The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is America’s largest cultural celebration, and New York City’s biggest Puerto Rican festival. It’s an opportunity to show Puerto Rican Pride, teach heritage traditions to our children, connect with New York politicians, and have a good time together.
Yo soy Boricua ~ Pa’ Que Tú lo Sepas
The 67th National Puerto Rican Day Parade marches up Fifth Avenue from 44th St to 79th St on Sunday, June 9, 2024. But it’s just one of many community events around the Parade. 🇵🇷 🇵🇷 🇵🇷
Over a million people participate and watch. There’s lots of community with rumba, bomba, plena, salsa; and reggaeton too. ¡WEPA!
It’s a big deal because there are more Puerto Ricans on the mainland, than on the island, and New York City is actually the world’s largest Puerto Rican city. There are more Puerto Ricans in New York, than in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. We are one of the communities that defines New York. We have a lot to be proud of because by working hard since the “Great Migration” of the 1950s, Puerto Ricans have opened doors for all Latinos to follow.
67th National Puerto Rican Day Parade 2024
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade usually includes:
- Scholarship Program
- 152nd Street Cultural Festival
- Puerto Rican Parade Mass
- Gala Fundraiser
- Parade
- Chi Chi Rodríguez Golf Outing Fundraiser
The celebration starts with Scholarship Applications in Spring, but really gets going with the 152nd Street Cultural Festival on Memorial Day Weekend. It builds through New York Puerto Rico Week, to the Parade climax. The golf outing is usually in September.
Honorees 2024
Every year, the Parade celebrates a community in Puerto Rico, and one on the mainland.
San Germán
This year, the Parade celebrates San Germán, a town near Cabo Rojo on Puerto Rico’s southwest corner. It’s the second oldest city in Puerto Rico with a beautiful historic downtown. Porta Coeli church is one of the oldest Spanish churches in the Americas.
San Germán is known as “The Cradle of Puerto Rican Basketball.”
Scholarships 2024
A key purpose of the Parade is to raise scholarship funds for promising high school and college students of Puerto Rican descent. You can make it in New York without an education, but it really helps. It’s one of the traditional ways New York families raise themselves up.
The Parade has given away over $1,600,000 in scholarships over the years. It usually gives $200,000 every year as 100 scholarships of $2,000 each.
The scholarship application period usually starts in February with applications due in March.
2024 applications are due March 15, 2024. Get information at nprdpinc.org 🇵🇷
152nd Street Cultural Festival 2024
The 152nd Street Cultural Festival is a family-friendly street fair of Puerto Rican music, culture, and food; on 152nd St between Jackson and Tinton Avenue in Longwood, The Bronx; on Saturday, May 25, 2024 from 11am – 6pm. FREE 🇵🇷
There is live music, dancing, celebrities, and a children’s pavilion with storytelling, face painting, and art projects for kids. There are kiosks with traditional food, artisanal arts and crafts, and many giveaways. It’s like the famous kioskos in Luquillo.
It’s a modern Taíno areíto, a Puerto Rican pueblo Fiesta Patronales in The Bronx. The way the streets are filled with so many Puerto Ricans is like Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián, Puerto Rico’s biggest festival in Viejo San Juan.
Parade Gala Fundraiser 2024
The 2024 National Puerto Rican Day Parade Gala is a fun evening of cocktails, mingling, dining, and dancing at The Plaza Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan; on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 6:30pm.
We don’t know who is performing yet, but they are usually the best Puerto Rican bands in New York.
Register at nprdpinc.org 🇵🇷
Puerto Rican Parade Mass
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade Mass is in Spanish at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown East, Manhattan; on Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 4pm. 🇵🇷
This is our 2024 guess because the Mass is usually the week before the parade.
National Puerto Rican Day Parade 2024
The 67th National Puerto Rican Day Parade marches up Fifth Avenue from 44th St to 79th St on Sunday, June 9, 2024. 🇵🇷 🇵🇷 🇵🇷
The Parade marches thirty-five blocks up Fifth Avenue from 44th St to 79th St. The reviewing stand is around 70th St. That’s where marchers perform for the television broadcast. It’s usually less crowded below 57th St, and the marchers are fresher. You can usually also watch the Parade live on ABC-7 and their website at abc7ny.com
The deadline to register to march in the 2024 Parade is Saturday, March 25, 2024. Register at nprdpinc.org 🇵🇷
Chi Chi Rodríguez Golf Outing 2024
The Golf Outing is a fun scholarship fundraiser, and a great place to network. Juan Antonio “Chi Chi” Rodríguez is an eight-time PGA champion and PGA Hall of Famer.
The Golf Outing includes lunch, refreshments, cocktails and dinner with scotch and cigar-rolling stations. From $700. Cocktails and dinner only $250.
It is usually in September. Register for information at nprdpinc.org 🇵🇷
The Parade Theme is “Un Pueblo, Muchas Voces” or “One Nation, Many Voices”
It’s a great theme because there is no typical Puerto Rican. We are many blends of Indigenous, European, African, Arab, Asian, and American peoples and cultures.
We are Indigenous Taíno, Spanish colonizer, African Diaspora, and mountain Jíbaros. The Taíno tribe was absorbed, but lives on in the Puerto Rican lifestyle. Spanish colonizers stole everything they could from 1493 to 1898. The first African in Puerto Rico was a free man working with Juan Ponce de León. Loíza Aldea, the Puerto Rican town with the strongest African Diaspora culture, was founded by free Africans. Indigenous Taíno and the African Diaspora blended together because we escaped the colonizers together. We almost gained independence, but then the Americans came in 1898.
Arab traditions came with the African Diaspora. The pandereta drum used in Puerto Rican plena was originally an Arab drum. After building the western side of the American Transcontinental Railroad through the mountains, Chinese workers moved to Manhattan Chinatown and the Caribbean where they built railroads including the one that used to circle Puerto Rico, before blending in.
So we are incredibly diverse, one nation with many voices. Our diversity is part of what makes Puerto Rican culture so rich that it now dominates world youth culture.
Why is the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Early June?
The Parade is on the second Sunday in June. People focus on Parade day, but the most beautiful part of it is the gathering of the community for preparations which begin months before. It’s like Carnival. If you really want to experience the Parade, get involved as a volunteer. You will make lifelong friends.
This is our own opinion, but the timing of the Parade aligns with Nigerian Yoruba celebrations of Eleguá, the orisha (saint) of the crossroads of destiny, shortly after Nigerian Yoruba New Year on June 3. In Yoruba tradition, Eleguá is God’s messenger, so whenever we start something, including before we dance, we call on Eleguá to open a channel to God and activate the divine within us. In a way, the Parade is us dancing up Fifth Avenue.
“E le-le, le-le-le.”
Parade History
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade started in 1958. New York City was another world then.
More Information
nprdpinc.org
Facebook @NationalPuertoRicanParade
Instagram @prparade
YouTube @PRparadeNYC
¡WEPA!