Nor’easter Can’t Stop Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican Day Parade as Celebration Moves Indoors

PHILADELPHIA — A Nor’easter forced Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican Day Parade off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sunday, but organizers refused to let the storm stop the celebration.

Concilio, the city’s oldest Latino nonprofit and the parade’s longtime organizer, pivoted and moved the annual event indoors as heavy rain and wind swept through the region. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker joined the celebration.

“I loved seeing Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community show exactly what pride, resilience and love of culture look like,” Parker wrote on her official Facebook page.

The parade dates back to 1964 and typically draws more than 1,500 marchers and thousands of spectators to the Parkway each year. This year’s indoor celebration honored generations of Puerto Rican history and contributions to the city.

The parade is organized by Concilio, the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations and the city’s oldest Latino nonprofit. Founded in 1962, Concilio has hosted the annual Puerto Rican festival and parade for more than six decades, growing it into what the organization calls the single most important event for Hispanics in the Philadelphia region.

“There is nothing more important than celebrating your people, your community and the culture you come from,” Parker wrote. “That orgullo Boricua was on full display.”

The mayor thanked Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, Danilo Burgos, Rep. Jose Giral, Managing Director Carlton Williams, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, City Representative Jazelle Jones, William Garcia, Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson and Valerie Gay for joining the celebration.

Philadelphia is home to the second-largest Puerto Rican population on the U.S. mainland, after New York City. Puerto Ricans are the city’s largest Latino group, making up more than 75 percent of Philadelphia’s Latino residents, with about 300,000 across the greater metropolitan area. Pennsylvania has the fourth-highest Puerto Rican population of any state in the country.

It is also a young community. Nearly a third of Philadelphia’s Puerto Ricans are under 18, and the median age is about 31, according to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. Many live in eastern North Philadelphia, where the Fairhill neighborhood’s El Centro de Oro corridor holds one of the highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in the country.