Swallows Day Parade Draws Many to Enjoy Floats, Bands
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Organizers estimated that 30,000 people turned out for the 36th Annual Swallows Day Parade on Saturday to watch as nearly 200 floats, bands, and equestrian units moved down Del Obispo Street.
“The city offices were getting scads of calls in the last few days asking if we were going to cancel the parade,” said Don Tryon, a parade organizer. “We told them it would happen, rain or shine. Luckily, it shined.”
One float, in particular, caught the crowd’s attention. Members of the Rios family, who have lived on the seven acres their ancestor, Feliciano Rios, received in a grant from the Spanish Crown 200 years ago, built a replica of their adobe home near Mission San Juan Capistrano.
During the festivities, a large group of enthusiastic members of the Juaneno tribe walked behind the carriage of this year’s grand marshal, Teeter Maria Romero. Romero is a Juaneno businesswoman who is a past president of the Capistrano Indian Council.
Saturday’s parade and street fair capped a week of activities that began last weekend with the return of the swallows to the city.
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