Me along with my three other beautiful Hola LA! co-hosts we were the Grand Marshals for Cyress Park's annual Cinco de Mayo Parade!
What an gift to be included in the Cypress Park Parade which has a 22-year old tradition of having a Latino Celebrity serve as Grand Marshals - and this year Bel Hernandez, Dyana Ortelli, Naibe Reynoso and myself took that coveted honor - wow, even as I write this, I realize how so darn cool that is!
Personal moments that happened behind the scenes:
As Grand Marshals, our duties included a VIP Meet and Greet breakfast reception where we got to mingle with fellow entertainers and meet great people from the community. But it's never an Hola LA! outing without some sort of "excitement" happening. As it turns out, poor Dyana was lost and could not find the VIP reception location (so she missed breakfast, coffee and the meet and greet). Many calls and texts later and still lost, her phone died at the very point the parade was starting and our parade car was taking off...with out Dyana!! We three took off sad that Dyana got lost and had to miss the parade but, we had to go on and wave and say HOLA to all the beautiful faces of Cypress Park.
A favorite heart fullfilling moment on the parade route for me was when I would lock eyes with a little boy or girl and say "hi mija" or "hi mijo"...their eyes would grow wide as saucers and their smile would grow really big...that made my day each and every time.
Was the parade route really short? Or was I having too much fun? because before I knew it, we were parked at the festivities location - where we were to be introduced on stage and the fun party would continue with food and entertainment. As we were parked, still sitting in the car chatting and taking pictures, out of nowhere DYANA shows up! She missed the whole parade but she made it to the festivities. Apparently she found a cop who kindly drove her to us. As she sat shotgun (although it would have been hilarious to hear otherwise) she regally waved out of the cop car window - getting in her parade experience...lol. Reunited, we finished out our Grand Marshal duties strong and had a very fun day!
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| Excited about our sign! |
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| Ready to take off, missing our colorful Dyana, no really behind the smiles we were sad :( |
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| Still sad :( we managed to lift our spirits I'm hoisting our Hola LA Celebrity Grand Marshal trophy! Cue song... "We are the Champions..." |
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| Ta-Dah!! Real smiles of JOY as Dyana magically appears Dyana was born wearing that sombrero LOL |
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| On stage introduction to the crowd and officially presented our wonderful trophy |
Special Thanks To:
Rafael Lopez, the parade’s celebrity liaison - you were just wonderful Rafa!
Ed Reyes, L.A. City Councilman has partnered with Cypress Park Neighborhood Council in helping with some of the city logistics and permits to host the parade
Cypress Park, for having us represent your wonderful city
New Episode Airs
Saturday, May 25th at 6:00pm on KCAL9
Sunday, May 26th at 4:30pm on CBS2
Latin Heat Article on the Cinco de Mayo Parade:
http://www.latinheat.com/2013/04/24/hola-la-hosts-grand-marshals-at-cinco-de-mayo-parade
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