From reggaetón to plena and hometown pride, riding alongside two Nuyorican icons offered a firsthand look at the community they represent.
Toñita on her float during Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday, June 14.
Stephanie Rojas Rodríguez | @camarar0ja
By the time Toñita’s and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s float rolled uptown on Fifth Avenue during the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday (June 14), it felt less like a parade vehicle and more like a moving tribute to Puerto Rican New York — draped in flags, bumping reggaetón and carrying one of Brooklyn’s most beloved cultural figures through a crowd more than a million deep.
I climbed aboard with my Brooklyn-born Nuyorican boyfriend, aware that as a California-bred Mexican American who has lived in New York for nearly 17 years — mostly in Bushwick — I was stepping into a tradition I was there to witness, not claim.
