National Puerto Rican Day parade in NYC brings hundreds of thousands

NEW YORK - The city was covered in the colors and flags of Puerto Rico as hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the Puerto Rican Day Parade. 

Back in the 1950's when Puerto Ricans first started arriving in New York City, their community banded around the Barrio of Spanish Harlem.  

But now 5th Avenue is drenched in Puerto Rican pride. The National Puerto Rican Day's 66th Annual parade, drawing a million spectators and tens of thousands of participants, who pump up the crowd for hours, from 44th street to 79th. 

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory; its residents are American citizens. But their roots come from the indigenous Taino people, who greeted Christopher Columbus in 1492.  

One of the reasons Puerto Rican immigration exploded in the 1960s when more than a million people came here, was air fare was cheaper. Immigrants no longer had to rely on boats to get here. In fact, Puerto Rico migration was one of the first great airborne migrations in U.S. history. 

"It’s a beautiful day," said Governor Kathy Hochul.  "It's a reminder that this is such an extraordinary melting pot."