Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown
Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration
Honoring
Dr. Eduardo J. Martí
President
Queensborough Community College
Remarks by Dr. Martí
I am honored to receive the Hispanic heritage Award. I am delighted that my friends and family took of their time to come and witness this event. Thank you all for being here…..
I accept this award with respect for the immigrant community. This type of recognition is important because all New Americans wonder what their trek will bring. Will it bring a better life? Will it b3 dangerous? Was it the right thing to do? I hope that through this award, we can say loudly and clearly that it can be done; that the concept of the American Dream is still alive and well. Let me tell you a little about my story.
I remember when I arrived 49 years ago, as an 18 year old, not knowing what was ahead of me; not knowing what it means to be alone in a strange land with a different language, with different mores. I remember the dreams and aspirations; I remember the fears; I remember the sense of isolation.
I remember the sense of responsibility when, for political reasons, my 12 year old sister was placed in my care. At this time, the Castro regime was sending all children who could read and write to the interior of the island, and my parents thought that she would be safer with me. So, she came.
My parents stayed behind because of health issues; they thought that if they came, they would be a burden on us. But, imagine a 19 year old taking care of a 12 year old in a strange City with no friends and no family!! It was scary…. The only safety net we had was a small nest egg my parents had in the U.S. it enabled us to start school – me at NYU and my sister in a Catholic boarding school in Staten Island. The money, however, lasted only for three years. But, it was a good boost to our lives. My parents truly sacrificed their last few years so that we could survive. They died shortly after we came in 1963 and 1964.
Do not misunderstand me; I do not want to appear as a victim. On the contrary, I know that I am one of the lucky ones. There are countless stories much worse than mine right here in Queens. But in this City, if you work hard and you are smart about where you want to be, success is just around the corner.
I can tell you that understanding the American culture is not easy. It takes time for an immigrant to feel truly comfortable and part of a new land. The learning process is arduous. The question is always: D I amalgamate into this society as if it was a melting pot where I must lose my identity to blend in… or… do I refuse to adapt to this new culture and keep my ways without regard to others… or, do I celebrate my origins while learning how to navigate this complex society, respecting other cultures and understanding differences? Well, I think that you know the answer…. But, understanding comes from education.
In my case, I came as a student. So, my experience should not have been different from a person from Kansas arriving in New York City or that of a graduate student coming from the other side of the world. But the difference for us was that the person from Kansas or the student from Singapore could go home. My sister and I could not. So, the differences in cultures became magnified by the impossibility of return.
And, then… there are the differences in the cultures. Let me give you an example that is forever engraved in my mind.
As a freshman, in the fall of 1961, a well-meaning family invited me to a Thanksgiving dinner. It was a program that NYU had to make all foreign students feel welcomed. Alums opened their homes to foreign students. In my case, the Wests invited me to theirs. They lived in a beautiful Park Avenue apartment. The food was wonderful and plentiful. But, as the day progressed, they kept asking me questions about my background, my parents, my life. And as the questions continued, I became more and more uncomfortable. I did not realize it at the time, but I was caught in a cross-cultural divide. They were trying to engage me and, in their minds, they were being polite. I interpreted their questions as being intrusive and impolite. I left the celebration in a huff. I am certain the Wests were insulted by my sudden departure. I hope that someday I get the chance to apologize, because now I realize that they were only trying to be nice.
As I became better acquainted with American culture, it became easier for me. To a large degree, my understanding of this complex web of cultures that we call the American society was due to the wonderful liberal arts education that I received at NYU’s Washington Square College. My educational experiences provided me with the historical context, the critical thinking skills, the aesthetic appreciation and the communication skills that accelerated my understanding of this new society. It not only gave me the skills to get a job, it gave me the understanding that I needed to survive and be happy in this new world.
That is why, when I had the opportunity to return to New York City and lead Queensborough Community College, I made it my quest to provide our students, many of whom were born in another country, with the necessary tools to navigate this very complex society while preserving their own cultures. I firmly believe that we must provide students who come to us with extraordinary needs much more than the training necessary to get a job or transfer to a four-year college. We must educate our students to understand who they are, where they are, and how to interact with one another. We must provide them with opportunities to hone their social skills, to celebrate their origins, to understand others; in sum, we must provide them with opportunities to better understand the human condition and the society in which they live.
At Queensborough Community College, we believe that providing basic education is not enough; we believe that there is significant learning to be gained through what we call supplemental educational resources. We provide students with opportunities to help their communities through service learning, we provide opportunities for students to appreciate their cultures through permanent exhibits at the Art Gallery that celebrate Africa and Latin America; and, we provide opportunities for students to understand the root causes of prejudice and hate crimes through our Holocaust Resource Center.
This Sunday, we are having the grand opening of the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center. This social laboratory provides the students with the necessary tools to combat prejudice and hate crimes. By providing historical context based on the lessons of the Holocaust, we attack the very essence of prejudice. We teach our students to speak out; we teach our students that prejudice starts at grammar school; we teach our students that bullying, if left unbridled, turns into prejudice; that prejudice if left unbridled, becomes institutionalized – and when prejudice becomes institutionalized, it formulates the basis of massacres and genocides. We use the lessons of the Holocaust to ensure that we never stop speaking out when we see someone being attacked because of their race, religion, gender, age of sexual orientation.
We have a lot of work to do…. We saw it last weekend…. I hope that our students, all 15,000 of them that come through our doors every year, leave our college better prepared to stop prejudice at every level.
I am proud that our Center works closely with the District Attorney’s Office of Hate Crimes in educating students and the public about the need to speak out.
This is but an example of the many supplemental educational services that we provide our students so that their experiences at Queensborough Community College can contribute to their growth as productive members of our great City.
It is my dream that through a system of public higher education, we can contribute to facilitating the trek of the New Americans in Queens toward the fulfillment of their goals in their new land…
Once again, I think you for this honor. I hope that my past, present and future actions demonstrate the respect that I hold for this recognition.
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