It was a day just for New London.

Dancers, cheerleaders, a Navy drill team and various politicians took to State Street Sunday afternoon to make a statement, loud and clear: “We are New London.”

Students from city schools made up the bulk of the entertainment in the parade organized Sunday as way to showcase the city’s diversity. Alternating between Spanish and English versions of the phrase, the crowd filled the street outside Church of the City and slowly made its way toward the Thames River along State Street.

One of the parade’s organizers, New London resident and New London High School graduate Wanda Cotto, said Sunday that she began talking to two city councilors about the need for a city festival as they watched this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city.

That parade was fine, she said, but maybe it was time to mix things up a little.

“We just thought that New London needed it to showcase the diversity of our city,” Cotto said with a grin Sunday.

Cotto joined with city councilors Efrain Dominuez and Anthony Nolan to arrange for the parade to coincide with National Hispanic Heritage Month, which lasts from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, throwing together a well-oiled event in just over a month.

The parade ended at Parade Plaza where a deejay blasted Latin music and Top 40 hits while dance groups from New London schools and churches performed for a crowd of at least 100 people.

It was a cheerful scene, which Cotto said she hoped would push back against negative descriptions of New London and pessimism on the part of local residents.

“You rarely hear the good stories that come out of our city,” she said. "That's the narrative we wanted to tell."

New London Mayor Mike Passero read a citation in honor of the parade's grand marshal, longtime city resident and New London schools employee Zenaida Martínez.

"I'm deeply honored to be part of this moment in the history of the city," Martinez, 82, said in a brief speech praising the children she has worked with in her more than 20 years in the city including many who have learned English as a second language.

"Our children are the best and brightest," she said. "Our children will continue our work, because this work is never done."

m.shanahan@theday.com