SHOCKER! The largest festival of Peruvian culture outside of Peru, the Festival Peruano de New Jersey, is coming to New Jersey! We are very excited for this year’s festival, which feature a lama mascot (pictured above) and brings headliners Bareto, Chola Chabuca (the most famous queen in Peru), Marisol, Alma Bella (pictured with the lama), Miki Gonzales to the stage. We have been listening to Gonzales’ Hoja Verde de la Coca con gusto.
After hearing announcement of the giant Peruvian festival happening in New Jersey on July 8th, we had our questions: who knew there were 30,000 Peruvians in New Jersey? We’ve been left a little incredibly astounded by the research which shows that New Jersey is largely where Peruvians in the U.S. take up residence. After a little information aggregated by our partners at Wikipedia, we learned this:
The top 25 US communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Peruvian ancestry are:
East Newark, New Jersey 10.1%
Harrison, New Jersey 7.01%
Paterson, New Jersey 4.72%
Kearny, New Jersey 3.82%
The Hammocks, Florida 3.36%
Port Chester, New York 3.30%
Virginia Gardens, Florida 3.24%
Prospect Park, New Jersey 3.22
Bay Harbor Islands, Florida 3.11%
Doral, Florida 2.95%
Haledon, New Jersey 2.71%
Garfield, New Jersey 2.55%
Union City, New Jersey 2.53%
Both Key Biscayne, Florida and Glen Cove, New York 2.48%
Passaic, New Jersey 2.42%
White Plains, New York 2.39%
Elizabeth, New Jersey 2.35%
[there’s more, believe it…]
Check out Miki Gonzales’ ode to the coca leaf: illegal in the US, lauded in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia–and prepare to fall in love:
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