Puerto Rican Day Parade Announces Theme, Honorees For 2019

NEW YORK, NY — New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade is more than one month away, but the organization that plans the event is already getting people excited about the march.

The theme for this year's parade is "One People, Many Voices," — a celebration of Puerto Rican art, culture and history — the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Board of Directors announced this week during a press conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The organization also announced honorees for this year's parade which include people such as MLB hall of famer Edgar Martínez, Grammy-winning musician José Feliciano and singer Ricky Martin's charitable foundation.

The Ricky Martin Foundation is being honored for its work to denounce human trafficking and improve the lives of children around the world, parade organizers said. Each year the Parade Board of Directors chooses a charitable cause to highlight during the parade.

"Awareness and education are vital to ending this modern-day scourge, and the Parade will serve as a platform to help us inform our community, fostering prevention to one day end this grave issue," Kurt Schindler, Board Chair for the Ricky Martin Foundation, said in a statement.

Last year's parade honored first responders who served Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria and continued to help residents of the island with the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

This year's parade will be held on Sunday, June 9. The parade, which will celebrate its 62nd year in 2019, is a celebration of the 3.5 million citizens of Puerto Rico and the more than 5 million people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States, according to parade organizers.