Hub’s growing Dominican community celebrates culture in downtown Boston

Rhode Island resident Milary Tavares leads a contingent of revelers down Boylston Street during the Dominican Festival Parade. The parade marked the first time in the 30 years that the festival was held downtown.

Back in 1985 a crowd of about 2,000 gathered at Mozart Park on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain for the city’s first Dominican Festival.

A young Yadires Nova-Salcedo served as the Reina Anacaona, the first queen of the festival.

Fast forward 30 years, and Nova-Salcedo, who hosts and produces the weekly news program Centro at WBZ-TV 4 is in a similar role, but the festival is much larger and has moved downtown.

“It’s crazy,” she said, perched in the back of a ’57 Chevy convertible. “Thirty years later, now I’m the godmother. Now we’re at City Hall. This makes me so proud.”

In that 30-year span, the city’s Dominican community has grown from a few thousand families centered in Jamaica Plain to one of the city’s largest ethnic groups. With more than 38,000 Boston residents claiming Dominican heritage, Dominicans have outgrown Puerto Ricans as the largest Latino group in Boston.

“They’ve already surpassed all other Latino groups in the state,” notes Suffolk County Register of Probate Felix D. Arroyo, while listening to a rendition of the anthemic paean to the Dominican Republic, Quisqueya.

Singer Cristobal Pichardo’s voice echoed off the concrete and glass of City Hall, filling the plaza with Dominican pride. Through song and dance, Dominican cultural heritage was on display in downtown Boston for the first time in the history of the festival.

As Mayor Martin Walsh marched at the head of the parade, spectators waving Dominican Flags lined the route along Boylston Street and up Tremont to City Hall Plaza. Also at the head of the parade was Enerio “Tony” Barros, a senior advisor to the mayor who was one of the organizers of the first Dominican festival at Mozart Park.

“The Dominican population is growing,” he said. “We’re not only part of the landscape of the neighborhoods, but we own a lot of the businesses in the neighborhoods, too.”

Storefronts in commercial districts in Roxbury, Dorchester and Hyde Park are dotted with Dominican businesses, reflecting the movement of the growing community away from gentrified Jamaica Plain.

The offices of several of the five Dominican Republic political parties active in the city also occupy storefronts in Boston neighborhoods. Dominicans in the United States can and do vote in the island’s presidential elections. And for Dominican candidates, Boston is an important campaign stop for votes and fundraising.

In recent years, Boston-area Dominicans have become more active in local elections as well, volunteering on campaigns for state and local office.

“The community is hugely important,” said District 6 City Councilor Matt O’Malley, whose Jamaica Plain/West Roxbury district includes many Dominican businesses. “The Irish and Dominicans have a lot in common. We’re very passionate about politics.”

The mayor, O’Malley, Arroyo and Councilor Tito Jackson were the only elected officials present at this year’s festival, though last year’s brought out a number of state-wide candidates, including Gov. Charlie Baker.

According to Barros, it was the mayor who last year suggested moving the festival and parade from Franklin Park to City Hall Plaza.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you folks bring this downtown?’” Barros recalled. “I think it was the next logical step.”

The parade’s downtown debut seemed to go well. Parade floats from local businesses, cultural groups and Dominican political parties filled the streets with the driving rhythms of Dominican merengue and bachata. Lining the route, spectators included uniformed hotel and restaurant workers who took breaks from their Sunday schedule to express Dominican pride.

Although a fight resulting in six arrests forced the festival to shut down an hour early Sunday evening, the event was largely seen as a success with a crowd estimated at 15,000 attending.

“This is a big deal,” said Nova-Salcedo. “We are in the center of Boston. People who don’t know Dominicans get to see our culture.”