Puerto Rican-Hispanic Day Parade: Saving 57 Years of History

Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja, the organizer of the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in Brentwood, will present to the Library the documentation collected to date about that iconic event’s 57-year history, casting light on the story of Puerto Rican and other Latin American migration to Long Island from early days to date. Print and electronic media personnel are invited to attend.

The Parade’s history almost came to an end in 2012 when the previous organizer lacked funding to continue. Teatro Yerbabruja, a nonprofit arts and social change organization since 2004, took over coordination at the behest of the community and has continued doing so – with enormous community support – since then. This year’s Parade will be held on Sunday June 4, starting at noon, on Brentwood/Bay Shore’s Fifth Avenue.

For the past several months Teatro Yerbabruja, in partnership with the Library and with support and guidance from the New York State Documentary Heritage Program & State Archives, has been developing data collection procedures and, in doing so, already has considerable material to provide to the Library, which has a modern and sizeable documentary history area and archival repository, with professional staff. That staff, together with Teatro Yerbabruja, will continue to seek, collect, organize and archive relevant materials for the benefit of professional historians and others.