A lot of people who know me in a personal level, knows I am a proud Puerto Rican. And they also know what I feel about the Puerto Rican Day Parade. But this year I am happy to be at the parade thanks to ¡Capicú!. So what made me change my mind? I want to share with you my pitch to participate in the parade.

I am Puerto Rican, love my Island, I love my history and my heritage. Love our language and our music. There is one thing I DON’T love and it is the way we are represented.

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. When I was growing up I fell in love with our history. As I grew up the only image I had of the Puerto Rican day parade was of people dressed head to toe in a flag. Some of these people hadn’t even been to the island, some of them didn’t know Spanish- but I didn’t care about that. It hurt me that they didn’t know our history. They didn’t know about the Jones Act or didn’t know about el Grito de Lares, or didn’t know about the Taínos. That’s what hurt me. It offended me that they thought they were more proud to be Puerto Rican than me just because they covered themselves in a flag.

I soon discovered I was not the only one who felt this way. To this day, a lot of the people in the Island dislike the Puerto Rican Day Parade. When I moved to New York, I vowed to never partake in the festivities because I felt it didn’t represent me.

And then I had kids, and I want them to know where they come from. I want them to know my Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade is part of the Islands history and therefor is part of me. I hope I do get the chance to spend time at the parade for the first time in my life. I think it will have great impact on me.