On Sunday, June 10, the streets of Fifth Avenue and the rest of New York City erupted, in a sea of red, white and blue, Latin rhythms, and excitement from an energetic crowd. The city came alive as millions of New Yorkers gathered to celebrate their Hispanic culture in the 55th National Puerto Rican Day Parade. This year’s attendance at the parade was approximately two million strong.

Hundreds of 1199ers marched proudly up Fifth Avenue along with 1199SEIU President George Gresham and NAACP President Ben Jealous. 1199SEIU, the NAACP, NYCLU, and some 200 other organizations will join forces on Father’s Day 2012 for a Silent March calling to an end to the NYPD’s controversial “Stop and Frisk” policy. The city policy has come under attack had because it unfairly and disproportionately targets Blacks and Latinos.

At the Puerto Rican Day Parade, most of the marchers wore T shirts fitted with hoodies, reading “Latinos We Are Part of the 99%”. The hoodies were worn to honor Florida teen Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot on February 26 by a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante. 1199 members also distributed bags of skittles to the crowd as they marched. Trayvon was wearing a hoodie that rainy day and only had a bag of skittles and an iced tea in his possession when he was killed.

The day before the parade, hundreds gathered at Roberto Clemente State Park for the annual Juegos Boricuas, which featured a dominoes tournament, live musical performances, and a multitude of family activities and entertainment.

As you can see by this slide show, 1199SEIU had a multitude of themes at this year’s parade. The themes being the following:

• Promotion of the Stop and Frisk Silent March scheduled for Father’s Day, June 17, 2012, at 1 pm.

» Sign Up For the Stop and Frisk march



• Justice for Trayvon Martin



• Latinos We are Part of the 99%



• Latinos “Si Se Puede” Obama 2012



• Freedom for Oscar Lopez Rivera. » Learn about Oscar Lopez Rivera