Yesterday the 54th annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Fifth Avenue attracted over 2 million revelers (according to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.) to the parade route on Fifth Avenue from 44th to 86th Streets. There were salsa bands, dancers, Papa Smurf, Mayor Bloomberg, bicycle clubs, and, seen in this video below, the thunderous percussion of the Batala female drummers:
As it happens, tomorrow President Obama will visit the territory, marking the first trip to Puerto Rico by a sitting president since 1961, when John F. Kennedy visited. During his five hour visit he'll make a speech, swing by the Governor's mansion, and appear at a Democratic fundraiser. Some Puerto Ricans are expected to use Obama's brief trip to spotlight their demands for statehood. "Our children have fought in these wars and died," Miguel Angel Rivera, a retired government worker, told the Times, adding that he expects Obama to go home with a “little suitcase of money” for his re-election campaign. "We want to be citizens but not second-class citizens. We want to feel complete," Rivera said.
