Today’s Puerto Rican Day parade will be a mix of politics, music and pride – all focused on shutting down the U.S. naval base on Vieques, which has been a practice bombing target for 60 years.
Two million people are expected to attend today’s parade, which kicks off at noon and heads north on Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street.
Ruben Berrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independent party, will be one of the parade’s leaders.
Berrios faces six months in jail for occupying the military target range on Vieques halting bombing practices for more than a year. His one-man protest turned into a national Puerto Rican movement that united all political parties, labor unions and religious groups.
“I embrace the people of New York. I feel very much at home here with you,” said Berrios, who was the guest speaker at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s action rally in Harlem yesterday.
Berrios, who goes on trial Monday in a U.S. Circuit Court in Puerto Rico and is in the middle of a campaign for governor in Puerto Rico, said, “If this imperial court in Puerto Rico, which imposes itself on Puerto Ricans, should choose to send me to jail, I will go with a clear conscious.
“We have the same struggle. We know what is slavery and what is colonialism,” said Berrios, whose Latin American rhetoric against Yankee imperialism brought the mostly black audience to their feet chanting Berrios name, “Ruben, Ruben, Ruben.”
Congressman Jose Serrano said Berrios represents the “conscious of Puerto Rico.” He said today’s parade will be about music and pride, “but it will also bring Puerto Rican issues to the forefront.”
The parade is dedicated to Pedro Albizu Campos, founder of the Puerto Rican Independent party. Campos, a nationalist leader, fought for independence and served 25 years in U.S. prisons.
Also marching in today’s parade will be Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is expected to walk behind a banner asking for the immediate shutdown of the naval base – a plan that has not been endorsed by her husband.
Other politicos expected to march are Republican Senate candidate Rick Lazio and Mayor Giuliani.