After weeks of controversy surrounding the Puerto Rican Day Parade, Oscar Lopez Rivera was still its star. The city's two top elected officials continued to be divided over his participation as they marched down Fifth Avenue on Sunday. NY1 Political Reporter Courtney Gross has more.

Oscar Lopez Rivera was just catapulted from federal prison to the center of the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

"I am very, very happy," Lopez Rivera said through an interpreter. "I am with my people. This is the Puerto Rican people."

He rode a large float, front and center.

He was supposed to officially be called the parade's "Freedom Hero," but controversy ensued, forcing the 74-year-old Puerto Rican revolutionary to say he was bestowing that honor on the people.

But Sunday, he was surrounded by supporters, including the City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

"There are a lot of contingents that have signed up," Mark-Viverito said. "There are a lot of people that are proud that are not allowing corporate interests or others to dictate what they do on this day.

"This is a day of unity and celebration," the council speaker continued. "Anyone that tries to take that away from me, or from us as a Puerto Rican community, should be ashamed."

Nonetheless, Lopez Rivera's participation is unsettling to some.

Lopez Rivera served 35 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy. He was a leader of a Puerto Rican nationalist group, the FALN.

That group was responsible for dozens of bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, including a fatal one in New York.

The speaker dismissed the tumult, blaming the media.

"This is a day of unity, not of controversy that is being made up by the press," Mark-Viverito said.

But because of Lopez Rivera, corporate sponsors withdrew from the parade this year and some elected officials boycotted the event.

Mayor Bill de Blasio marched, but that was after he said he worked behind-the-scenes to take the formal recognition away from Rivera. He joined the parade route at least a half-hour behind the speaker and Lopez Rivera.

Usually, the mayor marches at the front of every parade, so some interpret his decision to stay behind as clearly political — an attempt to stay away from Oscar Lopez Rivera.

From our vantage point, they never saw each other.