Mayor Eric Adams: I want to come among you because I want you to just think about this moment and what the last three years and eight months have been about. When I ran for office as mayor, I went to all of your communities. I visited you, I heard your stories, I understood your experiences, and I came in with a clear agenda. I wanted to be symbolic, but I wanted to be substantive, and symbolism is just as important as substance.
And the symbolism is that there have been 110 mayors, but the Ecuadorian community was never invited [to] Gracie Mansion until the 110th mayor came into office. 110 mayors, and your flag was never raised at Bowling Green when other countries' flags were raised, but it was raised when I became the mayor of this city.
And you go back and you look at those 110 mayors, how many of them respected your country enough to get on a plane and fly to Ecuador so they can learn the culture of the community? I did. And so when you look at where you are, yes, we made the city safer, yes, we educated our children, yes, we decreased unemployment, yes, we are investing in foster care children, public housing, small businesses, more than the city history, more businesses are here in the city history.
When you look at all of that, the symbolism is just as important. And when I was a police officer many years ago, you did not see Ecuadorian officers in the department at the level you see now. Now you're seeing Ecuadorian officers in Police Departments, in the Fire Department, in the EMS, in all of these agencies.
You're no longer on the sidelines living and hiding in the shadows of the American dream. You're now part of that American dream. And it's so important that if you are part of the American dream, that you should not only be outside of Gracie Mansion, outside of City Hall, and watching other people enjoy the beauty and the prosperity of this city and this country. It belongs to you just as well.
And I know there's a lot of fear and uncertainty. I know all this anxiety that all of you feel as you move through the city and as you move through the country. And you must understand this, don't live in fear, because it's hypocritical as you live in your faith and you talk about your belief in God or belief in your faith. And if you believe in God, then you cannot believe the climates are going to change that same protection.
My faith in God is strong, and he is the guiding light to my life. I wake up every day and I turn on my GPS, my God-positioned satellite. I let him drive. And we focus so much in fear that we don't enjoy the existence. And so everyone is asking me, well, you know, there's an election that's going to come up. What is going to happen in the next election? Would you win or will you lose?
I don't have time to worry about what is happening next year when I'm enjoying what's happening this year. I'm the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. And so to my Ecuadorian brothers and sisters, I grew up in South Jamaica, Queens. I have a learning disability. We lived on the verge of homelessness every night.
There were many days we didn't have anything to eat and mommy would eke out something for her six children. We didn't know what tomorrow looked like. But only in America and in New York. You can go from being dyslexic. You can go from working in the mailroom. You can go from being a dishwasher. You can go from being a clerk. You can go from anywhere and end up here.
And so all of you who are here right now, as you talk to your young nieces and nephews and all the folks who are in this room, as we see my good brother, Councilman Moya, the first Ecuadorian to be elected in this city. When you watch his mom and you see that she came here with a vision and dream with her husband so that one day her children could go up and go to the next level, I want you to leave here with that same energy. I am you. I'm not special.
There's nothing different from who you are and who I am. We're the same. We're working class, God-fearing, loving, kind people. And I'm encouraging you not only to stay within the comfort of the Ecuadorian community. Reach out to the Chinese community, the Bengali community, the Caribbean community, the Haitian community.
Reach out and build this coalition of people who love this city and love this country. [We’re the] only country on the globe where you're told not to leave your culture of your homeland as you embrace your adopted land. I'm not American-African. You're not American-Ecuadorian. A Mexican is not American-Mexican.
America says you put your country first. I'm African-American. You're Ecuadorian-American. A Mexican is Mexican-American, Chinese-American, Polish-American, Trinidadian-American. You put your country first. When you come here, you don't abandon your culture and your country. You make it part of the American experience.
And that is why we are who we are. It is because of the combination of all of our cultures coming together to build this amazing product. If we lose that, we lost who we are, and we will never lose that. And so today, I say we're all Ecuadorians, and enjoy the pleasure of being here today as we honor our honorees. Thank you so much.
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