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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Hosts Dominican Heritage Reception

August 11, 2016

Marco A. Carrión, Commissioner of Community Affairs: Good Evening Everyone. Good Evening Everyone. Alright, so my name is Marco A. Carrión. I am the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs and welcome to Gracie Mansion, the people’s house. And thank you for coming this evening and celebrating Dominican Heritage with us. It is my pleasure to introduce your First Lady, Chirlane McCray.

[Applause]

First Lady Chirlane McCray: That’s better right? Hola! Bienvenidos a Gracie Mansion. Esta es la casa del pueblo, la casa de ustedes y ustedes siempre son bienvenidos aqui. [Applause]

Today marks the start of a special weekend for our Dominican sisters and brothers, which means it will be a special weekend for our entire city. As of 2013, almost 750,000 Dominicans call the five boroughs of New York City home. But the Dominican community is not only growing larger and louder, it’s growing stronger. Perhaps the most visible example of its strength as a people is Adriano Espaillat who is on track to become the first Dominican-American member of Congress. So that’s right. Let’s hear it for Adriano. This is a very, very big deal – un logro muy importante. Because Adriano’s victory is not his alone, as he would be the first to tell you. He is standing on the shoulders of all the proud Dominicans who came here to pursue their American dreams. And he is also along with all of you inspiring the next generation of dreamers. And I am thinking of a young woman I just met not too long ago who was born in the DR and moved to the Bronx when she was 13. She loved numbers, math was her favorite subject. She went to Baruch and took classes and she got accepted – thank you.

Thank you so much.

So [inaudible] got accepted into the City’s Ladders for Leaders program and was finally able to test her skills in the marketplace and was accepted for an internship at Amalgamated Bank, where she learned all about accounts payable and processing invoices. And at the end of the summer she was asked to take a part-time job and she’s hoping that it will turn into a full-time gig. But, that’s just the beginning because [inaudible] full time goal is to be the CFO of a bank -- Y estoy segura de que ella puerte acerlo. All right. So this weekend we celebrate the many accomplishments of Dominican New Yorkers past, present and future. The community’s growing strength is good for our entire City because as a certain very tall Mayor likes to say, ‘New York is the ultimate city of immigrants.’ And that will be the case for generations to come thanks to everyone here. And it is now my great pleasure to introduce mi amigo, my esposo, y mi companero de todo, Mayor Bill de Blasio. [Applause]

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Primera dama, primera dama – muchisimas gracias. Besos, besos. Do we have the most wonderful primera dama anywhere, First Lady McCray? [Applause]

Bienvenidos a todos, hermanos, hermanas. Bienvenidos. I want to thank everyone for being here. This is a joyous celebration isn’t it? We are getting ourselves ready for the parade, we are starting early right? And there is so much to be proud of as we celebrate the largest Latino community in New York City. [Applause] And I feel so deeply – what this community has done for the city more every year, the imprint of the Dominican community on the city grows and grows every year. And this city gets greater and greater every year. So you put two and two together – the Dominican community is making this a greater city every single year.

I want to acknowledge all the wonderful people who joined us this evening from my administration, all the elected officials. But first, a thank you to everyone who has made the Dominican Parade an exceptional and wonderful event and restored the greatness of this event. I want to thank Angela Fernandez and the whole parade committee for all you have done. I want to thank the members of my administration who are here. And if I miss anyone someone will give me a card. I’m going to shout them out really quickly and you can applaud them all – I want to thank the woman who brought us the New York City ID Card, Nisha Agarwal, our  Commissioner  for Immigrant Affairs; Commissioner of Community Affairs, Marco A. Carrión; our Small Business Commissioner, Gregg Bishop; our Oath Commissioner, Fidel Del Valle; Consumer Affairs Commisioner, Lorelei Salas; my Director of Scheduling, Prisca Salazar-Rodriguez; the woman who runs all our personnel, our Director Rachel Lauter; the woman who creates all these wonderful events with her great team, Carla Matero, the Director of Special Events; and last but not least from the Dominican community, our Commissioner of Design and Construction Feniosky Pena- Mora; and our Commissioner of Citywide Services, Lisette Camilo. 

[Applause]

And, I’m sorry I was being consulted with by the First Lady about the elected officials who are here tonight. I don’t know if he is behind me yet but I know he was behind me before and we want to thank him for all he has done for New York City for years, Congressman Charlie Rangel – thank you so much.

[Applause]

I want to thank the District Attorney of the Bronx, Darcel Clark; Borough President of Manhattan, Gale Brewer; from the New York State Assembly – Guillermo Linares, Victor Pirchardo, Luis Sepulveda; from the New York City Council Danny Drum, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, and Idanis Rodriguez.

Now this is a moment of pride. We gather here, this is the people’s house. Gracie Mansion belongs to all of the people of New York City and we celebrate New York City here. We celebrate the Dominican community today. We have more people of Dominican descent here than any other place in the world outside of the Dominican Republic. [Applause]

And what does that mean? It means the culture, the creativity, the entrepreneurship – all that is great about the Dominican community comes here and makes this place great. And more and more success stories, and more and more great examples in the community – but why is it possible? It’s possible because in this city, we believe in immigration. We believe immigration makes us stronger, doesn’t it? We believe in respecting every part of the rainbow that makes up New York City. 

So tonight we say to all the Quisqueyános – thank you.

[Applause]

Thank you for all you have done for New York City. Muchísimas gracias.

¡Que víva la Ciudád de Nuéva York!

[Applause]

¡Que víva la de República de Dominicána!

[Applause]

Now I want to turn to two very special people and we’re going to have a little moment of passing the torch. I mentioned Charlie Rangel, and then I want to say a few things about the man who will succeed who we’re so proud of. But first, I think it’s very fitting to honor the extraordinary service of Charlie Rangel and bring him forward to join us. Congressman Charlie Rangel.

[Applause]

[...]

Mayor: Well done. Thank you so much. Thank you Congressman.

There’s two people that I got to note have joined us. I want to shout them out. First, a woman who’s doing extraordinary things protecting the health and welfare of the people of this city, our Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Herminia Palacio – thank you so much.

[Applause]

And second, a proud son of the Dominican Republic and if you’ve been to these wonderful events at Gracie Mansion and many other great City events, you’ve tasted his delicious food. He’s a fantastic chef – Feliberto Estevez, thank you so much.

[Applause]

Now, we get to hear from a pioneer, a trailblazer, a history-maker. I have to tell you – there’s only one person. Listen. Listen everyone. There’s only one person from each community who gets to be the first. Community of hundreds of thousands of people – generations now in this city – one man got to be the first to represent his community. From everywhere in the United States of America, one man came forward. And I have to tell you, over years and years, I saw how hard Adriano Espaillat worked.

[Applause]

And hermanos y hermanas, you know sometimes the person who works the hardest, the person who believes the most, the person who has the strongest vision is the one who prevails. And Adriano worked for years, and years, and years to get to this place and he knew it was not just to serve the constituents of that congressional district. It was also to make a statement to the United States of America about the fact that the Dominican community was a central part of the future of the United States of America.

[Applause]

And his success will be the success of this entire community. It is my honor to welcome Congressman-elect Adriano Espaillat.

[Applause]

[...]

Mayor: Well, congratulations. Congratulations to Adriano Espaillat. Congratulations to all of you who participated in the historical event of electing him. It is a great day for the community. The community is moving forward all the time. And on Sunday, we’re all going to show our pride together. We’ll see you Sunday. Have a wonderful day everyone.

[Applause]

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