‘Float’-ing away
PR Parade displays vanish with sponsors
Folks attending Sunday’s Puerto Rican Day Parade will have plenty of time to take a break between floats — because half of them will be missing, sources said Thursday.
Only 25 of 50 scheduled displays will be rolling up Fifth Avenue because so many sponsors have pulled out over the inclusion of former FALN leader Oscar López Rivera, the sources said.
But parade organizers said that an influx of new community groups and artists will fill any vacant street space — and that a contingent of as many as 1,000 supporters will be lining up with López Rivera.
“The parade is just as big as any other years. We just don’t have as many floats, that’s all,” said parade board Vice Chair Ululy Rafael Martinez, who is organizing the line of march.
“We have at least 140 groups marching. That’s a lot of groups. That fills up a lot of street. It’s less floats but more groups. I’m really heartened by that.”
Rafael Martinez said six mayors from Puerto Rico are coming with contingents, along with artists who will be designing new floats.
“The people have spoken. This parade isn’t just about one person. This is our parade,” he said.
But the controversy surrounding López Rivera continues, with officials — including Sen. Charles Schumer and Gov. Cuomo — taking a pass on the parade this year.
The 74-year-old former leader of the murderous FALN was convicted of seditious conspiracy and served 35 years in prison before his sentence was commuted in January by President Barack Obama.
And parade organizers’ conflicting statements over whether the board would be honoring López Rivera have fueled the furor.
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a López Rivera booster, claimed that he was still being given an award but that he had “decided to bestow it on the people.”
Mayor de Blasio insisted, though, that López Rivera was not getting a special accolade.
“I’m just not going dwell on this . . . He declined [the honor]. That’s all there is to know,” de Blasio said Thursday when asked about Mark-Viverito’s claim.
Speaking at a rally at Hostos Community College in The Bronx on Thursday night, López Rivera thanked organizers for keeping him in the parade and not backing down in the face of political pressure.
He then launched into a tirade against the “corrupt” US government.
“We should never allow a government that is corrupt, a government that is racist, a government that discriminates, a government with a president that abuses women, who has hatred and fear in its heart and wants to promote hatred and fear, to dictate,” he railed.