Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Harp in the middle of the caravan. Below: Saturday’s caravan down Grand Avenue.
Sirens, salsa, and enthusiastic shouts of “Wepa!” filled the streets of Fair Haven during a Puerto Rican-style caravan organized to rally city Latinos to vote for Mayor Toni Harp.
That amplified and mobile get-out-the-vote operation took place Saturday morning as Harp, State Rep. Juan Candelaria, mayoral Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes, and nearly a dozen Jeep Wrangler-driving members of the The Real Family Jeep Club rolled on and around Grand Avenue waving campaign signs and encouraging passerby to support Harp during Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary.
Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez pass out Harp campaign signs as the caravan prepares to depart.
Harp, who is running for a fourth two-year term heading City Hall, will face off in the primary against former East Rock/Cedar Hill alder and 2013 mayoral runner-up Justin Elicker.
The caravan started at around 11 a.m. Saturday just outside of Christopher Columbus Academy at Blatchley Avenue and Grand Avenue in the heart of the city’s predominantly Latino Fair Haven neighborhood — and the very same spot where members of the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus endorsed Harp in late August.
Reyes (pictured), a former president of the then-called Board of Aldermen, said that he has been involved in Puerto Rican-style caravans for New Haven Democratic mayoral candidates going back to the 1980s campaigns of former Mayor Biagio DiLieto.
The goal, he said, is “to create excitement.” Driving and honking and blasting music and shouting Harp’s name and the date of the primary were all meant to inform voters of the upcoming primary election, encourage them to support Harp, and remind them that that their support doesn’t amount to much if they don’t make it to the polls on Tuesday.
“This is designed to mimic what happens” not just in Puerto Rico, Reyes said, but in Mexico and Latin American countries from which many Fair Haven residents originally hail.
Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez and Harp supporter and Fair Haven resident Daisy Salas (pictured behind the wheel of her car) reiterated that the caravan is a common political messaging tool in Puerto Rico and in Spanish-speaking countries.
“Everybody comes together,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody is energized.”
Frank Alvarado affixes a Harp sign to the back of his car before the caravan kicks off.
The caravan isn’t used just for political campaigns though, she said, but also for weddings, quinceañeras, graduations, rallies, parades, and everything in between.
Remember when Puerto Ricans rallied by the hundreds of thousands throughout the U.S. territory earlier this summer to oust Gov. Ricardo Rosselló from office? Salas asked. “That is it.” That’s the power of the caravan.
Carlos Rivera (pictured with his son Xavier), vice president of the Fair Haven-based Real Family Jeep Club, said that State Rep. Candelaria had asked him and his fellow riders to come out and lead the Harp campaign ride on Saturday. Rivera was happy to oblige.
“We make some noise,” he said. “We sing and honk and shout,” and the mayor gets an opportunity to share her name and campaign with an audience that might not be aware of the upcoming primary.
Wilmer Perez (pictured), a Bridgeport resident and fellow Real Family Jeep Club member, said that he and his fellow riders came out “to support whomever is best for the community.”
As for what the caravan means to Puerto Rican culture, he said, “It’s a way of life. The jeep: It’s freedom.”
And with that, the caravan started in motion. Each of the jeeps turned on bands of fluorescent lights that cast a glow even in the noontime sun. Turned up bass-heavy speaker systems blasted Joe Arroyo’s “no le pegue a la negra”, Bobby Valentin’s “Soy Boricua”, and Chimbala’s “El Boom.”
Riding up Blatchley Avenue, across Lombard Street, down James Street and back east along Grand Avenue, Candelaria held a speakerphone to his lips and shouted, “Wepa! Wepa! Boricua! Boricua!” “Vote for Toni Harp,” he said in both English and Spanish. “This Tuesday! Sept. 10!”
As the caravan wound its way through the various side streets south of Grand, families waved from their porches and windows, often taking out their phones to record and cheer as the block-long cluster of cars rallied down the street.
On some blocks, there was virtually no one on the sidewalk, leaving the thumping salsa music and blaring sirens to bounce back against the vacant facades …
… but invariably, upon that next turn, there would be another group out and waiting, mouths open, dancing on the sidewalk as it was suddenly, temporarily, transformed into an outdoor, politically-infused dance party.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch part of Saturday’s caravan ride.
Instead of walking through Fair Haven, going door to door, meeting and talking to individuals to get a sense of their concerns and needs, the Harp campaign fought a ride by with the mayor and blasts of music would suffice.