EAST ORANGE, NJ —As September is Hispanic Heritage Month, East Orange Mayor Ted Green and East Orange City Council have joined forces with Miryam Torres and the Hispanics for Progress of Essex County to host the annual Pan-American flag-raising ceremony on Friday, Sept. 28, from 5 to 8 p.m. in City Hall Plaza.
According to Torres, this year’s event will feature makeup demonstrations, face-painting, a parade of flags with Lama Motorcycle Club, El Toro Loco, games and music. She also said it’s taking place as recent revelations that Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused more deaths in her Puerto Rican homeland than were previously acknowledged.
The increased death toll in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria has cast doubt on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to that disaster, which the Caribbean island is still recovering from at this time.
“As a human being, not just a Latina, my opinion of the way the present administration handled Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was inhumane and that memories will last in our hearts and minds forever,” said Torres on Friday, Sept. 21. “We may forgive, but we will not forget. The midterm elections are coming up and we will make our voices and our dissatisfaction with the current administration heard on Election Day in November.”
Torres added that this year’s event is significant because it’s the first Pan-American flag-raising ceremony since the Trump administration decided to end the Temporary Protection Status of 200,000 El Salvadorans who came to live and work in the United States after two devastating earthquakes ravaged their home country.
In 2016 and 2017, when Green was still the chairman of East Orange City Council, the governing body passed resolutions in support of recipients of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program and denounced the Trump administration’s policy changes regarding TPS for Haitians, El Salvadorans, Hondurans and other immigrant groups that came to the United States seeking asylum and relief. Green’s council also passed legislation designating East Orange as a so-called sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.
Accordingly, Torres said East Orange is the perfect place for the Hispanics for Progress of Essex County to have its annual flag-raising ceremony.
“We are trying to share our culture and educate non-Latinos about the current state of immigration in this country that we all love,” Torres said. “There are many people that didn’t know that there are 22 Latin countries, people that never saw 22 different flags together and the beauty of our people reflected in all of those flags flying together with the American flag. We are hard-working people and we are grateful and proud to be in a country where opportunities are present to all who want to better themselves by working hard and contributing to making a better, stronger America.”
For more information about the Hispanics for Progress of Essex County or the Pan-American flag-raising ceremony on Friday, Sept. 28, call Torres at 973-289-9640.
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