It was 1984, Olympic year (Los Angeles), and arriving in New York’s iconic Central Park we found it to be jam-packed with people busily eating, drinking, dancing and generally making merry. Turns out it was Puerto Rican Day.

Puerto Rican Day is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of June and includes a parade along Fifth Avenue in the New York borough of Manhattan. The first ever event took place in 1958 in Spanish Harlem.

Salsa and Merengue boomed out all through the park. The celebration honours the large Puerto Rican population and its culture, heritage and contribution to local society.

It was an amazing event, great to stumble upon.

In 2022, there were around 574,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City, with the highest concentrations being in The Bronx, East Harlem, Lower East Side and Central Brooklyn.

Great food, nice loud music and everyone just so friendly on this day of cultural celebration.

Between 2017 and 2022, the Puerto Rican population in New York City apparently decreased by roughly 20% from 715,000 to the current 574,000. Migration to other areas, Covid-19 and economic problems are believed to have been the main reasons for this decline.