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Friends and family of Miguel Guillermo Amaro, one of the original founders of the Dominican Day parade, held for the first time on Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights, gathered recently for a street re-naming ceremony that honored his legacy.
Story by Debralee Santos and Adrian Cabreja
Come every August, the red, white, and blue washes over Sixth Avenue. Flags, large and small, are unfurled onto a parade route that is packed with millions of proud attendees and marchers who flock to midtown Manhattan to show off their amor de patria [love of country].
And it is the Dominican Republic, whose flag is composed of color-blocked squares of red, white and blue, that parade-goers gather to celebrate from 36th to 59th Streets in mid-August. The colorful floats, the festive costumes, the folkloric music all point to the island of Hispaniola as its origin.
What many cheering and dancing along Sixth Avenue may not realize is that the Dominican Day parade, now a destination for millions of residents of Dominican heritage of the City, began far from midtown Manhattan.
“The parade was huge. I had never seen so many Dominicans here in the United States organize themselves the way they did on that day,” says Marina Torres.
Torres, whose voice carries the authority of history, speaks from her storefront business M J Business Services on West 187th Street and Broadway. The empresaria [businesswoman] established her travel agency and multi-service office in the late 80’s, and has, for decades, been involved in community and social causes while raising her family in Washington Heights.
Torres speaks of the first parade, held in 1985, with palpable pride, and recalls the gathering as a turning point for the immigrant Dominican community seeking to come of age in New York.
What might surprise many is that the first parade was, in fact, held en la cuna [in the center] of the Dominican experience in New York: in Washington Heights, on Audubon Avenue.
Torres would know. She was one of its organizers, along with her husband at the time, Miguel Guillermo Amaro.
In 1965, during a time of significant upheaval and uncertainty as a result of Trujillo’s assassination four years before, Amaro, like many of his countrymen and women, came to Washington Heights, where he settled and made a home for himself and his family- and where he would dedicate himself to his life’s work.
Amaro always understood the emerging strength that the growing Dominican community possessed in New York City, and that it represented a dynamic new economic, political, social and cultural force. While a student at Lehman College, Amaro was actively involved in protests for civil rights during the 1970’s. He founded and published a local Dominican newspaper named “DominicanYork,” giving voice to issues of concern to the fellow immigrants and their families that lived and worked beside his in Washington Heights and the Bronx.
One of Judith Amaro’s first memories was that of her and her brother, Mao, sleeping outside in a sleeping bag as their parents attended a protest.
“When I was a young girl, I would tag along with my father, but this particular adventure was overwhelming and exciting,” says Amaro, wistfully, of the memory.
“He wasn’t only a father to me, he was also a father to all of the neighborhood kids,” adds Amaro now of her father, whose activism clearly inspired her own. She is a local parent advocate, and has established The Miguel Amaro Scholarship Foundation.
Among many goals, Amaro was determined to see become a reality was a parade that would demonstrate the influence and presence of the local Dominican community, and celebrate its heritage.
He was not alone in that pursuit. Among those that shared his goal were his wife, Marina Torres, and fellow community activists Socrates Tejada and Dr. Silvio Torres-Salliant.
But it was not an easy task.
Amaro and the group faced challenges from the City and from local community leaders who resisted the idea of a Dominican parade, and the would-be celebration was denied to him and fellow organizers on various occasions. There were protracted discussions, and long nights filled meetings held in apartment living rooms and basements throughout Washington Heights.
Including West 190th and Audubon Avenue.
This past Saturday, August 6th, that street corner was renamed “Miguel Amaro Way.” It stands yards away from the apartment building where Amaro held meetings and helped to plan the first parade.
“It was here, in 1975, that Amaro told other community leaders that he wanted to create the Dominican parade,” said New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez at the renaming ceremony. “This corner is historical.”
It was an emotional affair, with many recalling Amaro as a charismatic leader who believed deeply in education and civic engagement.
Dr. Silvio Torres-Salliant, noted Latin American scholar, former Director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, and now associate professor of English and Director of the Latino-Latin American Studies program at Syracuse University, spoke fondly of his former socio [colleague], whom he credited for setting him on the path of academia.
“I told Miguel that I wanted to go to school, but I didn’t know when to start. Amaro asked me, ‘How about now, how about today,’” recalled Torres-Salliant. “He took me all the way to Brooklyn College, and I registered the same day.”
And the parade that seemed but a dream?
On August 15th, 1985, after years of hoping and planning, and months and months of planning, organizing and collecting signatures, thousands of Dominicans joined together to march down Audubon Avenue from 165th Street to 191st Street, a span of over a mile.
Nearly 30 years later, the parade has only grown from year to year, with now millions in attendance.
“After all of my father’s work, a corner in New York City, the city that never sleeps, holds his name. I am very proud of him,” said an emotional Judith Amaro at the street renaming ceremony.
Sadly, Amaro died in a car accident in 1987.
But the parade, and the legacy, live on.
“This celebration is more than the celebration of Miguel Amaro’s life, it is also the celebration of us. We have come so far and accomplished so much,” said New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat, of northern Manhattan and the Bronx, at the ceremony. “[And] we continue to show our community that we are a force in New York.”
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