Abdiel Marches in the Annual 68th NYC Puerto Rican Day Parade
2025
Abdiel at CENTRO for Diasporican Cultural Summit
JUNE 9, 2025; A Blog by Abdiel
Getting off the subway at Grand Central station, I exited to the immediate vision of street vendors selling Puerto Rican flags in their various representations. As I headed north to 44th street from the station, the increasing sight of flags varied in presentation from flags to T-shirts, bandannas, hats, shorts, basically anything wearable. The Puerto Rican flag painted the streets and boldly stroked Puerto Rican identity all over the streets. When I arrived at the check-in station at 44th and Madison I met with a member of el CENTRO (The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College) to get my wristband and enter the waiting area between Madison and Park Ave. It was relieving to greet familiar faces from the crowd frenzy where participants were searching for their respective groups. I had met these familiar faces only a few days prior at CENTRO’s Diasporian Cultural Summit, which I attended with Ahtoy (Dance Is Life’s Community Preservation Consultant/Researcher).
When Dance Is Life (DIL) received the invitation to join CENTRO in the Puerto Rican Day Parade, I was thrilled! I had no idea what to expect because I have never been to the parade before. So where did this thrill stem from? Exactly two years ago from this moment…
SQFC Exhibit “Abre Camino” at Guttenberg Arts Center
Preserving Afro-Puerto Rican Traditions
In June 2023 I had the honor and privilege to be paired with Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center in Jersey City, NJ as their Dance/USA Archiving Fellow. I must give a shout out and major thank you to Hallie Chametzky and Imogen Smith, Dance/USA’s former preservation team, for organizing this incredible program and for all their mentorship throughout the process. As an Archiving Fellow, I was tasked to support Segunda Quimbamba in creating protocols and systems for identifying, organizing, and cataloging archival materials including artifacts, audiovisual, digital, and paper materials. Segunda Quimbamba is a percussion and dance ensemble that performs authentic Bomba and Plena–the drum music of Puerto Rico–that has had a lifelong dedication to preserving Puerto Rican cultural traditions.
Being the first person to go through Segunda Quimbamba’s extensive archive of over thirty years of operation as an Afro-Puerto Rican cultural heritage institution was immense. I was nervous at first to handle all their archival materials as it was my first time working directly with a cultural institution in archiving but the founders, Juan and Nanette, were so welcoming that my nerves dissipated throughout my six-month period working with them. Also, Yesenia Lopez, Director of NJ Hispanic Research & Information Center of the Newark Public Library, was my archivist mentor who was very welcoming and approachable and provided me with helpful guidance. I learned not only a lot about archiving practices, I also learned a wealth of information about Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric traditions.
It was through this experience that I realized how powerful and special it is to have dedicated time with cultural historical preservation efforts through archives particularly within community-centered organizations. I did so much more than just archiving. I learned about history; I gained tactile experience with the materials representative of the lead members, organization and community’s work; I built relationships with living cultural bearers and workers. Working with Segunda Quimbamba was my first in-depth engagement with Afro-Puerto Rican culture through Bomba and Plena—music, dance, and song—traditions. It left an indelible impression on me.
More about my fellowship experience in my 4-part blog series published on Dance/USA’s website: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
My work with Segunda Quimbamba within the Dance/USA Archiving Fellowship Program culminated with a new exhibit that Yawa (founder of MUYU) and I curated: “Abre Camino: 30 Years of Segunda Quimbamba” which showcased the history and legacy of Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center in New Jersey and beyond—the first public exhibition dedicated exclusively to the center’s legacy. You can read more about the event HERE.
Collaborations That Build Community
With the success and warm reception of the exhibit, it was no surprise that my engagement continued with Segunda Quimbamba after being an archives fellow, this time in collaboration with my own organization, Dance Is Life. Juan and Nannette invited me to be on the planning committee for their first “Reclaim the Block Festival,” celebrating and preserving culture in Jersey City, which I was delighted to join. Dance Is Life was a part of their programming for that event where I taught a Latin Hustle dance class to the attendees and hosted a dance party on the street block of Second Street between Erie Street and Jersey Avenue with our guest DJ Sunny Cheeba, who is also of Puerto Rican heritage. The event was such a success and brought together a bountiful exchange of performers, vendors, educators, cultural workers, and community members. Check out this year’s Reclaim the Block Festival on their website at: https://segundaquimbamba.org/upcoming-events/
These collaborations spurred us on to continue engaging with Puerto Rican arts and culture community groups. This has no doubt been a big motivation for Dance Is Life to continue engaging with Puerto Rican heritage institutions. With Dances Is Life’s archive and preservation efforts growing, it has been imperative to seek intentional opportunities to work with Puerto Rican archives in New York City where Dance Is Life is based and where the Latin Hustle is from. Sarah (Dance is Life’s Programs Director/Archivist), Ahtoy, and I visited CENTRO for the first time together last summer to learn more about their archival collections and their work. We met Christina Fontánez Rodríguez, Archival Collections Manager at the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora at CENTRO, who encouraged us to apply for their inaugural Rooted and Relational Micro-Grant which we applied for and was awarded—led by Ahtoy as Dance Is Life’s representative.
Abdiel, Ahtoy and Sarah at CENTRO
Marching in Solidarity: A Powerful Act of Connection
… Circling back almost exactly two years since my initial meeting with Segunda Quimbamba, I found out Ahtoy and I would be marching in the Puerto Rican day parade to celebrate Puerto Rican heritage, a serendipitous moment of connectivity. The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is the largest demonstration of cultural pride in the nation. There were reported over one million people in attendance spanning 35 blocks! The parade recognizes the contributions of Puerto Ricans in various fields, including the arts, sciences, public service, entertainment, and more. It really is a spirited affirmation of Puerto Rican identity and contribution.
There are no words to adequately describe the psychosomatic sensations and emotions that consumed me by the parade, but I’ll still try. The moment we started marching up Madison Ave. with the endless crowd on both sides cheering, I felt a wave of energy pass through and around me that elevated me into an inner levitation. I was wrapped into a container of vibrational exstasis from the sheer pride proclaimed constantly from the throng of people behind the safety barriers through their shouts, screams, widely horizontal smiles, and beaming bouts of rhythmic chanting. I was overwhelmed by the massive presence in a transformative way.
At one point, CENTRO’s director, Yomaira C. Figeroa-Vásquez, initiated a call-and-response chant “Yo Soy Boricua!” and the spectators on both sides of the avenue shouted back “Pa’ Que Tu Lo Sepas!” —the chant (originally a song by rapper, singer-songwriter, and producer Taino) translated fully as “I am Boricua (Puerto Rican), just so you know!” I could not say the first part because I am not Puerto Rican, but I could with the response as an exclamation of reinforcement and support to those boldly and proudly exclaiming their identity—just so you know! I felt a profound sense of allyship and solidarity and instantly started tearing. I couldn’t help it; it overcame me. I think a part of me knew that even though I am not Puerto Rican nor Latiné, their fight for visibility, respect, and dignity is also mine. Somehow me marching, witnessing, and shouting with them was me doing the same for my own identity, my own people, my own heritage. I felt an inextricable connection. Not only are we both linked by our African ancestors but also through our mightiness.
Abdiel’s Puerto Rican Day Parade wristband on top of the Puerto Rican flag
Ahtoy going through CENTRO archives
As a non-binary, gender fluid, queer, gay, African American, I know too well what it means to be multiply marginalized; I know too well what it means to be degraded, dehumanized, and discriminated against; I know too well how my people, in all the intersections of my identity, have been systemically oppressed. Yet, we are still here. I am still here. Yes, I share a similar identity with Boricuas, an identity of resistance and resilience. Every step I took with my Puerto Rican community members I took with the same grounded pride rooted in them. If there is one thing I learned from marching in this parade it is that we must continue to march together in allyship, solidarity and unity for each other’s fight for existence, survival, and advancement. Stand up with and for your brothers, sisters, and siblings. Scream together, shout together, move together, chant together. Remind the world around you and all the people out there who you are, just so that they know.
On a more critical note, I have been reflecting on my own positionality within a community I do not directly identify with. Questions of sovereignty, stewardship, decolonization, reclamation, and liberation weave in and out my reflective psychosphere. How do I de-center myself from the reclaiming of a cultural practice that I did not create? Is there a single identity group that has the rightful authority within a culture that stems from cross-cultural innovation between various identity groups? What does stewardship look like in a community that is divided in its understanding of its own origins? How does decolonization take root with reintegration between generations of community members who have internalized the white cis het patriarchal–and boring– delusion? I oscillate constantly through and around these questions and I don’t have answers and not sure yet if answers are the goal. However, I do feel a strong calling to grapple, grip, and grasp them with curiosity, care, exploration, failure, and mostly empathy. I will say last year Dance Is Life began hosting group convening with select elders in our community and just opening up the conversation of multiple voices of contrasting and shared identities and experiences already has been quite insightful and an ardent attempt to deeper understanding. May this process of gathering, discussion, and listening open up the (un)forgotten past to the present query. May it return Latin Hustle to the descendants of its origin group; Puerto Rican.
I can honestly say the Puerto Rican Day Parade will be a new NYC tradition for me and I can’t wait to attend next year whether as a participant or attendee.