‘Nuyoricans’ Know How to Party

NEW YORK — I may finally be getting the hang of this “Hispanic” thing.

For several years now, some Latino readers have taken me to task for my reluctance to embrace the conventional wisdom that lumps the 28 million people of Latin American extraction in this country under the bureaucratic catch-all term “Hispanic.”

I have even refused to use that word unless it can’t be avoided. It sounds cold and imprecise to my bilingual ears, unlike the many colorful slang terms we Latinos use to describe ourselves, like Chicanos, for U.S.-born Mexicans; Boricuas, for Puerto Ricans; and Nuyoricans, for Boricuas born in this city.

I still prefer those varied terms, however confusing they may sound to Anglo ears, and hard-to-pronounce on Anglo tongues, for they emerged from our disparate communities. They also represent an effort at self-definition by people who too often find themselves defined by others--be they government bureaucrats looking to put cultural complexity into simple boxes, or bigots who demean whole peoples with crude epithets.

But I had a wonderful experience last Sunday that, at least for one day, softened my resistance to the concept that there is such a thing as a Hispanic group in this country. I attended my first Puerto Rican Day parade and was bowled over by the sheer size, energy and enthusiasm of it all.

It was the 40th annual event, and an estimated 2 million people lined Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, from 44th to 86th streets, for the three-hour long show. It was a celebration of the largest Latino community (pop. 860,000) in America’s biggest city (7.3 million), and I was not the only journalist who was impressed. The New York Post called it “an awesome display of ethnic pride” and even the staid New York Times referred to it as “a huge and ebullient display of the growing political import of Hispanic residents in New York.”

Indeed, ethnic politics provided an interesting backdrop to the day’s festivities. New York has a mayoral election this November, and it is widely believed that city’s Latino vote, about 13% in the last election, in 1993, is up for grabs. The Puerto Rican vote is normally Democratic by 70% or more, according to political pros here, but the city’s Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani won enough of it four years ago to help him unseat Democrat David Dinkins.

Giuliani hopes to repeat that performance, which is why he showed up at the Puerto Rican Day parade sporting a bright sash that identified him, for anyone who might not know, as the city’s alcalde (mayor). And, taking no chances, el alcalde walked a few steps ahead of one of the parade’s most popular contingents--the Hispanic Officers’ Society of the New York Police Department.

New York politicians are paying more attention to the city’s Latino population because, as in Los Angeles and other major cities, Latinos here are showing an increased likelihood of voting. A poll released last week by the local Hispanic Federation, for instance, found that 57% of New York’s Latino residents are registered to vote this year, up 6% from a year ago. The same poll found that Giuliani is viewed favorably by most Latino New Yorkers, which is why he hopes that he can repeat the success another big-city Republican, Los Angeles’ Richard Riordan, had in using the Latino vote to get himself reelected.

But while the trend to greater Latino political activism is important, how it plays out here will be as different from Los Angeles’ experience as Brooklyn is from East L.A. That said, I have come to realize that there is something that unites most Latinos--whether we call ourselves Chicanos, Mexican Americans, Boricuas, Nuyoricans or even Hispanics. It is a shared love of Latin American culture in its broadest and most inclusive sense.

That hit me during the high point of the parade, when a float rolled by featuring the great Nu-yorican jazz musician Tito Puente and his salsa band. It was easily the most popular entry in the parade, to judge by the roar of the crowd.

Even above the din, everyone on the sidewalk swayed to the infectious rhythm of Puente’s best-known song, “Oye Come Va” (Listen How It Goes), which was popularized in the 1960s by guitarist Carlos Santana.

It’ll take a while before I’m persuaded that the new interest Latinos from New York to Los Angeles are showing in politics has evolved into a “Hispanic” voting bloc. But in the meantime, if being “Hispanic” means appreciating the culture that links a 77-year-old New York salsero to a Chicano rocker from California, go ahead and sign me up.