Public Employee Press

Puerto Rican Day Parade
Members march on 5th Ave.

A robust contingent of DC 37 members joined the estimated 2 million people who came to watch or march in the 52nd Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade June 14.

“It’s important for our union to be here every year representing Puerto Rican members of the labor movement, which plays an important role in this city and in their lives,” said DC 37 Latino Heritage Committee Chair and Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo as he got the DC 37 participants together for the march up Fifth Avenue. Members of Local 1549, Local 420 and the Retirees Association, with their friends and families, led the DC 37 group.

Parade veteran Isabel Figueroa, the first vice president of Municipal Hospitals Employees Local 420, waved a Puerto Rican flag as she marched with local members. “I look forward to marching with my union brothers and sisters every year,” she said. “The Puerto Rican Day Parade has always been a very special event for our community, and it’s important that labor has a presence here.”

Guests of Ruben Diaz Jr.

This year the DC 37 contingent was invited to march up Fifth Avenue with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and his VIP float, which included City Council members Joel Rivera, John Liu and Melissa Mark Viverito, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Comptroller William C. Thompson. DC 37 volunteers helped Diaz win the April 21 special election for borough president; he plans to run for the position in the November general election.

“Celebrating our Music” was the theme of this year’s parade, which featured ex-New York Yankee and now recording artist Bernie Williams and Grammy Award winners Daddy Yankee, Eddie Palmieri, José Feliciano and Olga Tanon as grand marshals.

— Alfredo Alvarado