Denver’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is not just for the Irish anymore.
When the parade steps off at 10 a.m. today, it will include more than 200 of Denver’s B-Cycles, Latino families lined up to watch the stroll through Lower Downtown and the Bolivian group Sambos Illimani Colorado dancing in honor of that nation’s saint, San Patricio.
“It’s like the Wild West mentality meets the traditional St. Patrick’s Day,” said parade spokeswoman Linda Garrison . “We’ve always been a lot more open. In East Coast cities like Boston, there’s a much stronger Catholic or religious influence to it, but here, not so much.”
The Catholic men’s society Knight of Columbus participates, she said, “but the Shriners and the you-name-its also participate.”
The fiercely independent spirit of the Rocky Mountain West and its relatively small Irish-Catholic population have combined to evolve the spirit of the day.
“It’s become more of a community celebration than just a traditional day to start drinking at 8 in the morning,” said Steve Sander , director of marketing for the city, who helped get the B-Cycles into the parade. “We do have one of the larger St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country, so it should be a community-wide celebration.”
For many, it’s an essential rite of spring.
“It’s a sign that winter is over, and we’re done with hibernation,” Sander said. “It’s going to be in the 60s for most of next week, and the biking community is rallying around that.”
The first St. Patrick’s Day parade — held in New York City in the mid-1700s — focused on all things Irish, a point of pride for the immigrant community.
But in Colorado over the years, other immigrants have added their own traditions, especially those from Latin America, where St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated as Dia de San Patricio.
In Mexico, St. Patrick is the patron saint of the town of San Patricio, where the week-long celebration includes bullfights and rodeos.
Denver’s 2011 Queen Colleen, Keriayn O’Donnell, is believed the first who is fluent in Spanish.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is “very multicultural nowadays,” said O’Donnell, a senior at Colorado State University who grew up speaking Spanish with her grandparents and is adept at Irish step dancing. “A lot of Latin-American countries are Catholic, and St. Patrick is a Catholic saint.”
For the local Latino community, she said, “it’s a feast day. They don’t necessarily focus on the fact that it’s Irish, but it’s definitely a celebration.”
To people like Marco Fernandez of Wheat Ridge, St. Patrick’s Day is part of his Catholic heritage.
Born in Bolivia, Fernandez is national coordinator of the folk dance group Sambos Caporales USA.
“San Patricio is one of the most important saints we have in Bolivia,” Fernandez said. “When the Spaniards came to South America, the conquistadors, one saint they brought was San Patricio. The Spaniards knew him as San Silvestre.”
In Bolivia, people pray to San Patricio for help with problems, and on his feast day, the festivities are more about devotion.
“When we dance, it is for faith, and we ask things from him,” he said. “We have parades in Bolivia, 45 to 65 groups of dancers going to the church to honor the saint on his day.”
On this sunny day in Denver, that tradition continues, along with B-Cycles, Shriners and leprechauns.
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
