On Saturday afternoon, “dozens of protesters stormed the National Puerto Rican Day Parade headquarters in the Bronx, demanding newly appointed organizers end “cronyism and political favors” and fork over financial records, after past board members failed to stop a $1 million rip-off,” reports The New York Post.
The board’s new members include restaurateur Orlando Plaza, former state official Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, lawyer Carmen Pacheco, and actress Lorraine Rodriguez-Reyes.
Lucky Rivera, who heads the Puerto Rican advocacy group Boricuas For A Positive Image, staged the protest. “We want to keep this new board on a short leash,” he tells the NY Post.
The protesters want the Puerto Rican Parade to go back to its originality, and celebrate Puerto Rican culture, and not all be about sponsors.
Controversy spewed last year when Miller Coors, a corporate sponsor of the parade, tried to sell Puerto Rican-themed cans of Coors Light in conjunction with the event.
