Thousands in NYC streets for Puerto Rican parade

The red, white and blue of the Puerto Rican flag on bandanas, shirts and beaded necklaces. Whirling dancers in sequined outfits. A sonic barrage of merengue, salsa and reggaeton. Ox-driven wagons from Mayaguez among the colorful floats. Most of all, hundreds of thousands of roaring celebrants.

Crowds lined both sides of Fifth Avenue on Sunday for the National Puerto Rican Day parade, though one high-profile Puerto Rican was noticeably absent — Sonia Sotomayor, the New York-born federal appeals judge who is the first Latina nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.