sanchez said. “Above all, we are united.”

Along with 50-plus quinceñeras, there will be bailé folklórico, Aztec dancers, a Tejano band and Mariachi Los Caporales.

“I think it’s gonna be beautiful and all the efforts that the volunteers, the sponsors, the parents, the girls have put in will really shine,” Young said.

The 90th Texas Rose Festival Parade will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday. The parade will start at Front Street and Glenwood Boulevard then follow a route west on Front Street. It will end inside the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium.

You can also watch the Texas Rose Festival parade on KETK on cable, or online at ketk.com, the KETK Facebook or the KETK app. It will also be broadcast in Spanish on KTPN, which can be found on the following channels: Optimum, Channel 9; Longview and Kilgore Cable, Channel 4; or Over the Air, Channel 51.2. Fuzion Radio will also be translating the parade in Spanish for the first time on TV.