Hundreds of spectators celebrated Puerto Rican culture and community on Sunday at the 8th annual Knickerbocker Avenue Puerto Rican Day Parade, according to BK Reader, which covered the parade and is the source for this story.
Cars rigged with massive exterior speakers pushed reggaeton down the avenue. Street vendors sold charcoal grilled elote. Paraders marched through Bushwick in flags, jerseys and traditional colors, BK Reader reported.
The parade drew Mayor Zohran Mamdani, along with Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson of the New York Knicks. The Knicks had clinched their first NBA title the night before in San Antonio. Alvarado is a Williamsburg native.
Manhattan’s Puerto Rican Day Parade is bigger. BK Reader described the Knickerbocker Avenue version as edgier and more Brooklyn.
“This is culture. Bariqua. This is my family. This is everything to me,” Justine Dorsey of Brownsville told BK Reader. “It made me feel prouder than proud.”
Javier Lopez Jr., a Bushwick native, drove his modified Honda Civic lowrider in the parade. He told BK Reader the parades and the cars are family traditions.
“It’s been a generational thing between my family,” Lopez said. “We always went to the parade and grew up with cars, and finally that I’m old enough, I could bring my own car and build it and show it off.”
Featured image: Photo: Supplied/Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
