Nobody’s happy about Mamdani’s scaled down Puerto Rican event

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is reworking an annual Puerto Rican cultural reception at Gracie Mansion ahead of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan on June 14, opting for a smaller breakfast instead of a full-scale fiesta, according to two people familiar with the plans. And Puerto Rican leaders are up in arms over the break with tradition. 

“We are excited to welcome community members and leaders to Gracie Mansion for a reception celebrating Puerto Rican Day and the generations of Puerto Ricans whose organizing, culture, and contributions continue to strengthen New York City. The gathering will recognize the vital role Puerto Ricans and Nuyoricans play in the civic, cultural, and economic life of our city,” City Hall spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement, promising “more details to come soon.”

Mamdani’s now planning a daytime event over the weekend, Pekec told City & State. The tension was first reported by the New York Post. 

 But that scheduling causes its own political problems. Rep. Adriano Espaillat has already had a Saturday morning breakfast reception scheduled, where he’s honoring retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. Six months ago, Mamdani might have been welcomed at the event, but the mayor has since picked political fights with both senior Latino members. He has endorsed Espaillat’s challenger in the Democratic primary, and broke with Velázquez to endorse against her preferred successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. 

While Mamdani is endorsing Latino candidates in each race, throwing his support behind Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, the Congress members and their supporters have taken it personally. And holding a competing breakfast at Gracie Mansion – about a mile away from Espaillat’s at El Museo del Barrio – would be seen as adding insult to injury.

Velázquez declined to comment. “Congressman Espaillat has participated in the Puerto Rican Day Parade since before his tenure in Congress and has hosted his annual Puerto Rican Day Parade breakfast each year,” Espaillat spokesperson Candace Person said in a statement.

Pekec said the mayor would find a different time. “There is not a possibility with it interfering with Espaillat’s,” she said after this story was initially published.  

After all, the reception has traditionally been held at Gracie Mansion on the Thursday before the parade, with former mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio hosting large celebrations in the back garden of the mansion. City government officials, nonprofit workers and high ranking Puerto Rican leaders are typically in attendance.

Mamdani has avoided doing the near-constant flag-raisings and cultural celebrations of his predecessor Adams, and is even declining to erect a large tent in the backyard of Gracie Mansion, where previous mayors have held parties, The City Reporter first reported. That choice is now causing tension, and other identity groups may feel similarly aggrieved as the summer goes on. 

But he’s still hosted several receptions at the mayor’s residence in his five month tenure, including a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast ahead of the Manhattan parade, a Greek Independence Day celebration and a Jewish American Heritage Month night time reception (although he skipped marching in the city’s Israel Day parade.)

Now City Hall’s having to clean up after an email from a Mamdani administration official spread around Puerto Rican leaders. 

“We will not be hosting a reception at Gracie Mansion,” Álvaro López, Brooklyn Borough Director for the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement wrote in an email sent Monday afternoon to a community leader, obtained by City & State. “In an effort to celebrate the National Puerto Rican Day in the company of as many working-class New Yorkers as possible, Mayor Mamdani and our administration are prioritizing his attendance at the 5th Ave Parade (in Manhattan) and the Knickerbocker Parade (in Brooklyn) on June 14th instead of hosting an invitation-only reception.”

Pekec disavowed the email and referred to her statement saying a reception was on. López did not respond to a request for comment.

Puerto Rican leaders across the city are rebuking the mayor’s decision to go against tradition. 

Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, a former commissioner for the New York City Department for the Aging and current board member of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, said that the reception has happened for decades and that City Hall has clear protocols on how to host these events.

Cortés-Vázquez also told City & State that the board had not received any communication from the mayor’s office regarding the change of plans, even after the initial email – which has since been disavowed by the administration – spread around social media, and she took particular issue with that insinuation that event attendees don’t classify as working-class New Yorkers. 

“I would just suggest that the mayor have some facts behind making some of those decisions as to knowing what the data is in terms of the income levels of Puerto Ricans,” Cortés-Vázquez said. “Suggesting that Puerto Ricans are not part of the working class is totally a misnomer and a misstep on their part to put that out publicly.”

Political analyst Eli Valentin called the decision “highly disappointing” and “hard to defend,” and told City & State that he has received messages from Puerto Rican leaders that echo his sentiments, describing the move as “‘yet another example of how Mamdani is not considering the concerns and traditions of the Latino community in New York.”

The disorganization, in addition to the split with Velázquez and Espaillat, had Puerto Rican leaders questioning the commitment of the mayor’s office to the community. 

“My hope is that they’re working through this because the Puerto Rican community is extremely important in the City of New York and I think having it at Gracie Mansion shows that respect for the Puerto Rican community,”: said Camille Rivera, a Puerto Rican Democratic consultant, who worked on Mamdani’s campaign. ““It is of the people, not necessarily the elite … I’ve been there when it’s been celebrated before, and it’s a beautiful occasion.”