Puerto Rican Day Parade!

As we close our unit of the Caribbean, crossing into the 20^th century we are looking at the culture and place of Latin identity through the lens of immigration.  Watching this movie I saw the impact that the Latin American community had on the United States. By 1920 there were over 100,000 Latinos settled in the US, they had taken over Brooklyn and the Upper Eat Side of Manhattan.

            Like with most immigrants the Latinos were terrorized and were surrounded by racism, however they were in a class of their own. People had no idea what to categorize them as, they weren’t white but they weren’t black either.  However they became an important part of American culture and are one of the reasons we prospered so well as a country.

            Being from New York I had always seen the Puerto Rican Day Parade in passing. I saw the colorful floats, the street dancers and the overall excitement of the energetic Latino people proud of their history and culture shouting in the streets.

            The National Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place annually along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on the second Sunday in June. It is to honor the nearly 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico, but also the 4 million people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage in the United States.

  The first parade was held on Sunday, April 13, 1958, in Spanish Harlem “El Barrio. “ However it has since moved to Fifth Avenue in New York City.  I find this ironic because we as the US once again are trying to take over something and make it our own by striping the true meaning of the parade to make it commercial by putting it on 5^th avenue.

In 2007, the parade celebrated its 50th Anniversary with more than 100,000 marching participants and nearly three million spectators along the parade route.