This transcript appears to be from a "One Rosemount" community panel discussion. The moderator is **Michael Eliason** (Chair of the Parks and Natural Resources Commission), and the guest panelists introduce themselves as **Jesse Diaz**, **Aurora Morales**, and **Raul Rodriguez**. The session is closed by **Mayor Jeff Weisensel**. [0:00] Michael Eliason: [Music] Hispanic and Latino voices tonight we're going to talk about as uh with a pen uh being Hispanic Latino in our community and some of the experiences they had both not even maybe in our community uh maybe just uh in general um before before we get into that um how the nightstand goes we'll we'll go through some introductions um we will talk um a little bit about some of their experiences uh we have some series of questions we're going to speak about um [0:46] Michael Eliason: and then time permitting we we will also get into taking some uh some questions uh uh if if we have time and so uh before i get into talk before we get into that part of the segment um a couple things i want to share that i think are are kind of words of of inspiration um and so uh one thing i think that that this group the intention of this group is is uh one of my favorite quotes that comes from the senator paul wellstone we all do better when we all do better and i think that really speaks to what we're trying to do here is um one he'll give a better perspective a better understanding so that we all may in fact do that do better okay uh the other the other quote i'd say is from um the justice uh sonia sotomayer she says [1:33] Michael Eliason: it's important that all of us it's important that for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how the history has really shaped us in ways that we might not really understand and i i think that quote really speaks well to what we're trying to do the real the intention is to be able to help better understand help help our community better understand uh the diff uh the different diversities we have in our computer community one to like i said do better but also help understand there may be things we may not may not realize that we can we can change our ways you know that's not to say that that that things are bad but things can always be better and so um so we're going to start off first with we're going to go through uh and if you [2:18] Michael Eliason: if you could give a brief introduction about yourself so give your name where you grew up where you live in the area now and what you do for work and feel free to add anything else let's start from left to right [2:32] Jesse Diaz: hi my name is jesse diaz i'm originally from madison wisconsin i now live in rosemont with my wife and three children i am a teacher in 196 more specifically east lake elementary and i have been a elementary school teacher for 20 years but more importantly i am a dad who is dealing with children in daylight savings today so it's been an interesting day to say the least [3:00] Michael Eliason: yes [3:04] Aurora Morales: good afternoon my name is aurora morales everybody calls me rory for shorter and for easier to pronounce my name i was born in texas i moved to minnesota in 2005 and i've been a resident in rosemount for about four years now i am in the rental housing industry i've been in property management since 2012 and i've been pretty much all over the metro including rochester with my line of work and like jesse said today too has been pretty interesting with uh springing forward today i'm glad to be here [3:49] Raul Rodriguez: hi my name is raul rodriguez i grew up in mexico i came to united states when i was 16 years old i first came to california and after that me and my lovely wife used to be my girlfriend at the time we moved to minnesota with the family and i've been president of rosemont for almost 14 years it's where my kids uh grow up and i'm very happy i do it's a pastor in a church in eagle minnesota i used to be one of the pastors here at rosemont at lighthouse christian church thank you [4:30] Michael Eliason: and before i forget thank you for taking time tonight happy you're all here so we're going to go into as a child do you recall a time when you first became aware of your race was it negative was it neutral was it positive um again we'll just go left to right uh so i'm always going to be first to go [4:55] Jesse Diaz: interesting when you first became aware of race i think for me as a child i was um i come from a father who is hispanic and a mother who is white and i was blessed to have two sides of the family to learn from but i definitely knew that there was a differences in each side i don't think it was a negative or positive i think it was just my it was my reality um and through some through the those situations i was able to learn a lot about both cultures and more importantly how those cultures mixed together and it was interesting because it was new and from kids where i grew up i was one of the own probably one of the only people of ethnic background and race that um had that conversation everybody else was white so my family did had some interesting dinner time conversations but it was at the same time i was able to bring in some of my friends and teach them and kind of educate them and how life is uh different for us not in a bad way but just in a unique re just our reality [6:03] Aurora Morales: it wasn't a negative or positive experience for me i think more than anything was finding out there was a you know a second language i needed to learn growing up as the oldest of five siblings we always spoke spanish in our household listened to the radio in spanish watch tv and spanish so going to school was really an eye-opener for me and it seemed almost like an alien language like i haven't really heard this before like what's going on how do i communicate so my first few years of school were a little bit of a struggle to where i had to go to summer school to learn english and to be able to communicate and then growing up it was like with my younger siblings i was just like okay trying to teach them get them ready get them prepared talk to my parents as well because i knew my dad would speak english you know in his work my mom was a housewife and you know she was always with us so and then it was you know trying to make it fun so then that's when we started watching saturday morning cartoons because we wanted to learn and get used to the language and be able to get accustomed to it and speak the language as well [6:57] Raul Rodriguez: for me it was interesting because i came to united states when i was 16 years old and i first came to california which english is not needed so i was feeling like i was in mexico for the first couple years of my life until we decide to move to minnesota is when you realize then now you need to speak english is when you realize you now is real now you're you have to do something different you have to learn the language and being and don't have my parents when i when i came to united states because i came with my brother it was kind of difficult it was kind of hard because now you have to work and at the same time you have to go to school to learn and it was kind of challenging and that's when you realize that like is everybody have to face the same thing as i'm facing and is when you realize you have very little friends they go into that that emotion or that feeling of have to learn another language which is really difficult because at the beginning you have to start watching cartoons so you have to watch movies that you don't understand at all but you have to try to push yourself you know and the the good experience that i found is because some of my friends they were pushing me to learn and to lose a fear of speaking because that was more the the challenge for me that was the speaking because my language because my accent is kind of hard so and that's but it was positive [8:28] Michael Eliason: so could i can i interject a little a second level to that um so we spoke a lot about as far as you know the language i'll give an example myself um i grew up um in a predominantly white white society um and um did you find any challenges as far as just the fitting in fact and a good example i give is this is so uh you know being being a black male um a lot of people didn't understand the curliness of my hair or you know just the effect of you know quite frankly he doesn't look like us you know did you find any challenges with that at all [9:09] Jesse Diaz: no not right um yeah i think i think i did i like i said where i where i grew up i was different because i was one of the only hispanic kids in the school and my last name was diaz and that was unique and that was um but i think at the same time the uniqueness i went into it with the well with my parents guidance saying you will fit in as fast as you can and as um positive as you can to the school experience because that is how you are going to get where you need to go in life yeah and so i got really really good at being a really good student yeah to be honest with you and i was athletic and i worked hard and i think i had to in turn work like you two were saying you have to work harder in some aspects in different degrees to get to where you're going but at the same time i think um i had to move past that for myself like i could always look at myself as different yeah but i just finally decided that i am part of this larger community and i i am a valued member because they open their arms to me and and i'm going to do the same to them and we're going to learn from each other and i think that helped me have a positive outlook on my childhood [10:33] Michael Eliason: yeah and i only need to ask that because i always find that you know you know in trying to also learn a language or just learn and also the social balance that comes along with it is sometimes a struggle as well so um please share please share a story a short story or two that represents your experience living in roseville area as a person of color let's we'll go from right to left [Laughter] [11:02] Raul Rodriguez: my experience well at the beginning you know i feel really like i was in mexico because when i moved to rosemont the uh the city wasn't that big there used to be a lot of cornfields a lot of calm and peace you know so when we moved to rosemont there was even i was sharing the i i remember the hair place here and uh in highway 3 i remember there was there used to be people that come and tie their horses to get the haircut so you feel pretty much like like not missing a lot so exp and that make you feel good at the same time but at the same time it's kind of difficult because you want to go to these places but you don't speak the language as good as every other person and you're trying to say one thing and they understand another one so then you face the challenges they have to go back to the cities whereas the hispanic community to get the service that you need sure because the embarrassing or you know the the barrier so that's one of the things that i yeah i experience okay [12:12] Aurora Morales: i think for us has been more of and we haven't received any negativity since we've been in rosemount we we love the community we love the area we really haven't you know been faced with any racism or anything it's just the fact sometimes we go to a restaurant or an event and we're the only hispanic family in the area or like my youngest in her soccer team she's been the only hispanic player in the soccer team so it's just knowing that we we stand out like we're different and everybody knows we're different but we get treated treated very well so i'm thankful for that and living in rosemount has been very different compared to other cities or areas [12:56] Jesse Diaz: sure uh as i mentioned earlier i am born and raised in madison which is only a town in wisconsin excuse me it's about 200 000 people but it has a big ten university and it's very progressive in its thought so race was everything it was everything and nothing it was there but it wasn't ever taken in a negative aspect it just was the community and you lived in um moving to rosemount five years now i've been here i moved here for a reason um my college roommate who's the middle school principal here eric hanson said this is a great small town with forward thinking he convinced us to move uh my wife is a professor at augsburg so it was a good fit for us and since we have like i mentioned three kids one of which is a middle schooler she feels connected to her school she feels connected to her community and in turn being her father that helps me feel connected the neighborhood i live in is it's open it's it's honest i have people who uh genuinely care about our well-being and i think that is a blessing so if somebody were to ask me to move it would take a lot because i really enjoy the community in itself [14:26] Michael Eliason: yeah and i would add to that you know one thing that i think is uh very helpful about the roosevelt community and as i said before i grew up in a small town and so um you know in my experiences from uh you know time to service and just i've lived many places around the metro one thing as comforting is it reminded me of home you know so you know it had that small town feel to it and so it took me back to where i grew up in the community that i mean literally everybody knew everybody you know and so it kind of took me back to that and many other places i lived i didn't have that i lived places where i didn't know my own neighbor and department next door you know next thing you know that person doesn't live there anymore it's somebody else you know didn't he know that you know so um i think that's you know very uh very comforting um you know when i first moved into rosemont um my neighbor came right out oh hey you're moving in you know yeah you know we can't probably talk about a half hour you know and those are those are welcoming feelings you know um especially when you know change is always change is always a struggle you know so you don't know it's let's just say a struggle sometimes scary you don't know what you're going to be walking into you know so um okay um so uh in your own words uh what is a microaggression and and how does it uh how does it if how does it differ uh if it does indeed differ uh from a from blatant racism we're gonna start over on the far side [15:28] Raul Rodriguez: well i believe you know um one of the little things i don't think is racism but i believe it's a little microaggression because i remember back in the days when we moved to rosemont the same thing my son once i joined the soccer team and being the only hispanic you know that was really hard for him to get a place or a spot in the team and the roster they kind of like you have to play better or practice more than any other kid and when you go to the product when you go to see the game and see the they don't take the your kid like because he wants to do it you know in but after i we sit down with it with a coach and we talk about it then we resolve the issue you know because it my son doesn't speak english and that's why he wasn't taking it as given the same opportunities as the other kids so it's just i don't think as racism but it's a little microaggression i believe you know because it's the language barrier or sometimes people think because uh i look like it's real hispanic or latino i don't speak the language and they don't talk to us [17:00] Aurora Morales: for me it would be indirect statements of discrimination or a simple fact as when you know you go to the store or a restaurant and they kind of stutter or ask you a question really slowly because they don't know if you're going to understand them or answer in english or spanish but it's not racism it's just that discrimination a little bit [17:28] Jesse Diaz: uh microaggression is is forever going to be tied to the word and term racism um it it depends on the experiences in which you have gone through for example a microaggression that i have experienced is more often than not i'm told you're so well spoken and for a long time i took that as a compliment because i work hard to try to project myself in a confident and positive manner but over time i started understanding and as i looked in a little bit deeper i i wondered why that needed to be set and so i now take that microaggression and use it as a positive and when i do get for example i'll stay on topic you're so well spoken i'll follow up by why did you feel they need to say that and it's not in being rude it is not being confrontational it's to put a little bit emphasis on the question and then what we're really trying to get at and so i use it as a thank you for bringing that up i'm going to put it back on you and then you can tell me why you feel the need to say that and it does work and i think it just gives it people an opportunity to have a pause and to think maybe i shouldn't have said that or maybe i don't need to say that i always say i'm confident enough i don't need your compliment does that make sense and it's not rude and i've thought for the longest time that it was but that was me quieting my own voice to make them feel more comfortable the people i was speaking with rather than using my own voice to bring myself up and be comfortable in myself and obviously with blatant racism is the flip side there is never going to be a clear line but there's always somewhere in the middle we're going to live in that the difference between an aggression and blatant racism okay [19:19] Michael Eliason: thank you thank you for that many parts of the midwest are increasingly diverse but the rosemont area remains largely a homogeneous community most people who live who uh who live here walk into stores and restaurants and where most people look a lot like them many are almost many are almost always living uh in a racial comfort zone what is that like for you um when i enter a place of business or even another neighborhood or whatever um real [20:01] Jesse Diaz: i think the the people i see like you said are pretty homogeneous um largely white um and where i am largely um it seems like white picket fence for you know four people in the family two kids and a dog and it just is perfect little community um but that being said i think since i've been here the more i i experienced rosemont is changing it's changing in the schools and that i teach in it's changing in the events that i that i um like this one that you attend and i think it's for a positive um the archaic thinking that if we stay the same way it's always been it's it's it's better it is definitely dying off i think the i don't and i use this term with as much respect as i can the older rose mount mentality like any old town that's been this way for so long is being forced to change and come in the next century because the people are changing and i think that's in where the power lies with the people so with more education and more conversation and more learning and more experiences we're just kind of opening ourselves up like any other small town in minnesota in the midwest i think does but i do say rosemont does a pretty good job for us too [21:26] Aurora Morales: rosemont has been very welcoming um it still has that old-time small town feeling so it's very you know open-minded it's very a family orientated it's very you know the the neighbors when we first moved in the neighbor right next door came i was like hey welcome and hugged my husband and i was like so glad you're here and i was like oh and you guys have kids great because we don't have that many kids in the neighborhood anymore but you know everybody still walks around they're on their bikes with their dogs with the kids i mean it's a great place to be and we really don't have anything negative to say [22:04] Raul Rodriguez: no i i believe so you know one of the things that i been enjoying or what is like for me it's you know the the atmosphere you know because uh i remember when i first moved one of the things they asked me this question they asked me about what brought you to rosemont what what it makes you to choose rosman to live and i remember i say first of all the school district the quality and the education that the maxsander was gonna be experienced that was one and then he asked me like yeah but do you feel like are you gonna be comfortable here i said well if i found more people like you they all they come and approach me and talk to me and make me feel welcome of course some of you feel welcome and and it's it's been great and my experience of why i moved was a little bit different than you guys would see i needed to stop driving my kids to the school and they could walk down the road but anyway [Laughter] [23:08] Michael Eliason: um so um but yes and i think that um when you look at the city of rosemont i mean the city continues to expand which continues to build to uh build more and more i don't know if many remember here uh east of town that was just field you know and and and look at now i mean even for you look at a few years ago you saw the houses off to the back versus now you see you know it's coming a lot closer and you know with that i mean that what that is that's people that's people more people coming to rosemont many different types of people you know so um so i agree with what you're saying um what are you most proud of as being a part of the latino community and what is one thing that you would want people to know about you in regards to to your latino community we'll start on the far side and work away okay [24:00] Raul Rodriguez: uh well food i'm proud of our food authentic food you know because uh is one of the things they kind of like you know especially being here at rosemont you know and i was a part of the um an anglo church you know i served under the church for seven years and they always come and ask you what are you thinking about the restaurant what do you think about that restaurant you're not talking about spanish restaurants do you think it's authentic do you think is it that's it they're real food and then you have to go try it to get a good answer you know so that's one of the parts good to be latino because you know what is a real authentic food you know and but the other um one thing that we want people to know about the latino culture wow that's tough they we come we come to i say now to rosemont because we want a better quality of life for our children we want uh equal opportunities for the other for our new generations too and i believe it's it's great opportunities here at rosemont you know being being around the the school district and and the things that's changing in rosemont you know the security when especially where i live you know if if we see like uh or any neighbor see the strange car come to my house they will tell you hey as this car belongs to you all these people you know these people we watch these people so that security that's that's very very important for us i will say i greet you on food i will one say there is more than just tacos [26:11] Aurora Morales: yes for us it would be heritage culture our values our work ethic and of course great food it always brings families together in a hispanic at least where i grew up and you know family friends anybody comes over and everybody goes to the table for food like let's come together with food whether it's something that you just you know put together or a big meal but we always gather at the table and share food you know let's talk let's reminisce let's have a little bit of fun culture and heritage even with this panel and we thank you for the invitation to be able to be here and talk about you know our backgrounds and our beliefs and how we feel in the city of rosemount and again because you're talking to us as a hispanic latino community and work ethic and we've all mentioned it a few times we just have to work a little bit harder and that's what we want to show our kids so that falls in with family values [27:01] Jesse Diaz: yeah uh not to to be redundant uh most cultures and and ethnic backgrounds the table is what brings the family together and that's what brings the community together i think through sharing food you share stories and through stories you have experiences and through experiences where you learn um i could see just us sitting down and having a meal together and what we would pull from that meal is is um genuine and it's organic and it's authentic and all the good describing words because it's meant um through friendship and it's meant through um open and honest conversation and i think that's something i'm proud of uh from the latin latino hispanic community is their openness and willing to learn in trying to step outside their comfort zone because their comfort zone is is somewhat small at times because you you do get the you hear stories of looks and you feel bad when you may not speak in the right way or you may um you you know you may miss something and they don't understand your accent and there's little bits and pieces like that but i think most importantly is our is our ability to want to move forward and to be positive and to learn and as much as i want to learn from my fellow panelists i want to learn from other cultures and other races because that's how i bring into my home and my family and my kids to teach them how to be a more world just like a more well-rounded individual and i think that's big and i think that's it was forced it's forced on the latino community at times because we are forcing ourselves to get in to assimilate into the greater culture of the white anglo but i think that helps so that's what i'm proud of [29:00] Michael Eliason: um one of the one more thing here i i must i moved over here i apologize uh a popular thing that we hear uh from white people is i've been discriminated against two all races deal with racist behavior uh at some point how does that affect you and what would you say in response to that um [29:16] Jesse Diaz: this is a conversation this is uh this is where we talked about earlier in the panel where hard questions have hard answers and there's some truth to to i will never say that not anyone can't be discriminated against but when you are in a place of power of wide-angle community the discrimination that you feel is it pals in comparison to somebody who is the minority because the system was set up for them by them and we have to find our way inside of it to be successful and how we manage that journey is how successful we are where they are put in positions to be more successful by just um natural development and growing old and it it it sounds harsh and it is a it almost sounds clinically cold but it's true so to be to say you're discriminated against you can be you can have experiences but when the system is set up for you to be successful because that's the way you set it up it is not the same that's just my take [30:35] Aurora Morales: and like you said just say it's true where you know hard questions have hard answers um my biggest thing with the way i was brought up and when i mentioned earlier work ethic i was always told you know as a minority and as a woman you're gonna have to work twice as hard to be successful twice as hard to be noticed twice as hard to be a mother you know twice as hard at school and for somebody to tell me that it would be like i'm i really can't say i can't voice an opinion until i've been in that person's shoes and that person has been in my shoes which we know unfortunately will never happen so it's just a hard question to answer yeah absolutely [31:21] Raul Rodriguez: ah for me it's uh you know it's it's kind of hard but it but it's true you know because uh living in a in a community as rosemont is a middle class or not as a serbs where most of the hispanic community lives and you get pulled over from a cup the questions they ask you you know being like especially like what do you do for work and it's kind of like hard because it's like what my what has to do with my work you know what that has to do with if i break the line i got pulled over and i get a speed ticket i shouldn't just get a speed ticket not ask me about what i do for work or where do you live you know is this clear in my driver's license that i live in rosemont but then they ask us like where do you live you know those questions is kind of like those hard ones it's like that we have to deal with that and we have to navigate through that absolutely absolutely [32:20] Michael Eliason: um so that that's good that takes us through our pre-selected questions i do have some questions that have come in um and so the first one get to it kind of comes back to that that learning conversation that you were just speaking of a little bit um so there are there are different terms we hear latino hispanic mexican uh latinx um how do you know what what term to use i'll leave that open to who wants to answer that first [Laughter] [32:55] Aurora Morales: i think what we were talking about earlier just depends on the region you're from how you were raised what part of you know mexico what part of area you grew up in whether it was puerto rico mexico durango i mean it's different it varies i myself was brought up as a hispanic sometimes latino or the majority of the time we would just say yes i'm mexican [33:14] Michael Eliason: and i'll piggyback on that a little bit um because i've heard i've heard this question as well i mean i've so you know sometimes it corrects you from wrong i mean is it sometimes where people kind of find it offensive saying one versus the other for example i've heard someone say i'm not hispanic i'm mexican you know so can you can you kind of elaborate a little bit on that [33:43] Aurora Morales: so for us it's not offensive at all i mean we've been called latinos latinas hispanic mexican we know what part area we're from and it was just the way we were raised like yep that's your race and not everybody knows our culture not everybody has been educated to know the right terms just know that you fall under those different you know titles apparently but no as far as we my family the area that i'm from we've never taken offense to anything we've responded to it unless of course you use a derogatory you know word or phrase that's different [34:28] Michael Eliason: what do you think is a good approach because i'm always about you know how we can learn you know i'm always about how to take the negative to the positive what you think is a way to help people better better uh understand or even when the person that maybe finds that uh because some people don't prefer to be called you know hispanic prefer mexican or for a latino or whatever you know how how do you feel people can better approach that yeah when i say that i guess my question is more of like so you know it's sometimes people are bitter about it how can it better be brought across i guess is my question [35:05] Raul Rodriguez: i believe being honest inviting the person to have a coffee or you know sit down and speak to him you know because if because we feel everybody feel the trust all the other trueness when they're asking you for something if we can feel when we feel like we've been like you get an harassment or you know about your your your background but if you truly want to know who they are you know we're not afraid they say yeah we're from mexico i'm from el salvador from honduras from from any part of the city we we're not afraid to say because that's where we're born sure you know but being honest and true you know say hey i want to know you more i want to know who you are i want to know where you what your background and that's part of the trust the trust yeah absolutely [35:55] Jesse Diaz: yeah to to build on that i think when people come from a genuine place of wanting to understand me or my family in a positive way where they're not they're not condescending they just want to ask a question uh too many times have we all been in a situation where i honestly have a question there are questions for a reason because i'm searching for an answer and um people who ask me they're i i don't take offense because i don't expect to be i don't expect them to know everything about me they haven't even met me and it's just if they come with a genuine open-minded i'm saying i do not take offense of this you can call me hispanic you can call me latino um it it doesn't doesn't take me in a direction of negativity it's just i put myself in the same situation if i was talking to somebody new who's from asian descent i would want to know where they're from i can't tell and i will never just guess enough and just assume because that's where the the negative aspect comes in and us meeting tonight on the panel we found out we have very similar backgrounds but extremely different and we learned a lot about what to refer to as each other i mean but we asked in in our conversation was eye-opening we sat and looked at each other like isn't that funny how three of us were chosen to be on this panel and this question was all it was stated in three different answers three different experiences and we're supposed to be um there is no cookie-cutter way but i think the honest like raul said if you are honest and you ask a question in a way of wanting to learn and it's respectful i'd be hard-pressed to think anyone would take offense to that [37:32] Michael Eliason: no thank you thank you thank you very much for that uh the next question i have here is have you ever been negatively questioned about the topic of immigration since there isn't a major topic uh nationally right now i'll start we'll work away across if you want to start with [37:45] Raul Rodriguez: um wow it's a very difficult subject okay because even in hispanic community as division right now about him you know because i'm gonna squeak i'm gonna quick say something i'm not gonna explain a lot but it's it's just uh it is families that live here in the united states for so many years and it's really difficult for them to find you know legal status and see you in the dark in of course it hurts what is happening in the border it is difficult but it's like what can we do to help what can we do to help that's the situation the only thing i've been finding out is pray to god about him and ask god for for uh for wisdom to our government and resolve it the best is possible it is a difficult topic [38:53] Aurora Morales: more than anything i know it's very out there right now it's in social media it's something that's being talked about but in reality it's something that's been happening you know ever since i can remember for decades for generations that there's always been an issue with trying to have somebody you know would change their immigration status or come to the u.s and it's also difficult because i still have family you know in mexico and my fam my parents are still in my hometown that's a border town and they still have to cross on a daily basis to go see their family so it's always going to be a touchy subject but again it's something that's been happening for many many years and it hasn't changed [39:19] Jesse Diaz: i think that it is a charged environment and that question um it makes us shy away from even answering it right now because it does have so many different experiences and it does have levels in some levels me being in rosemount both my parents being born in wisconsin it doesn't directly affect my daily life i read about it i'm associated with it through my culture but i don't have family that live in mexico right now and i don't i never i didn't grow up by a border town but i know it brings people it brings people together because they see it on the news and they hear about it on the radio and during these times of social media and younger generations are learning about all of these things that are happening and there are a lot of negativities um connected to immigration right now and i think it's it's it sounds it sounds kind of easy to say it this way but it's i think it's an easy out there's a lot of hard conversations that need to happen with immigration and i think to say it's all bad doesn't give it justice there's so much more that needs to be uh you need to dig deeper into that question and really find out what's going on but like raoul said and rory said it's a question that we all ask ourselves on daily basis of how is that going to play itself out how what are those poor people going to do what about the people who are already here looking for legal status how does that affect their day if they've been here for 30 years and they don't have legal papers somebody came in a day ago and they're finding that they can that dissent amongst one community so it is a very hot topic and i'm glad that it is because it does need to be discussed because we can't move forward without discussion but i fear that it might go it's going to be pretty pretty hot for a while safe assumption okay [41:14] Michael Eliason: um so tonight we talked a lot about you know as far as just the view from a hispanic latino pers uh perspective as far as one how things affected affect the rosemont community and how things affect people personally and um you know one thing i you know if there's anything i think is a good takeaway from this is that you know the the constant the constant uh communication was exactly that communication dialogue having conversations you know uh le i think i guess what i would say is less assumptions and more openness for us to be able to have those conversations help understand less less uh less assuming you know so um you know i i think that's probably i think that's the biggest thing we can take away from from uh from all this is that you know what as we talked about the the name itself one rosemont we all we all are pieces of puzzle in that create that picture you know of the city of rosemont you know and so um i think it's important to get to know the other people around us to be able to help understand and with that we come become better we become stronger so at this time i'm going to call panda i'm going to call upon the mayor to cut to bring us through any questions mr mayor how are you sir uh yep i go ahead yep i will go ahead and let you do that okay well uh [42:55] Jeff Weisensel: thank you michael for again being the moderator and host this evening taking time out of your schedule on behalf of the one rosemont group i want to say how thankful we are to have you as residents and our panelists this evening sharing your life stories and taking time uh out of your away from your families to answer some somewhat tough questions at time so this is the second time we've uh done this this year and we intend to do it a couple more times so uh again i want to say a big thank you to our panelists and look forward for more discussions in the future so have a good evening thanks sir [43:40] Michael Eliason: thank you [Music] do [44:28] [Music] you