Puerto Rican Day Parade

Puerto Rican Day Parade

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Puerto Rican Day Parade

The Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2004

The Puerto Rican Day Parade (also known as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade) is a locally televised parade that takes place yearly on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The parade, which is always held on the second Sunday in June honors the nearly 4 million Puerto Ricans on the island itself, as well as the Puerto Ricans and those of Puerto Rican heritage on the mainland. In 2006 more than 80,000 participants marched and nearly 2 million spectators lined the parade route^[1]. The parade always attracts many celebrities, both Puerto Rican and of Puerto Rican heritage, and many politicians from the tri-state area.

The parade marches along Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street and has grown to become the third largest parade in New York City after the St. Patrick's Day Parade & the West Indian Day Parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. With close to 3 million spectators annually it is one of the largest parades in the country.

History
In Popular Culture
Controversy
References
External links

History

Ricky Martin as the parade's King in 2007

The first Puerto Rican Day Parade was held on Sunday, April 12, 1958, in Manhattan, replacing the former Hispanic Day Parade. In 1995, the parade became incorporated as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade and expanded beyond the parade itself. The parade now hosts over seven major events throughout New York City. There are dozens of other events that also take place the weekend of the parade that are not sponsored by the National Parade corporation. In addition to the main New York Parade there are currently over fifty smaller parades that take place throughout the United States.

The parade attracts many New York politicians, such as mayor Michael Bloomberg, former mayor Rudy Giuliani and also many political candidates running for office and looking for voters in local, state and national elections. In recent years, the parade has honored several Puerto Rican celebrities by naming them "International Grand Marshal" of the parade including singer Marc Anthony, who participated in the parade with along his wife Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin in 2007^[2]. In addition to a National Grand Marshal, a variety of honorees are named for the parade, with titles such as "King", "National Ambassador of La Salsa", and "National Godmother."^[3].

The heat on June 8, 2008, (96°F) did not diminish attendance. Hundreds came to fill the streets with red, white and blue. The celebrities included Frankie Negron, Yolanda Vega, Geraldo Rivera, Luis Guzman, Frankie J, Fat Joe and Reggaeton artists Wisin y Yandel, Arcangel and Tito El Bambino. Fifth Avenue was filled with music of Reggaeton and Salsa, people singing "Que Bonita Bandera" and chanting "Yo soy Boricua, Pa que tu lo sepa".

In Popular Culture

The parade itself has been featured in an episode of the NBC situation comedy Seinfeld that was titled "The Puerto Rican Day." In it, Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer get stuck in a traffic jam as a result of the parade. Because of controversy surrounding a scene in which Kramer accidentally burns and then stomps on a Puerto Rican flag which results in them being chased by angry Puerto Ricans, NBC refused to air the episode again.^[4] The episode was also withheld from syndication as a result, but has been shown sparingly in syndicated repeats since 2002.

The parade was once again portrayed in a negative aspect in a 2001 episode of the long-running NBC crime series Law & Order. After the National Puerto Rican Coalition protested the episode, network executives issued an apology and also retired that episode from repeat airings on the network or on syndication. The company also made a pledge to "improve our procedures regarding sensitive programming issues." ^[5]

Controversy

During recent years, the presence of gangs such as the Latin Kings, the Bloods and the Crips have been recorded at the event.^[6] In 2000, there were a number of arrests that were result of a wilding attack where many women in Central Park were assaulted by African-American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican men after the parade.^[7] The attacks, which were videotaped by onlookers, led to the arrest and prosecution of many of those involved. Manuel Vargas, a Dominican American who was the suspected ringleader was quoted by the press as saying he "was just having fun".^[8]