A Rocky Road for Float : Money Spent to Build Salvadoran Rose Parade Entry Draws Wrath of Critics

When Andre Rallion began sketching outlines of volcanoes on a napkin last January, his dream was to design a float that would represent the Salvadoran community in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Nearly a year later, his vision has come to life, and a float representing El Salvador will roll through the streets of Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

But the float has also touched off a debate in Central Los Angeles Salvadoran communities between those who say the $150,000 cost of bringing Rallion’s dream to fruition could have been better spent on social service programs, and those who say the float will promote a much-needed positive image of a country best known for being torn apart by 12 years of civil war.

“We want people to see us in a different light, as peace-loving, industrious people,” said Juan Arce, who put up $35,000 of his own money in addition to raising funds and support for the float.

The image that Arce and Rallion hope to get across is what has drawn some volunteers and donations to the project.

“At first some of us said yes, we need to build hospitals and more facilities to help people, but we also need to lift the image of the country and the morale of the community here,” said volunteer Gloria Staudt, a North Hollywood resident, as she cut dried flowers that will be used to decorate the 55-foot-long shell.

Housed inside the Palace of Roses in Pasadena, the float is being assembled by about a dozen volunteers. A combination of five towering volcanoes surrounded by palm trees and the sun on one side and a rainbow on the other, the float is meant to promote El Salvador’s natural resources and a peaceful image, said Rallion, who came to Los Angeles from El Salvador two years ago and is a graduate student in landscape architecture at UCLA.

“What we are doing is no different from what other groups have done,” Rallion said. “It’s similar to the efforts of others such as the Irish and other groups who want to celebrate their lives here.”

But others say the float, titled “The New Adventure,” ignores the real needs of Salvadorans in Los Angeles and at home.

“This really means that there is a loss of money that should be used to help rebuild the country,” said Oscar Andrade, director of El Rescate, a nonprofit group that provides social and legal assistance to the Central American community in Westlake. “After 12 years of civil war, the country isn’t really in a position to use the few resources that exist to build a float that celebrates the Rose Parade, which is really an American tradition.”

More than half the cost of creating the float has come from private sources in El Salvador such as TACA International Airlines and the national consortium of coffee growers.

“Who will benefit from an increase in tourism?” Andrade said. “TACA and the hotels. . . . So we don’t really see this as something that will really benefit the country.”

Even others who are less critical of the project, such as Carlos Vaquerano of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Pico-Union, are reluctant to embrace the float as more than a chance to present a different image.

“I think the idea of the float will bring attention to El Salvador and it will focus attention on the need for investment, and perhaps investors will be drawn to the new image,” Vaquerano said. “But in some ways, it’s a contradiction with the things that are going on right now in El Salvador. There are still problems with violence, and that prevents the country from recuperating economically and socially.”

Supporters of the float acknowledge the project won’t have a direct effect on the lack of social services available to the estimated 500,000 Salvadorans living in Los Angeles, but say the float may produce benefits later.

“Yes, there should be programs that are aimed at helping our community here,” said Arce, a doctor who works with the Salvadoran American Medical Society in Long Beach. He said that although he would like to see the Salvadoran consulate become more involved with social issues, the float is a more immediate method of attracting interest and money.

“I see the float as a trampoline, a springboard that will allow people to see we can do more than people give us credit for,” he said.

For the volunteers who are spending time and money ensuring the float is ready to roll down Colorado Boulevard on Saturday, the debate surrounding it won’t detract from what they have created.

“This means so much to us,” said Leila Benitez, who is visiting from El Salvador and was helping decorate the float. “It motivates us to feel, I don’t know, even more Salvadoran, if that makes sense.”