CT Puerto Ricans March In Island's 1st-Ever Puerto Rican Day Parade

SAN JUAN, PR —Puerto Ricans from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and other states, all part of the diaspora from the island to the U.S. mainland, marched with hundreds of Puerto Ricans from cities, towns, and campos across the island in the first-ever Puerto Rico parade.

The event, two years in the planning by the JUNTE Boricua tourism initiative, drew tens of thousands of flag-waving spectators in Viejo San Juan on a cloudless, sunshine-filled Saturday.

And Patch was there.

The JUNTE Boricua tourism initiative is focused on connecting the Puerto Rican community in the States with the island. Organizers and members of Connecticut’s Puerto Rican parades and festivals, numbering 200-plus, were part of the history-making event.

Key organizer Puerto Ricans United and Puerto Rican Festival of New Haven President Joe Rodriquez among myriad others including 25 "ambassadors" from Bridgeport, Waterbury, New London, Hartford, New Britain, Meriden and New Haven, handled logistics and Sonia Alvelo of Latin Financial "made it all happen."

A number of those 200 Connecticut Puerto Ricans traveled to San Juan via Avelo Airlines, which scheduled a special flight from Tweed-New Haven Airport for the event. At the time, Avelo Airlines Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said the company was "honored" to add the special flights to "support the Puerto Rican community across the state" attending the kick-off of JUNTE Boricua festivities in San Juan. "Connecticut’s Puerto Rican community members approached Avelo to add the additional flights, and we were more than happy to help."

Rodriquez was the push behind that effort, and said the airline saw not only an "initiative geared at increasing tourism on the island, but an exciting potential here for a mutually beneficial partnership between the JUNTA Boricua tourism initiative and Connecticut."

Avelo has flown more than 13,000 people on the route to San Juan since it began flying to the Caribbean island in mid-November 2023. The May 16 flight to Puerto Rico wasn't the first time for many of them.

"Connecticut may be small, but we are a strong state," New Haven's Rodriquez told members gathered the night before the parade celebrating the inaugural event designed to unite the diaspora. "That Boricua blood runs up and down 95 from New London to Bridgeport, up 91 from New Haven to Hartford. There are 300,000 Boricuas in Connecticut, and we are here as one."

Alvelo, a Connecticut business entrepreneur and Junte Boricua ambassador for the Constitution State, described the event as "unforgettable."

Alvelo and her company, Latin Financial, along with its employees, spent the past 10 months preparing for the event. And as Rodriquez noted, though there were "A lot of ambassadors who I respect and admire, one ambassador took that title and ran with it."

"Sonia, Latin Financial and her colleagues helped elevate this initiative," he said.

Alvelo shared that being able to, "Walk with my kids Wendy and Tito beside me in the parade, the incredible pride in carrying our rich Puerto Rican heritage and roots internally and externally, was priceless to me."

Speaking with Patch, she shared she was having a "hard time expressing in words what being part of Saturday’s event meant to me."

"To be surrounded by so many fellow Puerto Ricans who are total strangers but feel like family, celebrating a common theme, our profound love for our island and our heritage, was unforgettable," she said. "This experience with JUNTE Boricua is the most powerful expression of love for one another and for our patria (homeland).