Puerto Rican Parade Organizers Say 'Basta Ya!'; Cut Ties With 'Daily News' Over Racy Photo

Organizers of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade ended their marketing and advertising partnership with the New York Daily News after the publication refused to apologize for printing a photo of two inadequately dressed women in Times Square carrying Puerto Rican flags, and with the words Boricua and Puerto Rico painted on their buttocks.

After noticing the disrespectful image, the NPRDP President Lorraine Cortés-Vazquez issued a letter addressed to the New York Daily News CEO Bill Holiber in which she demanded an apology, “we demand an immediate, front-page apology and a statement that clearly communicates these ladies were not participating in the Parade in tomorrow’s edition of New York Daily News.”

The Daily News has not yet issued an apology and the NPRDP Board Members have decided to make a drastic decision, "We are honored to work with partners who respect human dignity and who have the highest regard for the Puerto Rican and Latino community," Cortés-Vazquez said. "We recognize everyone makes mistakes, and we work with partners who have the strength of character to recognize and correct them; particularly when those mistakes are damaging to families and communities. Since you have opted otherwise, we will no longer partner with the Daily News, now and in the future, until you take corrective action."

The racy photo published on the tabloid on Monday, shows two women (neither of them Puerto Rican) walking through Times Square, which is not included on the parade’s designated route. “The image published is not only disrespectful to the Puerto Rican culture, as it shows two topless women in g-strings, it is misleading, as they are clearly nowhere near the Parade route but in Times Square,” said Cortés-Vazquez.

According to Cortés-Vazquez, "the Parade was founded as a result of the unjust discrimination, prejudice and hatred that Puerto Ricans living in New York experienced in the 1950s. At the time, the Parade’s organizers aimed to fight this by celebrating our people by showcasing the best Puerto Rican culture had to offer, on a world stage like New York City’s Fifth Avenue. The current Board of Directors carries on that mission and has strict requirements and mandates to ensure the Parade contingents have cultural components and that spectators dress and conduct themselves in a respectful and dignified way."