St. Lucie’s Haitian population had another milestone to celebrate this month along with their country’s independence as their national soccer team trains for the 2026 World Cup in their backyard.
That spirit permeated the 12th Annual Port St. Lucie Haitian Flag Day party at Walton & One on Monday. Skies parted after an otherwise rainy workday turned into the clamor of pride for the Caribbean nation.
Held once again by Treasure Coast Cultural Festival, Inc., the party feted 222 years since Haiti won its independence from Napoleon’s French and a return to world stage soccer after a 50-year-plus absence.
By 6 p.m., rainy conditions shrunk to the odd sun shower. Approximately 400 visitors clustered around the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center outdoor stage. A parade of horseback riders, brass players and cheerleaders with a commemorative soccer ball made its way to the stage with fervent applause for the Haitian team’s match vs. Brazil in Philadelphia on June 19.
Carole King, founder of Treasure Coast Cultural Festival, Inc., recalled the inaugural celebration that began in Walton & One on another Monday in 2014.
“People didn’t believe in having a festival on a Monday,” said King. “Everybody was looking at me like I was crazy. I said, ‘Well, this is not a party. This is not just like any festival, it’s a mission.’”
For King, honoring her homeland’s Flag Day meant spreading word of its history. It came about through a slave revolt led by Toussaint L’Ouverture that liberated the country from Napoleon’s French Empire.
The Caribbean country, itself, endured numerous hardships from the contentious reign of emperors to ongoing poverty aggravated by a devastating 2011 earthquake.
“We want to celebrate every May 18, which is that day,” King said.
Smaller celebrations at first mutated into “thousands and thousands of people” returning every Flag Day at Walton & One to fete Haiti’s independence and call its hardships to mind.
One patron involved in that spread was Lomiah Magloire, who attended each Port St. Lucie Flag Day from the beginning. She and her son, Jayden, marched in the 6 p.m. parade: her on horseback, him with a commemorative soccer ball.
Astride a chestnut horse in full costume, Lomiah, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, waved one of many Haitian flags throughout the Event Center campus as an extension of her pride.
“This is a celebration of hope,” she said. “I am so proud of my Haitian team for making it to the World Cup; I don’t even care if they win, but I’m so excited to be a part of it and they are training right here in my backyard.”
Living in the Caribbean and the U.S. saw her and other Haitians stare down poverty, gang violence and discrimination to this day, Lomiah said. The “situation that we are facing at home,” in either country, “will not stop us from celebrating.”
“Immigrants make this country,” Lomiah said. “We built this country and we continue to work hard to chip in and to make this country what it is.”
“I am so proud to be a Port St. Lucian,” she said. “We don’t have that (many) issues in Port St. Lucie, but we do know our brothers and sisters are facing challenges in other places.”