Community Hearing on the MillerCors-Puerto Rican Parade Controversy
The NiLP Network on Latino Issues (June 7, 2013)
Last night, Boricuas for a Positive Image held a community hearing in Manhatan's El Barrio on the controversy of the MillerCoors beer company's relationship to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. While the community scored a victory in getting MillerCoors to apologize and recall the promotional cans of Coors Light with the Puerto Rican flag, this incident has raised deeper issues about the governance of the Parade and its relationship to a private company, Galos Corporation, and its president, Carlos Velazquez. This relationship has become the subject of an investigation by the NYS Attorney General. The National Puerto Rican Parade will take place this Sunday morning.
Below are some initial reports on last night's community hearing:
NYS Assemblyman José Rivera: For me it was with great satisfacion that I attended a meeting headed by Mr. Ramon Jimenez, Lucky Rivera, Julio Muñoz, Fernando Ponce Laspina and members of the old guard, fighters for many years on behalf of our community in full support of the campaign demanding accountability and change of leadership of the Puerto Rican parade, to return it again to the Puerto Rican people's hands.
Last year, Tato Torres drew attention to the Coors brewery and the parade on the need to stop the commercialization of our parade and remove Carlos Velazquez, who is not Puerto Rican and who created a structure in this parade that managed to launch a campaign of llies slandering Tato Torres. If the parade has a board of directors, then they have the responsibility to start cleaning it up by removing the Colombian, Carlos Velazquez. If they do not start by doing this, then we have the moral obligation to continue supporting the efforts by our leaders in this movement to rescue our parade.
Joaquin Del Rio: I just came from the meeting of leaders, politicians, journalists and people from the community who are demanding the restructuring of the governing board of the Puerto Rican Parade of New York! To my surprise, there I found Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, former Vice President Juan Antonio Feliciano, Silverio Guzman's friend, Fernando Ponce Laspina, and members of the group Boricuas for a Positive Image and attorney Mr. Ramon Jimenez, among others!
This week we'll be reporting on what was addressed in detail! But I can report now is that over 200 people attended the event and supported the movement to require changes in the structure of a parade belonging to a people and not a group that markets our flag,. Referring to the use of the Puerto Rican flag printed on cans of Coors beer, "the silver bullet that has mobilized the heart of the Puerto Ricans in the neighborhoods of New York," so said Mr. Lucky Rivera, coordinator of the event!