The Central American Independence Parade and Festival 2024 is a Bronx Garífuna celebration of Honduran Independence, plus Central American and Garífuna culture. There is live music, traditional food, and artisanal crafts for the entire family.
There is another Central American Independence Parade hosted by the Salvadoran community in Suffolk County, Long Island.
28th Central American Independence Parade and Festival 2024
Crotona Park East
The 28th Central American Independence Parade and Cultural Festival 2024 celebrates Honduran Garífuna culture, in a Memorial at the Happy Land Memorial Monument on Southern Blvd at East Tremont Ave at 10am; and a Parade at 12noon to a Garífuna Cultural Festival in Crotona Park East, The Bronx; on Sunday, September 8, 2024, from 12noon – 6pm. FREE. 🇭🇳
Parade Route
- Forms at the Happy Land Memorial Monument on Southern Blvd at East Tremont Ave at 10am.
- Parades down Southern Blvd to Boston Road at 12noon.
- Ends at the Central American Cultural Festival at Charlotte St and Crotona Park East, until 6pm.
Cultural Festival
The Central American Independence Cultural Festival features Garífuna live music, traditional food, and artisanal crafts; in Crotona Park at Crotona Ave and Claremont Parkway; on Sunday, September 8, 2024 from after 12noon to 6pm.
Central American Independence Parade and Festival
The countries of Central America; Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; celebrate their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821.
The Central American Independence Parade and Festival was founded by the Bronx Garífuna community in 1996. It’s usually on the second Sunday in September. The goal was to unify New York City’s diverse Central American community. Central American unity has been a goal of Hondurans since independence.
Garífuna are an Afro-Carib people who the colonizers couldn’t defeat, so the British exiled some from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, first to Jamaica, then to Roatán Island, Honduras in 1797. The Honduran national dance is Garífuna punta, a beautiful Afro-Diasporic hip dance. 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.
The Bronx has the world’s largest Garífuna community, outside of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Saint Vincent. The Parade and Festival commemorates those who perished in the Happy Land Social Club fire of 1990. Almost a hundred people died. Many were Garífuna. That’s why the Parade starts at the Happy Land Memorial Monument.
The Garífuna are a distinct people, but a Garífuna party will be very familiar to those who know Cuban rumba, Puerto Rican bomba, Trinidadian Shango, Colombian cumbia, Venezuelan tambor, Peruvian festejo, and other African Diasporic drum, song, and dance, traditions. Native American powwows and other Indigenous traditions of the Americas are also similar.