BY: Liliana Suarez, Senior Editor for World Liberty TV, 5th Ave NYC Sun, Jun 12, 2022, Photography By Al Caplan.
Puerto Rican parade will be celebrated throughout New York City in its typically colorful, in-person fashion this Sunday as the iconic national parade returns to Manhattan following a two-year pandemic hiatus.
The 65th annual event along Fifth Avenue will celebrate the culture, arts, achievements and legacies of Puerto Rico and its people. The parade starts at 11 a.m. and stretches along the iconic Manhattan span between 43rd and 79th streets.
This year it is dedicated to the municipality of Cidra, Puerto Rico, which is also referred to as the Town of Eternal Spring, or el Pueblo de la Eterna Primavera.
See more details here. The festivities begin ahead of Sunday’s big parade, though. The parade organizers and Mayor Eric Adams were set to raise the Puerto Rican flag at Bowling Green Park in Lower Manhattan Friday afternoon to officially kick off the parade weekend.
A Central Park Zoo fundraising gala follows Saturday night to support the National Puerto Rican Day Parade’s college assistance efforts.
“This is a milestone year for the Parade, and our return to Fifth Avenue is yet another sign that NYC and the Puerto Rican community are strong, resilient and as vibrant as ever,” National Puerto Rican Day Parade Board Chair Louis Maldonado said in announcing the planned return last month.
“The NPRDP Board of Directors invites all Boricuas in the New York City area, Puerto Rico and across the patria extendida (diaspora) to join us on June 12 to exclaim ¡WEPA! and sing ‘Qué bonita bandera,’ just as we have for the last 64 years,” he said.
The 2022 Parade will be dedicated to the municipality of Cidra and the Puerto Rican community of the Greater Philadelphia area.
May 10, 2022, New York City – On Sunday, June 12, the NPRDP will celebrate 65 years of showcasing the best of Puerto Rican culture, achievement and legacy with music, dance and colorful displays of cultural pride before an estimated 1.5 million spectators.
After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, The National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NPRDP) Board of Directors announces details for its big return to New York City’s Fifth Avenue. The NPRDP serves to unite approximately 8 million Puerto Ricans living across the 50 states and Puerto Rico in cultural pride and tradition.
“This is a milestone year for the Parade, and our return to Fifth Avenue is yet another sign that NYC and the Puerto Rican community are strong, resilient and as vibrant as ever,” said NPRDP Board Chair, Louis Maldonado.
“The NPRDP Board of Directors invites all Boricuas in the New York City area, Puerto Rico and across the patria extendida (diaspora) to join us on June 12 to exclaim ¡WEPA! and sing ‘Qué bonita bandera,’ just as we have for the last 64 years.”
Over the past two years, the NPRDP Board of Directors continued the annual tradition by pivoting to smaller processions on Fifth Avenue and 2-hour TV specials airing on ABC7 in New York City and Telecinco in Puerto Rico, which helped the Puerto Rican community celebrate virtually.
Groups interested in participating in the 2022 Parade should visit the “Floats & Contingents”, for additional details and instructions for completing an online application. All contingents and floats must have cultural elements as part of their presentation.
The 2022 Parade will be dedicated to the municipality of Cidra, Puerto Rico. Known as the Pueblo de la Eterna Primavera (Town of Eternal Spring), Cidra is located in the central, mountainous region of the island and is home to approximately 40,000 cidreños.
The Honored Stateside Community will be the Greater Philadelphia Area, which is home to more than 250,000 Puerto Ricans living in communities across Philadelphia, Berks and Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania; as well as Camden, Atlantic and Cumberland counties in New Jersey and Wilmington, Delaware.
Other themes, tributes and individual honorees for the 2022 celebration will be announced over the coming weeks.
On Saturday, June 11th, the NPRDP will host a Gala Fundraiser at the Central Park Zoo to support the NPRDP Scholarship Program. Since 2014, the NPRDP has awarded over $1.2 million to Puerto Rican students going to college. The Gala Fundraiser convenes honorees, community leaders, elected officials and corporate sponsors to celebrate Puerto Rican achievement while supporting students in pursuit of higher education. Proceeds from the gala ticket sales will benefit the NPRDP Scholarship Program.
In addition to the Gala, NPRDP is utilizing technology to raise funds for its scholarship program through a collaboration with Mowsse, one of the first independent digital marketplaces for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Mowsse has selected the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Scholarship Fund as its first philanthropic investment.
It was great to be See the Puerto-Rican Day Parade in Person, we at World Liberty TV, have been covering the Parade for over 20 years. See More in our World Liberty TV, Latino Channels and Blogs by clicking here.