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group of people with banner marching in parade
Celebrations June 2024 

NYCHA’s OHLA Marches in Puerto Rican Day Parade  

Latoya Jordan

NYCHA’s Organization for Hispanics and Latin Americans (OHLA) celebrated their cultural pride by participating in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 9. Approximately 80 people, which included OHLA members and their family and friends, walked along Fifth Avenue in matching t-shirts as they carried the OHLA banner at the 67th annual parade.  

This year’s parade theme was “Boricua de Corazón” – it celebrates the fact that no matter where Puerto Ricans live in the world, being Puerto Rican is an important part of their identities and will always be in their hearts. 

“What everyone saw assembled at the parade was not only the best representation of the Boricua culture, but also of the diaspora of Hispanic culture and NYCHA as well,” said Joseph Pesante, Clerical Aide in the General Services Department and President of OHLA. “Together with the members, family, and friends of OHLA, we proudly celebrated our brothers and sisters in service as well as many of the people we serve diligently despite the challenges! We felt their love that day, and the feeling was mutual. My hope is that this will be the first of many expressions of appreciation to come.” 

OHLA was founded in 2022 by Franklin Velez, an Associate Staff Analyst in Human Resources who is currently OHLA’s Vice President. Mr. Velez sees the organization’s participation in the parade as a culmination of two years of hard work and sacrifice by its executive board, including building relationships and using their personal time, money, and resources.  

“Walking in ‘America’s largest cultural parade’ with other NYCHA employees, family, and friends brought lots of emotions to me and gave me the satisfaction of knowing that our hard work paid off,” Mr. Velez said. “I’m still in huge shock as to the amount of people that showed up and were part of our contingent. I’m so grateful to all of those that attended and helped make this happen. I want to give a shout-out to the OHLA Executive Board members, past and present. Special thanks also goes out to Andre Cirilo* and Yvette Andino [of the Employee Engagement Department].” 

*All photos by Andre Cirilo, except for the photo of the two dogs.

OHLA’s founder and Vice President Franklin Velez with OHLA’s President Joseph Pesante.
The entire OHLA crew at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.