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Puerto Rican Culture

New York Puerto Ricans are one of the communities that have defined New York City since its 1950s “Great Migration.”

Traditional Puerto Rican culture includes bomba, plena, and música jíbara. Contemporary Puerto Rican culture includes salsa, reggaeton, latin trap, spoken word and theatre.

The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is New York’s big Puerto Rican festival.

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Hostos Center is One of Leading Latin Performing Arts Centers in the Northeast

One of New York’s most adventurous Latin presenters.
MOTT HAVEN, THE BRONX

Merengueras Dominicanas
Friday, June 2, 2023
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Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
Sunday, June 4, 2023
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Miguel Zenón & Angélica Negrón with American Composers Orchestra, Music of Puerto Rico
Sunday, June 4, 2023
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WORLD PREMIERE
Anton: Una Ópera Boricua
Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
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Continue Reading Hostos Center is One of Leading Latin Performing Arts Centers in the Northeast

Ballet Hispánico Legacy Gala Hosted by Ana Navarro with Sergio Trujillo Tributes The Miranda Family at The Plaza

Ana Navarro (The View) with Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, On Your Feet!) lead a star-filled tribute to The Miranda Family with dancing to the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER
THE PLAZA
Midtown, Manhattan
Thursday, June 1, 2023

Continue Reading Ballet Hispánico Legacy Gala Hosted by Ana Navarro with Sergio Trujillo Tributes The Miranda Family at The Plaza

Dance Parade NYC 2023 DanceFest Gets over 10,000 New Yorkers Dancing in the Streets

DANCE PARADE
Chelsea, Greenwich Village, East Village

African, Afrobeat, Afro-Cuban, Bhangra, Bollywood, Bomba, Break Dancing, Caporales, Carnival, Dancehall, Flamenco, Folkloric, Hip-Hop, House, Jazz, Latin, Majorette, Mexican, Moko Jumbies, Reggae, Salay, Salsa, Samba, Soca, Street, Tammurriata, Tap, Tarrantella, Tinkus, and more. 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇮🇹 🇯🇲 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇪 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇹🇹

DANCEFEST Tompkins Square Park
🇧🇴 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇵🇷 🇪🇸

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Continue Reading Dance Parade NYC 2023 DanceFest Gets over 10,000 New Yorkers Dancing in the Streets

Ballet Hispánico Leaps into the Top Tier of American Dance Companies

Ballet Hispánico takes the stage with a Forsythe ballet duet, new work by Michelle Manzanales and Omar Román de Jesús, and a company classic by Pedro Ruiz.

The opening night Legacy Gala honors The Miranda Family and features dancing to the Spanish Harlem Orchestra at The Plaza Hotel.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER
Thursday-Saturday, June 1-3, 2023
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Continue Reading Ballet Hispánico Leaps into the Top Tier of American Dance Companies

Bryant Park Dance Party 2023 gives Free Dance Lessons Followed by Live Music for Dancing!

Talia Castro-Pozo hosts bachata, cumbia, salsa, swing, and tango dance lessons followed by live music for dancing. FREE!

La Excelencia salsa, Wed, May 3
Pedro Giraudo tango, Thu, May 4
Afro-Andean Funk cumbia, Wed, May 10
Charenee Wade’s Band of Swing, Thu, May 11
Valerio bachata, Wed, May 17
Santiago y la Orquesta salsa, Thu, May 18

🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇨🇺 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇵🇪 🇵🇷

Continue Reading Bryant Park Dance Party 2023 gives Free Dance Lessons Followed by Live Music for Dancing!

Nuyorican Poets Cafe is New York’s Historic House of Slam Poetry

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a historic community cultural center in the East Village (Loisaida) that was founded by leaders of the Nuyorican Movement of the 1960s-70s. It’s a Puerto Rican venue, but everyone is welcome and everyone goes. 🇵🇷 The Nuyorican now has regular jazz nights, poetry slams, and open mics. It’s won many awards and…

Continue Reading Nuyorican Poets Cafe is New York’s Historic House of Slam Poetry

TeatroFest NYC 2023 is 210 Performances of 20 Latin Productions in 9 Latin Theaters Across New York City

A citywide festival of Latin drama, dance and music produced by the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY.

MANHATTAN
Teatro Circulo
IATI Theater
INTAR Theatre
LATEA Theatre
Repertorio Español
Teatro SEA

THE BRONX
Pregones Theater/PRTT

QUEENS
Thalia Spanish Theater

March 1 – April 30, 2023
🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇵🇷 🇪🇸

Continue Reading TeatroFest NYC 2023 is 210 Performances of 20 Latin Productions in 9 Latin Theaters Across New York City

Puerto Rican Archive

Puerto Rican New York

Puerto Rican Culture (Right Frame Photo Video/Dreamstime)
(Right Frame Photo Video/Dreamstime)

Thanks to our Puerto Rican culture sponsors:

New York Puerto Rican Art

El Museo del Barrio; in “El Barrio” East Harlem; is New York’s Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latin American art museum. 🇵🇷

Taller Boricua in “El Barrio” East Harlem, is a gallery and artist’s workshop in the Julio de Burgos Cultural Arts Center. tallerboricua.org 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Cultural Centers

The CCCADI, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute presents African Diaspora culture. 🇵🇷

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center houses many Puerto Rican theatre groups. 🇵🇷

Julia de Burgos Performance and Arts Center is a community cultural center in “El Barrio” East Harlem. jdbpac.org 🇵🇷

Toñita’s Caribbean Social Club is NYC’s last Puerto Rican social club. @tonitasny 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Dance Companies

Ballet Hispánico is a contemporary dance company that has grown into America’s largest Latinx cultural organization, and one of America’s cultural treasures. 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇵🇷 🇻🇪

Bombazo Dance Company is one of NYC’s leading bomba dance companies. bombazodanceco.com 🇵🇷

Danza Fiesta is one of NYC’s leading Puerto Rican folkloric dance companies. 🇵🇷

Los Pleneros de la 21 is one of NYC’s leading bomba & plena music and dance companies. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Festivals

New York Puerto Rico Week is the second week of June. 🇵🇷

Puerto Rican Heritage Month is November. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Food

Casa Adela is a small diner in the East Village that serves Puerto Rican comida criolla (home food). web 🇵🇷

Que Chevere is a Puerto Rican fast food place in the Essex Market Manhattan’s Lower East Side. quechevereles.com 🇵🇷

Sofrito is an upscale Puerto Rican restaurant in Riverbank State Park along the Hudson River in West Harlem. sofritony.com 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Film

The International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival is New York’s Puerto Rican film festival. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Music

There are many New York Puerto Rican musicians.

Bronx Music Heritage Center in Melrose, The Bronx, is a community performing arts center that celebrates the many cultures of The Bronx. 🇵🇷

Hostos Center; at Hostos College in Mott Haven, The Bronx; is one of the top Latin culture presenters in the Northeast. 🇵🇷

Lehman Center at Lehman College presents many top Latin artists. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Parades

The El Museo Three Kings Day Parade celebrates Three Kings Day in “El Barrio” East Harlem in January. 🇵🇷

The National Puerto Rican Day Parade, in June, is America’s biggest cultural celebration. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Spoken Word

The Nuyorican Poets Café in “Loisaida,” the East Village, is New York’s Historic House of Slam Poetry. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Street Fairs

The 116th St Festival 🇵🇷

The 152nd St Festival kicks-off the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Longwood, The Bronx in May. 🇵🇷

The Afribembé Festival is the CCCADI, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s August street fair.🇵🇷

The Loisaida Festival is an East Village/Lower East Side community festival in May. 🇵🇷

New York Puerto Rican Theatre

Pregones/PRTT is a bilingual performing arts troupe that produces at Pregones Theater in Concourse, The Bronx; and Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. 🇵🇷

Teatro LATEA (Latin American Theater Experiment Associates) is a Latino performing arts company in the Lower East Side. 🇵🇷

Teatro SEA is a Latino theatre for young audiences known for its puppetry in the Lower East Side. 🇵🇷

Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans are one of the communities that define New York City. The “Great Migration” of the 1950s made us New York’s largest Latin community ~ until recently.

There are more Puerto Ricans in New York City than in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and more Puerto Ricans on the mainland, than on the island.

Our identity is complicated. We are Puerto Rican, but for better and for worse, we have been American for over a hundred years. Puerto Rico really is the last colony with no vote in Federal elections.

We are very creative, but frustrated for being treated as second-class citizens. Puerto Rican culture currently dominates global youth culture.

Puerto Rico

The island of enchantment really is a magical place. Known for beautiful beaches, the mountains are even more beautiful.

We have very urban cities, but most of the island and our culture is rural. San Juan is the capital. Old San Juan is an old Spanish walled city loved by tourists. Ponce is the second city. It is pretty quiet these days. Plena, the rich Puerto Rican song and hand drum tradition is from there.

We speak Spanish, though our language is uniquely Puerto Rican.

We really are the last colony and colonization is a brutal experience. Even though we are Americans who fight and die in American wars, we are frustrated by being treated as second-class citizens. We have a co-dependent relationship with the United States. American businesses take money out of the island. The American government puts money into the island. Americans have been buying up the island and raising prices making it hard for Puerto Ricans to live on our own island.

We are Indigenous Taíno, Spanish and African Diaspora. Academics say the Taíno died out. We didn’t. The census just stopped counting us, and we married in. The tribe lives on in the culture of the Puerto Rican people. Our social structure is very Taíno.

As is true elsewhere, Indigenous people escaped colonial enslavement by fleeing to the mountains. It was bad. We didn’t just give up and die, the Spaniards worked us to death. If you didn’t produce enough gold, they cut off your arm. The African Diaspora later escaped the same way and we mixed together in the mountains and rainforests.

The town with the strongest African Diaspora culture is Loíza Aldea. It was founded by free Africans and today is the cultural heart of bomba, the beautiful Puerto Rican drum, song and dance tradition where the dancer plays a flirting game with the lead drummer.

The Spanish colonizers only controlled the cities. We have this tradition of jíbaros living independently in the mountains. Rural areas can still be a bit wild.

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