The 19th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade (57th Puerto Rican Day Parade of New York) will take place on Sunday, June 8th at 11am on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The event will be broadcast live on WNYW Fox 5. This year’s parade will commemorate the centennial birthday of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, and will be dedicated to the soldiers of the 65th Infantry Regiment, also known as The Borinqueneers. The featured municipalities of this year’s celebration will be the town of Guánica (63 miles southwest of San Juan, population 19,000), in commemoration of the centennial of its founding, and the city of Chicago, home to one of the largest Puerto Rican communities on the U.S. mainland.

Following a recent meeting of the organization’s new and expanded Board, the Parade’s organizers also announced the schedule of events leading up to the 2014 Parade:

Educational Leadership Banquet – Wednesday, May 21st
152nd Street Cultural Festival – Saturday, May 31st
Annual Parade Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral – Sunday, June 1st
Annual Gala at the Marriott Marquis – Friday, June 6th

“On Sunday, June 8th, all roads lead to New York City, for the largest celebration of Puerto Rican pride and culture in the world”, said Orlando Plaza of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. “We’d like to thank New Yorkers, the people of Puerto Rico, and others from around the globe for their enthusiastic support in our mandate to keep this iconic tradition alive”.

The 2014 Parade will be a dignified celebration of Puerto Rican cultural and historical legacy, in a safe environment for families to enjoy. “Imagine New York City without the Yankees, Knicks, a bagel or the Puerto Rican Day Parade…impossible”, says Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez.