In Brentwood, pride on display at Puerto Rican-Hispanic Day Parade

Fifth Avenue in Brentwood was the site of Puerto Rican and Hispanic pride on Sunday, with flags, music and traditional dancers in the street.

A crowd estimated by organizers to be in the thousands attended the 58th annual Puerto Rican-Hispanic Day Parade, with about 3,000 participants walking, dancing and driving decked-out cars and trucks down Fifth Avenue.

The parade “marks the history of the Puerto Rican community” and “the beginning of the immigrant Hispanic community in Long Island,” said Margarita Espada, founder and executive-artistic director of Teatro Yerbabruja, a nonprofit formerly based in Puerto Rico and now in Bay Shore.

“It’s so great to see how the history is very alive here and how much appreciation other cultures, other countries have for Puerto Rico,” said Espada, who has organized the Brentwood parade for the past 12 years.

Espada said the event gets “bigger and bigger every year,” with participants coming from all over Long Island.

It’s a way to honor the history and the “pioneers” of Long Island's Hispanic communities.

At the start of the parade, organizers hosted a ceremony honoring upstanding members of the community, including Brentwood Fire District Commissioner Rasheen “Roc” Williams, the parade's grand marshal.

Williams, who was elected to the volunteer position in December, is the first Brentwood fire commissioner of Puerto Rican and African American heritage. After leaving the podium, where he accepted the grand marshal title Sunday, Williams said he was humbled to lead a parade he'd first watched as a child.

“I grew up as a kid in Regis Park, a couple of blocks from where the parade ends,” he said.

The parade is a longtime tradition for other Long Islanders as well, including Jesus Duran, 36, of Lindenhurst, who arrived with his family at 10 a.m. — two hours before the start — with beach chairs, coolers and an umbrella.

When asked what he enjoys about the parade, Duran said: “I just like to sit back and just relax.”

Natalia Johnson, 42, of Islandia, a parade participant, said the event is a celebration of culture, not just for Puerto Ricans, “but all of the Hispanic communities.”

Johnson, a team leader with the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Community Mental Health Promotion and Support Team, praised Espada and Yerbabruja for taking over the event in 2012 after the previous organizer backed out for lack of funding.

“It means that our voice is heard,” she said. “There is so much love, and so much pride, and respect that you can’t shut that off.”

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.