A parranda pop-up in Humboldt Park takes inspiration from Puerto Rican Christmas traditions — and Bad Bunny's 'casita'

Open the door to Le Lo Lai Gallery, and you'll walk into a world meticulously decorated for Christmastime. There are woodwork touches of Puerto Rican heritage, including a replica of the casita, or small house, that Bad Bunny featured on stage during his Puerto Rican residency this past year.

Through early January, an event planning company has transformed the new gallery at 2716 W. Division St. into La Parranda Boricua Pop-Up. After launching on Black Friday, the pop-up has welcomed hundreds of people from in and outside of the neighborhood.

A parranda is a Puerto Rican tradition in which families and friends gather to sing aguinaldos (similar to Christmas carols) on foot around the neighborhood. Armed with instruments like the güiro, cuatro and tambourine, parranderos will often surprise sleeping and unsuspecting neighbors by screaming “¡Asalto!” ("Assault!") before beginning the singing. The celebration always ends at someone’s house, where authentic food, drink and dancing take place inside.

In Chicago, the tradition has taken on a different form, especially with a significantly colder and snowier winter season. Many brave souls still travel on foot, while others charter party buses. But at Le Lo Lai Gallery, La Parranda Boricua keeps the party going all week long.

Some events require a ticket, but the pop-up is free to attend and welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds. A $10 suggested donation comes with a raffle ticket and a shot of coquito from the pop-up’s official partner, MadCru Sangria.

Each week, La Parranda Boricua hosts various community organizations and local vendors for salsa, bachata, bomba and cumbia workshops, coquito-making classes, toy drives and nighttime fiestas.

Organizers Liana Lorenzo and Maria Sánchez, who together own the company Lasting Memories Events, hosted a parranda pop-up last year during the first weekend of December. The 2024 weekend was so popular that they decided to bring it back and extend it to six weeks, especially because islanders celebrate Christmas well into January.

“Last year was kind of like a test,” Lorenzo told the Sun-Times. The most impactful feedback about the parranda pop-up was people “being thankful that something like that existed for them and brought back memories.”

So this year, Lorenzo and Sanchez began “finding ways to incorporate community and anybody that wants to be part of it,” Lorenzo said.

The casita, and other features of the pop-up, were made by Sánchez’s husband Jesse, who owns J&M Contracting Group and regularly crafts elaborate wooden chairs and other pieces.

The pop-up features a variety of rotating local vendors, including customized drinkware from Encanto Taíno, handmade jewelry from Janina Castillo’s Pretty Pearl Shop, Puerto Rico hats and jerseys from Just Go Ill. and Humboldt Park-themed sweatshirts and more from Shop Del Humboldt.

This weekend’s schedule includes an ugly sweater party and contest on Friday, while legendary DJ Extreme spins. On Saturday, Sentido, a cultural experiment born from Latino DJs in Chicago, will host their last event of the year.

Families can take photos with Santa on Sunday afternoon and enjoy even more music and dancing in celebration of National Coquito Day.

Gallery owner Luis Raul, who did not want to share his last name, said that his partnership with Lorenzo and Sánchez started after an introduction during the annual Fiesta Boricua in August.

Lorenzo and Sánchez liked his approach to art, culture and curating community spaces, so they began collaborating to bring the pop-up to life.

The space, situated between the two large steel Puerto Rican flags on Division St., is the former site of the St. Adalberto Memorial United Methodist Church.

For years, the church offered a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants by giving them a place to stay. The church made headlines for its decision, and Chicago (along with Los Angeles and New York following the city’s lead) is today an official sanctuary city in part due to the UMC’s efforts. The church closed about two years ago for reasons that are unclear.

But Luis Raul, an artist-organizer, still wants the space to carry the spirit of the work previously done there by “sticking to that narrative, but putting it more towards artists, cultural practitioners, individuals, community and just really creating a real cultural hub inside of a cultural hub of a neighborhood.”

“It's a cultural immersion,” he continued. “This is not a very typical gallery space … [It] is not limited just to hanging pictures on the wall.”