Somos Boricuas! Puerto Rican Day Parade Returns To Sunset Park This Weekend
The annual Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival is returning to Sunset Park for the second official year this weekend. A procession of music and dancing will salsa up 5th Avenue all the way to Sunset Park (the park, not the neighborhood) for more music, food, and art.
To kick off the weekend festivities, a mural will be unveiled by popular Sunset Park graffiti artist, Robin “Ribs” Padro, at the intersection of 49th Street and 5th Avenue on Saturday June 11 at 5pm. Padro had been working on the Puerto Rican themed mural for weeks.
The parade will start at 58th Street and 5th Avenue on Sunday, June 12, at 5pm, and will be led by Puerto Rican musicians, whose music will be paired with dancers and vejigantes, dancing folk figures representing the spiritual side of of Puerto Rico. The parade will continue up to 44th Street and 5th Avenue, where the festival will begin in the park at 7pm.
At the festival, people will be dancing to the multifaceted Latin group, Abrazos Orchestra, and eating helado de cocos (tropical snowcones). Artists will showcase their contemporary expressions of Puerto Rican culture throughout the evening. All of the festivities are absolutely free, and family oriented.
Two Sunset Park natives will be honored as the grand marshals. The parade’s Madrina, or matriarch, will be the long-time Sunset Park community organizer and social justice advocate Maritza Arrastia. The Padrino, or patriarch, is J.W. Cortes, an actor, philanthropist, and military veteran.
The parade and festival — which was held for 20 years prior to 2015 in an unofficial capacity — will this year be hosted by El Grito, a community non-profit which is focused on documenting police misconduct, and trying to find common ground with police through traditional Puerto Rican Culture.
Before receiving a permit to host the parade, the festivities were marked with violence and tension between police and celebrators. At the 2014 parade, police battered a 17 year old boy with batons, and arrested him for attacking police and resisting arrest. A video of the incident that emerged prompted the charges to be dropped.
Dennis Flores, co-founder of El Grito, told us parade organizers are looking forward to another year of peaceful interactions between revelers and cops.
“This has been a real community effort,” said Flores. “For many years, the Puerto Rican community of Sunset Park has publicly celebrated their culture and identity on this weekend. But tension created between the community and the police as a result of informal, unofficial public celebrations was not sustainable. To change this dynamic, the Sunset Park community came together in a big way to make sure we have a safe, enjoyable, city-sanctioned celebration for people of all ages.”
Entrances to the parade will be located at 44th Street and 5th Avenue, 43rd Street and 5th Avenue, and 44th Street and 6th Avenue.