La Familia Hispana

Last weekend was the 2016 Hispanic Family Festival and Western Mass Puerto Rican Parade in Holyoke. This is a great annual celebration that gave me the opportunity to photograph for my September exhibition at the Taber Art Gallery at HCC.

You can barely see the Festival stage in the background of this photograph in the beer tent. The Festival offered 6 hours of joyous Latin music every day for 3 days. Regrettably, I wasn’t recording sound. Fortunately, the weekend was a visual festival of gesture and expression.

At the Parade, I was intrigued by this street musician.

I had lunch on the first day with Mari and Rene. I asked Mari what was the best on their extensive menu. She recommended the Kielbasa. Delicious.

I disavow any relationship to lunch and this picture (above), but I was fascinated that the Porta-Pottys were so far away from the action.

As usual, I am attracted to the beauty of quality footware.

A favorite moment during the Parade was this dueling portrait session. I’d like to see what his pictures look like. Maybe I can find them on Instagram.

Below is the picture on the gallery announcement for the exhibition. All photographs ©Frank Ward

HeyLook HoLyoke: 46 years of witnessing Holyoke through a camera runs from Sept. 6th to Sept. 30th, 2016. Gallery talk and reception Wed. Sept. 14th, 11 am to 1 pm– talk begins at noon.  There will be an evening reception Thurs. Sept. 15th from 5:30-7:30 pm.

The Taber Gallery at Holyoke Community College is easily accessed through the HCC Library lobby in the Donahue Building and is open to all during regular school sessions. Please call for current gallery hours: 413 552 2614.