Commentary
Cotto Wins But Why Fight on Eve of the Puerto Rican Parade?
By Ismael Nunez
Last weekend New York City was dedicated to Puerto Rican pride. June 8 to 10 was filled with many activities geared to the PR community. There was the annual 116th Street festival in El Barrio and the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, which is one of the country's largest cultural parades. And on the eve of the parade, Miguel Cotto defended his welterweight crown in Madison Square Garden.
Last Saturday night, Cotto entered the ring with 29-0 record with 24 by knockout, and in title matches he was 9-0 with 8 KO’s. That night he added one more win/KO by knocking his opponent Zab Judah from Brooklyn in 11 rounds.
From the beginning of the fight, Cotto scored many punches to the body. By the 10th round, the hits started to show on Judah. By the 11th round, Cotto came in, landing punch after punch. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. had no choice but to stop the fight to save Judah from further punishment.
So, the boricua won.
The Puerto Rican community was happy and Cotto participated in this year's Puerto Rican Day Parade. Last year, he did the same thing: he attended the 116th Street festival, fought and then participated in the parade. And many are saying this is becoming an annual tradition for Puerto Rican pride, but what does it mean?
My question is why fight on this specific weekend for Puerto Rican pride?
If it is about Puerto Rican pride, why doesn't Cotto fight in September during “Grito De Lares”? Why not fight in April to remember the birthday month for the father of Puerto Rican Independence Ramon Emeterio Betances. Those are also days to celebrate Puerto Rican pride.
If Cotto wants to make it an annual tradition to fight on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, then why not use his platform to send a stronger political statement for Puerto Rico?
For instance, when Cotto fights in June, why not let it be known that in the United Nations every year around this time there are hearings on Puerto Rico? Cotto's victory is shown to make the people forget the problems on the island, but it is just as important to remind them at all times of those problems.
Puerto Rican pride is more than a boxing match, a parade and a so-called tradition.
Ismael Nunez is an East Harlem-based freelance writer who contributes to Puerto Rico Sun.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Featured story
Sun-Sentinel, Thu, 14 June
Citizens want political status defined
More than 650,000 Puerto Ricans live in Florida, more than in any other state except New York. As the state and its communities continue to experience the growth of the Puerto Rican community, it is important to recognize that this growth is partly due to the island's undefined political status. Just last year, in the aftermath of Puerto Rico's government shut-down, many Puerto Ricans left the ...
For more, go to
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-forum14ricanjun14,0,601743.story?track=rss
Sun-Sentinel, Thu, 14 June
Citizens want political status defined
More than 650,000 Puerto Ricans live in Florida, more than in any other state except New York. As the state and its communities continue to experience the growth of the Puerto Rican community, it is important to recognize that this growth is partly due to the island's undefined political status. Just last year, in the aftermath of Puerto Rico's government shut-down, many Puerto Ricans left the ...
For more, go to
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-forum14ricanjun14,0,601743.story?track=rss
Dance
New Company ‘Dances Organically’ onto the Urban Stage
By Robert Waddell
In the last year dancer Marcia Parilla has performed in garden and in open air fountains finding a connection between natural movement and nature. She allowed a friend to videotape her and she came up with the idea for her own dance company, “Danza Organica.” Today, Parilla, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, brings modern to the most basic, the pastoral setting. In nature, she said, is where movement was perfected, Native Americans and Africans all danced outside.
“While dancing outside,” said Parrilla, “I found it to be a very centering experience and all of my senses were activated and I found a lot of beautiful true movement.”
With a recent performance in June and another one in August in New York City, Parilla’s ten-member dance company brings Martha Graham-type of interpretations to an organic natural setting.
“The work that we do is from the inside out,” she said. “We let go of preconceived notions of how we’re supposed to be and I like to say that we ‘deconstruct in order to reconstruct’ and then the true movement comes out of that.”
Parilla has a dancer’s robust posture. She rejects currents stands of beauty, opting for a fresh, open luster. For a dancer, how one stands silent is as important as how one moves. Parilla is grace personified with natural hair, little make-up and no dieting.
“The way that I move is not salsa or samba dancing so there is getting rid of what your supposed to be in order for the true movement come out,” she said.
It may seem unstructured, she said, but it comes from the dancer’s interpretation of nature and their environment. Parrilla’s efforts can be compared to Bronx choreographer Arthur Aviles’ invention of swift flow. Things may seem improvised but in fact the dances are well-organized works of art.
“I still train, but I’m in the process,” she said. “I’m very careful about implementing the things that I know that I’m trained in. It’s kind of a way for dancers to discover within themselves with a deep connection to their environment.”
Parrilla stills works to put her company together with 10 dancers from Puerto Rico, Iran, Thailand and the United States. She’s looking for more male dancers.
“I wanted to have a cast of dancers that are from different cultures from around the world. I want us to reach out to as many people as possible,” she said.
Parrilla said that the term “natural environment” was tricky especially as applied to her dance. She’s looking for dance movements that arise in connection with nature but she said that the environment changes. The environment could be buildings. One's environment can serve as a pallet or a backdrop for dancers to draw movement and ideas for performance.
The company’s first performance was in early June in New York City. Parrilla said that dancing outside was liberating. In a studio, there are bars, mirrors, wooden floors.
She held auditions and chose performers. The first performances will be inside but inspired by the organic world.
Parrilla stimulates her dancer’s curiosity to learn, explore, challenge themselves and create from the world around them. For example, if some dancer were to create a dance around the ideas of the Plaza de Mayo, then those ideas would show respect to the historical value to the mothers of Argentina, she said.
“We work with elements like humanity, the environment, political and social issues as well as sharing our dancing ability,” she said.
Parrilla provokes her dancers to create sequences out of movement, classic dance, body weight, space, negative space and their imaginations. The world around them becomes their canvas and the ink in which to actualize formed structured dances. The dances have direction but during the creation of those dances, improvisation is used and molded into formalized dance structures.
“This comes from all of the dancer’s energy so that they can all feel a part of this new creation,” said Parrilla. “Dance to me is a reflection of society. If I were doing a dance about Argentina, I would incorporate the tango and if in Puerto Rico, the plena. Those things need to be there because we have to keep our ancestry present.”
Marsha Parrilla and her company “Danza Organica” will be performing in lower Manhattan at Far Space in August.
Robert Waddell is a Bronx-based freelance writer and a contributing writer to Puerto Rico Sun.
New Company ‘Dances Organically’ onto the Urban Stage
By Robert Waddell
In the last year dancer Marcia Parilla has performed in garden and in open air fountains finding a connection between natural movement and nature. She allowed a friend to videotape her and she came up with the idea for her own dance company, “Danza Organica.” Today, Parilla, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, brings modern to the most basic, the pastoral setting. In nature, she said, is where movement was perfected, Native Americans and Africans all danced outside.
“While dancing outside,” said Parrilla, “I found it to be a very centering experience and all of my senses were activated and I found a lot of beautiful true movement.”
With a recent performance in June and another one in August in New York City, Parilla’s ten-member dance company brings Martha Graham-type of interpretations to an organic natural setting.
“The work that we do is from the inside out,” she said. “We let go of preconceived notions of how we’re supposed to be and I like to say that we ‘deconstruct in order to reconstruct’ and then the true movement comes out of that.”
Parilla has a dancer’s robust posture. She rejects currents stands of beauty, opting for a fresh, open luster. For a dancer, how one stands silent is as important as how one moves. Parilla is grace personified with natural hair, little make-up and no dieting.
“The way that I move is not salsa or samba dancing so there is getting rid of what your supposed to be in order for the true movement come out,” she said.
It may seem unstructured, she said, but it comes from the dancer’s interpretation of nature and their environment. Parrilla’s efforts can be compared to Bronx choreographer Arthur Aviles’ invention of swift flow. Things may seem improvised but in fact the dances are well-organized works of art.
“I still train, but I’m in the process,” she said. “I’m very careful about implementing the things that I know that I’m trained in. It’s kind of a way for dancers to discover within themselves with a deep connection to their environment.”
Parrilla stills works to put her company together with 10 dancers from Puerto Rico, Iran, Thailand and the United States. She’s looking for more male dancers.
“I wanted to have a cast of dancers that are from different cultures from around the world. I want us to reach out to as many people as possible,” she said.
Parrilla said that the term “natural environment” was tricky especially as applied to her dance. She’s looking for dance movements that arise in connection with nature but she said that the environment changes. The environment could be buildings. One's environment can serve as a pallet or a backdrop for dancers to draw movement and ideas for performance.
The company’s first performance was in early June in New York City. Parrilla said that dancing outside was liberating. In a studio, there are bars, mirrors, wooden floors.
She held auditions and chose performers. The first performances will be inside but inspired by the organic world.
Parrilla stimulates her dancer’s curiosity to learn, explore, challenge themselves and create from the world around them. For example, if some dancer were to create a dance around the ideas of the Plaza de Mayo, then those ideas would show respect to the historical value to the mothers of Argentina, she said.
“We work with elements like humanity, the environment, political and social issues as well as sharing our dancing ability,” she said.
Parrilla provokes her dancers to create sequences out of movement, classic dance, body weight, space, negative space and their imaginations. The world around them becomes their canvas and the ink in which to actualize formed structured dances. The dances have direction but during the creation of those dances, improvisation is used and molded into formalized dance structures.
“This comes from all of the dancer’s energy so that they can all feel a part of this new creation,” said Parrilla. “Dance to me is a reflection of society. If I were doing a dance about Argentina, I would incorporate the tango and if in Puerto Rico, the plena. Those things need to be there because we have to keep our ancestry present.”
Marsha Parrilla and her company “Danza Organica” will be performing in lower Manhattan at Far Space in August.
Robert Waddell is a Bronx-based freelance writer and a contributing writer to Puerto Rico Sun.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Featured story
New York Daily News
Flight? What flight?
Back in 1958 when the first Puerto Rican Day Parade set off up Fifth
Ave., Boricuas were without question the dominant Latino group in New
York City. And they would remain so for decades to come.
For more, go to
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2007/06/07/2007-06-07_flight_what_flight-1.html?ref=rss
New York Daily News
Flight? What flight?
Back in 1958 when the first Puerto Rican Day Parade set off up Fifth
Ave., Boricuas were without question the dominant Latino group in New
York City. And they would remain so for decades to come.
For more, go to
http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2007/06/07/2007-06-07_flight_what_flight-1.html?ref=rss
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Community Calendar
Bronx Week kicks off June 16 and runs until June 24.
Among the activities is:
Arts & Culture Day on June 21
BronxNet TV's Music & Film Screening Gala
Live Latin music, festivities, and the screening of a powerful documentary on the history and culture of Puerto Ricans in the Bronx.
LOCATION: Centro Cultural Rincon Criollo, 157th Street & Brook Avenue
TIME: 12pm - 7pm
ADMISSION: FREE
INFO: 718-960-1181, www.bronxnet.org
For more events, go to www.bronxweekevents.com.
Bronx Week kicks off June 16 and runs until June 24.
Among the activities is:
Arts & Culture Day on June 21
BronxNet TV's Music & Film Screening Gala
Live Latin music, festivities, and the screening of a powerful documentary on the history and culture of Puerto Ricans in the Bronx.
LOCATION: Centro Cultural Rincon Criollo, 157th Street & Brook Avenue
TIME: 12pm - 7pm
ADMISSION: FREE
INFO: 718-960-1181, www.bronxnet.org
For more events, go to www.bronxweekevents.com.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Que Viva Puerto Rico
Here's an e-zine article written (with photos) by Eliud Martinez (also known as DeLares) about the "Puerto Rican Day Parade, Remixed" exhibit reception in Manhattan:
http://www.nowpublic.com/american_ethnic_parades_as_forms_of_cultural_performance
For photos depicting the parade, go to:
"Puerto Rican Day Parade, Remixed" FLICKR group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/393849@N23/
Here's an e-zine article written (with photos) by Eliud Martinez (also known as DeLares) about the "Puerto Rican Day Parade, Remixed" exhibit reception in Manhattan:
http://www.nowpublic.com/american_ethnic_parades_as_forms_of_cultural_performance
For photos depicting the parade, go to:
"Puerto Rican Day Parade, Remixed" FLICKR group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/393849@N23/
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Film
¡Pálante, Siempre Pálante!
The Young Lords
Friday, June 8, 6:30 pm
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street
Free with Museum Admission
By Iris Morales (1996). Followed by a panel discussion with the director. The story of the Young Lords, the Puerto Rican civil-rights organization formed in the early 1970s, which occupies a unique place in New York's history.
RSVP AT (718) 681-6000,Ext. 102 or education@bronxmuseum.org
¡Pálante, Siempre Pálante!
The Young Lords
Friday, June 8, 6:30 pm
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street
Free with Museum Admission
By Iris Morales (1996). Followed by a panel discussion with the director. The story of the Young Lords, the Puerto Rican civil-rights organization formed in the early 1970s, which occupies a unique place in New York's history.
RSVP AT (718) 681-6000,Ext. 102 or education@bronxmuseum.org
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Featured story
23 from Puerto Rico graduate as city police
By Nicole Fuller
(Baltimore) Sun reporter
Originally published June 2, 2007
They left behind their homes near the beach. Their young children. The ease of speaking in the language of their homeland. Twenty-three men and women left behind their lives in Puerto Rico for the chance to work as police officers in a city many had never heard of - Baltimore.
Yesterday, a class of graduates of the city's police academy - the first with a large group of Puerto Ricans since the department led a recruitment effort on the island last year - received their diplomas in a ceremony that not only acknowledged their service, but celebrated their diversity.
For more, www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.graduation02jun02,0,1637634.story?track=rss
23 from Puerto Rico graduate as city police
By Nicole Fuller
(Baltimore) Sun reporter
Originally published June 2, 2007
They left behind their homes near the beach. Their young children. The ease of speaking in the language of their homeland. Twenty-three men and women left behind their lives in Puerto Rico for the chance to work as police officers in a city many had never heard of - Baltimore.
Yesterday, a class of graduates of the city's police academy - the first with a large group of Puerto Ricans since the department led a recruitment effort on the island last year - received their diplomas in a ceremony that not only acknowledged their service, but celebrated their diversity.
For more, www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.graduation02jun02,0,1637634.story?track=rss
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