By The Star Staff
The first contingent of the Puerto Rican delegation that will participate in the celebration of Puerto Rican Week and the National Puerto Rican Parade in New York arrived Sunday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, on the day kicking off Puerto Rican Week activities, which will culminate next Sunday, June 9 with the Puerto Rican Parade on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
“This year the group that makes up the Puerto Rico delegation is much larger, and includes elected officials, businessmen, merchants and community leaders from across the island,” said José J. Taboada de Jesús, vice president of the committee in charge of organizing the delegation’s activities. “It should be noted that people of all levels are accompanying us, including the Salsa Con Estilo School group that attracted so much attention for its participation last year and which is sponsored by the Municipality of Guayama.”
A group of Puerto Rico Police Bureau agents will also be part of Sunday’s parade, noted Taboada de Jesús, who is also the president of the Puerto Rico Police Members Association.
On Sunday at 4 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, the traditional Puerto Rican Week Mass was held. It was dedicated to San Germán, along with those who have died during the past year.
“Importantly, the members of the Puerto Rican delegation will participate on Friday, June 7 in an educational activity at the Puerto Rican Cultural Heritage House in the well-known El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109 in Manhattan, where they will also join a group of businessmen and merchants from New York along with business leaders from the State of Florida who will be part of the speakers at the Third Conversation on the Empowerment of Communities and Opportunities for SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises],” Taboada de Jesús said. “We are surprised by the number of confirmations for this activity, which predicts a total success that will include the participation of the president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Puerto Rico, Atty. Ramón González Simounet.”
He added that “the first group to arrive in New York has been the work team from the Municipality of San Germán, the city to which the parade events are dedicated this year.”
“More than 300 people from the Founding City of Pueblos are expected to travel to the Big Apple since this year the event is dedicated to the city of Germán and the state of Hawaii, which includes special recognition to Jorge Rivera Nieves, a Germán native and anchor of the Telemundo Channel 2 news program in Puerto Rico,” Taboada de Jesús said.
The leader of the Police in Puerto Rico reported that a group of Puerto Rico Police agents will also travel to join the different groups that will parade next Sunday, June 9 on Fifth Avenue.
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