Rose Parade Trip for Salvadoran Marching Band Reunites Families

The trip to Rose Parade allowed some band members to meet loved ones they had not seen for decades.

By Jorge Rivas Jan 02, 2013

The Banda El Salvador youth marching band traveled from Central America to California by bus to march in the Rose Parade. The group was unable to fundraise enough money to take the 5-hour flight and instead traveled by land for almost one hundred hours to Pasadena. The more than [200 members](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hRDF7-wFL9g05cRHv1vjIzqsXI4A?docId=6750550f746e41d3b1ac925324e3feaf) of the band left El Salvador before Christmas and spent the day far away from their families. At midnight on Christmas eve the buses pulled over at [a gas station in Mexico](http://www.laprensagrafica.com/La-Navidad-en-una-gasolinera-mexicana) so band members could hug and celebrate the holiday. While most members of the band left their parents and siblings back home in [Juayúa and Sonsonate](http://www.laprensagrafica.com/La-Navidad-en-una-gasolinera-mexicana) El Salvador there others who would reunite with family upon arriving in Los Angeles.