Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Delivers Remarks at Saint Vincent and Grenadines Flag Raising Ceremony

October 27, 2022

Commissioner Manuel Castro, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs: Give it up for our musical performances today. Now I'd like to welcome back up Arthur Piccolo from the Bowling Green Association.

Arthur Piccolo, Chairman, Bowling Green Association: Before the mayor arrived, as I already mentioned, the world here changed on January 1st of this year, and it changed because Eric Adams became mayor. There's more history here than any place else, but this is a new chapter of history. We have been raising flags here since 1996. No mayor ever before Eric Adams ever accepted an invitation to come and join us. This mayor has already been here 15 times, and over the next four years, he'll be back again and again. The great mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Arthur. You know, there are more than one way to say you are welcome. You can verbalize it, but do you actualize it? Do you visibly look at the symbols that show respect to the various communities that make up the City of New York? This is a city of not only people who have generations, but a city of those who come here from various islands, various countries, to state that they want to make New York City their home. And when we raise the flag here at Bowling Green, the cornerstone of our financial strength and power, we are saying to you that we respect you, we see you, and you are contributors to this amazing city we call New York. I remember clearly during COVID when people were social distancing and staying at home and did not want to come out, it was the emerging immigrant populations that kept this city running. Immigrants don't need New York. New York needs the immigrant communities of this city. And no one personifies that more than St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

When I was in St. Vincent and when I was in Grenada up at Annandale Falls and Grand Anse Beach and just looking at the energy of our Caribbean diaspora is a contribution to this great country and particularly this great city. And all of it ends and starts in the borough of Brooklyn. That is the mecca in the homeland. And you have displayed a level of resiliency. And just having you here today, I was so proud to see at our flag raising when you have the ambassador, Lou-Anne GilChrist and Dennis Francis, we want to thank you for being here and what it means to be right here in the capital of the St. Vincent community right here in the City of New York. We also want to thank the consul general that's here, Rondy McIntosh, as well as my commissioners, Commissioner Mermelstein, and my commissioner of Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, a dreamer — came to America from Mexico with his… as a child with his parents, and went through the system, and now he is the commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. That says a lot about our city.

But St. Vincent is so resilient. You have preserved through difficult times, including hurricanes, volcanoes, eruptions. You always find a way of just infusing the energy that's needed to state that nothing can keep you back. And as a resilient people, a resilient country, you have brought that resiliency here to the shores of America. And your warm welcome, your spirit of engagement and encounter with people from Kingstown Harbor to the bays that surrounds the island to the beaches and to United Island.

You have all that it takes to state you are bringing that here to this great city and great country. I am proud, proud for the first time to raise your flag here at Bowling Green. And it's going to be one of many times. It is a day of remembrance and a day of acknowledgement and it's a day of lifting up the spirit of our city. Let's be clear. New York City is not coming back. New York City is back and we're back because of you. Let's celebrate. And so before raising the flag, I got to get the traditional head tie. (Laughter.) Come on, come on, show me how to do it right?

(...)

Mayor Adams: So the proclamation. Whereas Caribbean Americans have long strengthened the five boroughs and they will continue to play a key role as we take bold steps to recover from COVID-19 pandemic, grow our economy and build a safer, fairer, more prosperous future for all. At today's ceremony in Manhattan, historic Bowling Green Park. Vincent… Vincentians?

(Crosstalk.)

Mayor Adams: Vincentian New Yorkers, will commemorate the independence of St. Vincent and the Grenadines by raising this blue, gold, and green flag, which will fly proudly next to the American flag. Today's event is also a wonderful occasion to celebrate the rich heritage of this vital community in our enduring friendship with their homeland. I look forward to the many ways everyone gather and further invigorate New York as we unite to rebuild, renew and reinvent. Now therefore, I, Eric Adams, mayor of the City of New York, proclaim October 27th, 2022 in the City of New York, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Heritage Day.

(...) 

Commissioner Castro: Give it up for Mayor Eric Adams. Now please join us in raising the flag of the United States of America. We'll do it after.

(...)

Commissioner Castro: And before we conclude our flag raising ceremony, consul general has a gift to present to Mayor Eric Adams.

Bernadette Ambrose-Black, Investment and Trade Promotions Officer, Consulate of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Honorable mayor, on behalf of the consul general and the government and people of St. Vincent's and Grenadines, we would like to present you with this token of our appreciation. What you see before you is a genre of art called tropical realism. It’s a Vincentian trademark that was developed by Vincentian artist Calvert McAllister Jones. The signature style depicts births of bold colors, loose strokes, and the movements of color across the canvas in his method of capturing the soul, the essence of Vincentian Caribbean and tropical lifestyle. This rendition is titled, "Welcome to New York: Bridges, Dreams, and Liberty Echoes the Warmth, Charisma, Passion, and Cosmopolitan Makeup of the Soul of New York."

And do I dare say, depict the soul of our beloved mayor. A place where dreams have materialized for a lot of our nationals. Not just our nationals, but nationals all over and hope reignited and passion stirred. So mayor, we thank you. We thank you for your continued support and we would like to present you with this token of our appreciation. As you would see, mayor, the Empire State Building is also depicted. Our national colors will be lit at the Tower of the Empire State Building tonight. Very proud moment for us, indeed. Thank you, mayor. Thank you.