Every September, Southern Boulevard in the South Bronx fills with flags, drums, and color for the Central American Independence Day Parade and Festival.
It’s largely a Honduran Garifuna celebration. The Garifuna story is one of incredible Afro-Indigenous resilience, from Saint Vincent, to Honduras, to New York. The Bronx has one of the world’s biggest Garifuna communities.
Organized by the International Honduran and Central American Parade, Inc, the event has grown into one of New York’s largest celebrations of Central American culture and pride.
NOTE: There is another Central American Independence Parade hosted by the Salvadoran community in Suffolk County, Long Island.
30th Bronx Central American Independence Day Parade 2026
Celebrates the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with a parade and Garifuna cultural festival
10am: Happy Land Memorial Service
12pm: Parade down Southern Blvd from East Tremont Avenue
2-6pm: Festival in Crotona Park, The Bronx (at Charlotte St)
Sun, September 13, 2026
FREE, but bring cash for food and artisanal crafts
The celebration honors the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua from Spain, declared on September 15, 1821, a date that also opens Hispanic Heritage Month nationwide.
The procession forms at 10am in front of the Happy Land Memorial, at the corner of Southern Blvd and East Tremont Ave, a site that honors the victims of the 1990 Happy Land Social Club fire, many of them Garifuna.
The parade steps off at 12pm sharp, rain or shine, and travels roughly a mile and a quarter down Southern Blvd to Boston Rd before dissolving near Charlotte St and Crotona Park East.
From there, the celebration continues at the Central American Cultural Festival in Crotona Park, between Crotona Ave and Claremont Pkwy, running until 6pm. Expect live Garifuna music, traditional food vendors, arts and crafts, and family friendly programming that has made this a South Bronx institution for three decades.
30th Bronx Central American Independence Day Festival 2026
Celebrates the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with a parade and Garifuna cultural festival
Crotona Park, The Bronx at Charlotte St
Sun, September 13, 2026 | 2-6pm
FREE, but bring cash for food and craft vendors
New York is home to one of the country’s largest Central American communities, with the Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran diasporas leading in numbers across the metro area.
Expect storytelling, drumming, singing, and dancing with friends, with delicious Honduran baleadas, Salvadoran pupusas, Guatemalan pepián, and more.
Charlotte Street
The festival is in Crotona Park off of Charlotte Street.
If you are of a certain age, you may remember President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 visit, which made the street a prominent symbol of urban decay (1977 was a bottom between the prosperity of World War II and NYC’s 21st century rebirth).
It’s not like that any more. The development called Charlotte Gardens built nice suburban-style ranch houses in The Bronx. It’s really nice now. If you haven’t been since the 1970s, you won’t recognize the place. We love The Bronx!
Honduran Garifuna Culture
The Garífuna people deserve credit for preserving their culture through the Middle Passage, the Colonial Era, the exile to Honduras, and then migration to New York City.
Punta is the Honduran National Dance
Punta, the Honduran national dance, is a Garifuna tradition. It looks like the hip shaking that is common in many African and Indigenous traditions around the world, but it’s actually tiny steps with knees bent and a rigid body that make the hips swing. The harder you stomp, the more your hips move. Modern punta, often called “punta rock” is much faster and looks more like hip shaking.
Whether traditional or modern, the dance is a playful courtship dance based on cock-and-hen mating rituals that are common in the Caribbean and Latin America.
It also has a spiritual meaning. Punta was originally danced at funerals to celebrate the life of the deceased and help guide their spirit back to their ancestors across the Atlantic.
A dancer or a couple will enter the dance circle. Couples dance face-to-face without touching. They mirror the Garifuna drums with their very best footwork. You dance until you are tired, and then step out. Someone else will jump in. Don’t sexualize the dance because the Garifuna don’t see it that way. Punta is an expression of personal vitality and community joy.
If you like Native American powwows, Puerto Rican bomba, Cuban rumba guaguanco, Colombian cumbia, or another drum, song, and dance tradition, you will love this.
Happy Land Memorial
The Happy Land Memorial honors the 87 victims of the tragic 1990 Happy Land Social Club fire, many of whom were members of the Bronx Garífuna community.
In the same way that the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire changed building codes to make workplaces safer, the Happy Land fire caused changes in club management that made clubbing safer across NYC.
So the next time you get home safe from a night out on the town, give a shout out to the Happy Land Memorial.