It truly is Christmas in July as community leaders, artists, celebrities, politicians, poets and more gather at the hill on the former 162nd Street and Ogden Avenue in the Bronx for the celebration of Yomo Toro Place, a New York Street named for the renowned Puerto Rican guitarist, Fania All-Star and King of the Cuatro on Saturday, July 27, 2013, the day after what would’ve been his 80th birthday.

From 11 a.m. until 1 pm there will be spoken remarks from many who knew and loved the fast fingered little “monster” of the ten stringed guitar known as the “cuatro” followed by music from Orchestra Zon del Barrio recreating some of the Fania jams and Christmas classics Yomo Toro was known for.

Invited guest artists include direct from Puerto Rico Prodigio Claudio, one of the Island’s virtuoso cuatro players who was, as a child, inspired by Yomo Toro’s Christmas recording, Asalto Navideño, before his family moved back to Puerto Rico from New Jersey where he studied with Maso Rivera and is today one of the Island’s leading exponents of its national instrument: the “cuatro.”