Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival Returns to Boston

Photo by Ana Toledo via Unsplash

This weekend, the Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival returns to Boston. This annual event celebrates and honors Puerto Rican culture with two days of festivities, parades, games, food, and community.

“Artists from all over Massachusetts come and perform great music for free for all our great fans. We have carnival machines, tents selling cultural items of all kinds, and great Latin food every day.” The Puerto Rican Festival of Massachusetts

This is the fifty-eighth Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival. Since its inception 58 years ago, this event has attracted members of the entire Latino community and the entire residential community of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It represents the insistence on Boricua dignity and celebrates the great Puerto Rican diaspora that continues to spread throughout the country. 

“Our proven ability to attract more than 50,000 attendees over the two-day celebration, coupled with this year's outstanding lineup of events, musical groups, artists, and sponsors, make the Festival the perfect venue to promote and connect with the fastest-growing ethnic population in New England and the United States.”

Puerto Rico, Borinquen 

Located in the Caribbean Sea, east of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico is the smallest island of the Greater Antilles. It was originally occupied by the Taino indigenous group, who called their island "Borinquen." The Taino were a peaceful people, skilled in fishing, navigation, and various forms of agriculture.

Puerto Rico was colonized by the Spanish crown in 1493. In the following centuries, Puerto Rico served as a highly important colony for the Spanish Kingdom, representing a crucial part of its control over the Caribbean region.

The Taíno people, exposed to slavery, European diseases, and colonial violence, were practically exterminated over the years. Unlike countries like Mexico, Peru, or the United States, there are no purely "indigenous" Puerto Ricans left. It should be noted, however, that several Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban communities identify as Taíno or claim Taíno ancestry.

'The wind ripples me, the sun paints me' – Julia de Burgos

Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colony until the outbreak of war between Spain and the United States in 1898. The U.S. Army invaded the island and assumed political and military control. At the end of the war, Spain ceded its former colony to the United States.

This sparked a long effort to redefine the rights of the Puerto Ricans who still occupied the island—at this point, a mosaic of Spanish, Taíno, Portuguese, and American cultures. With the Jones Act of 1917, the United States granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans and declared the island a Commonwealth: an unincorporated territory of the United States. This is Puerto Rico's current status.

The Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival

The Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival was born in 1967, when a group of business owners and leaders from the Puerto Rican community in Boston realized the lack of an opportunity to celebrate their culture. Led by Jorge "Chico" Muñoz, this group of business owners from Boston's South End launched the Massachusetts Puerto Rican Festival.  

This festival includes two events: the traditional festival day, on Saturday the 26th, and the Puerto Rican parade day, on Sunday the 27th.

The Saturday festival It will be in Franklin Park, from noon until 9:00 pm

Sunday's parade will start at Roxbury Community College at noon, and will end around 2:30 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

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