all right ladies and gentlemen i i think we'll get started i see i believe my two co-hosts uh have joined us and several other counselors have and more will be joining but we have a a very jam-packed uh uh hour uh ahead of us so i wanted to be respectful of everyone's time but just to kick things off i wanted to thank each and every one of you i'm looking around this zoom screen and i see so many friends people i've literally known so for long before i was in office uh and it's a great celebration as hispanic heritage month comes to an end that uh counselors mejia uh councilor arroyo and i have invited a virtual event um special shout out to andrea campbell who when she was counsel president did an in-person celebration at the end of the month and and for obvious safety protocols we're doing it virtually but um we're already seeing gosh uh 52 participants and more will be joining us so you know obviously from the bottom of my heart um i am just so grateful and lucky that for the last 11 years i've been the voice of district 6 here in city council um i'm incredibly proud of of the team and the work that we've done and one of the things that i'm most proud of um is working uh with with many of you many folks on this call on establishing boston's latin quarter uh in jamaica plain something i was incredibly proud to have done working with the high school task force i see claudio here uh working with great organizations like jpndc i see carlos here like so many groups to really encapsulate the vibrancy and the diversity of our city and our district and you know i often tell the story i was very lucky i grew lucky i grew up in roslindale my mom was a schoolteacher blessed sacrament school and i remember going to that church for a bilingual midnight mass it was twice as long but it was just so wonderful and to see hide square you know in the 1980s and 1990s to hear the music to eat the food to really appreciate and learn so much about the latinx community about the hispanic community it's just been such an incredible honor for me and i'm just really grateful in my waning days on this body as your council president pro-tempore to be able to partner with two great colleagues um uh to really celebrate and mark uh hispanic heritage month so we have a video that we're gonna get to before that i wanted to invite my two co-hosts for a couple words and then i think we have a couple other counselors who will be joining so begin with uh my bonnie leija's sister uh uh counselor at large julia mejia uh welcome did you have any opening remarks for our friends [Music] for those who need translation i'm just really incredibly grateful to be here with you all with my brother from bonnie matt o'malley who's always been um alongside the dominican community so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to to be here with you matt and our colleagues celebrating all the amazing work um that are our esteemed invited guests and honorees are going to be um presented here today gracias latino heritage month is a month but you know every day all day is latino a pride so really incredibly grateful to to be here with you all i wanted to throw out one little fact here is that um this is the first time in the history of the boston council that we have two two um city councilors uh representing the latino community which is huge and i'd like to always note that i'm the only i'm the first non-arroyo to uh win and and be elected to the council so we are making strides and really incredibly grateful to to be here with you all this afternoon thank you well said thank you councillor mejia uh council ricardo arroyo from district five uh my our other co-host uh welcome uh please the floor is yours to help kick things off counselor i appreciate it and i hope everybody can hear me clearly uh really happy to be here with all of you i see so many of my like favorite people uh on this uh zoom so i'm excited about this i'm excited about this video that we got coming up this is a new format due to kovid uh and i think the video format that we went with actually is really going to be pretty awesome uh it might be something we incorporate on the in-person one in the future uh but i'm really thrilled to be here uh i i i and to do this job and represent our community uh any day we get to celebrate it folks know this is a 365 situation uh for latinos we way more than a month out here uh and so i'm very much happy to be here with y'all i'm looking forward to this we're honoring some really wonderful people um some of my favorite people today uh and i i just want to say to you all uh honestly y'all inspire the work that we do uh i can certainly do the work i do uh and so i'm i'm really thrilled to see you guys get your roses today uh you deserve them and i deeply appreciate y'all so thank you well said thank you very much a couple more counselors who wish to say a quick hello um we'll begin with councillor ed flynn from district two councillor flynn thanks for joining us thank you matt and thank you julia and thank you ricardo for hosting this wonderful celebration and all also to our colleagues in central staff but also to um the award recipients the recipients that are going to be recognized today we're so proud of the work that you do every day throughout the neighborhoods of boston we're proud of you we're proud to celebrate hispanic heritage month in the city of boston and we're so proud of the contributions and sacrifices you make for our city and country as well thank you thank you councillor flynn uh councillor liz brain from district 9 austin brighton welcome councillor braden good morning everyone i'm so excited to be here with everyone this morning and celebrate the incredible contributions of the hispanic community in allston in austin brighton but all across our city as well um this is a wonderful event and i'm sorry we're not in person so we can give hugs and and um and appreciate them and celebrate each other in person but this is a great a great um a great substitute so thank you so much for organizing this and uh thank you to um councillor o'malley and uh councillor royal and councillor mejia for for uh for organizing this and leading this effort and i'm so excited to hear all the hear everybody's presentation this morning thank you thank you liz counselor lydia edwards from district one welcome councilor edwards boys district one i speak i chose to speak in portuguese it's one of the many beautiful languages within the hispanic latino community and i wanted to make sure we didn't forget that a large community um today as we celebrate all of the all of the contributions the history the patriotism the love what has made so much of our country great uh which is of course our uh our latin brothers and sisters so i'm here to celebrate and i'm i'm very excited for this and i can't wait to see the video because um well it's all hyped up now so i hope and i and i'm also i'm honored to represent of course east boston which has one of the largest uh latinx uh populations uh many are from central america and it's just wonderful to see us celebrate uh constant contributions of all of us well said and the video will not disappoint thank you counselor edwards uh at large counselor michael flaherty welcome counselor flaherty s amigos uh thank you to my colleagues council president o'malley and to counselors ricardo arroyo and julie maher for hosting today's luncheon and many thanks to our wonderful central staff uh for helping out and putting this great video together uh hispanic heritage month is another opportunity to celebrate the diverse hispanic community in boston as well as their great contributions to our city and i'm honored today to and every day quite frankly to recognize malagros marte and peta cuenca and i can't wait to see their videos as well so thank you and look forward to the show thank you michael well said uh councillor kenzie bach from beacon hill district eight welcome counter block thank you so much uh matt and thank you for organizing this and so ricardo and uh julia for co-hosting um uh i also represent mission hill um and i'm just so proud to represent the uh hispanic community there especially in mission maine and at mission park and really thrilled today that we've got so much traffic noise behind me i'm really glad today to to honor mr t and millie and looking forward to the videos so um yeah es honor representative yeah thanks everybody for being here and i'm happy to be here as well thank you kenzie i believe that's it for counselors um if if there is a counselor i miss because now we're up to 66 participants um just let me know others will come i know counselor uh baker uh since his best he's got a family event right now and counselor campbell becoming a little bit later um before we get the program is going to be we're going to get to the video shortly and then we're going to sort of open it up for a great uh conversation uh but before that wanted to acknowledge we've got every council staff has been is represented here so i don't want to go through everyone we're going to see from some in a little bit but a special shout out to two of our incredible central staff colleagues first you lady valdez or our central staff director she is an absolutely amazing public servant we love working with her and she leads this body with honor and distinction so thank you she's also a native of the dominican republic and secondly i wanted to give a special shout out i mentioned that my mother taught it at blessed sacrament school one of her favorite students was the daughter of juan lopez uh who has been working with us with central staff a cuban american a man who is a mentor to so many of us including me and juan is now the longest serving latino member of city government he has been a public servant in the city of boston for 40 years he obviously started he was six years old because he's still so youthful but uh juan congratulations and great to be with all of you i also wanted to acknowledge on behalf of mayor janie uh her ons liaison jesus garcia moto welcome jesus thank you as well as natalia ortega he's director of small business uh welcome natalia always great to see you and we're gonna have more folks come so if i haven't given you a shout out yet i'm sure we will um but that's all we have for the brief opening i guess uh carrie if you are ready special shout out to kerry jordan candice morales who well you're going to see their handiwork in a moment but i think folks if we're ready to start the video let's uh let's have it [Music] good afternoon everybody my name is matt o'malley i'm so proud and honored to be the boston city council president pro templary and i am truly honored as the council recognizes hispanic heritage month here in the city of boston i want to begin by thanking my two co-hosts at large city council julia mejia and district five city council ricardo arroyo two wonderful partners in government for the work great members of our body you know we've seen a lot of great changes this year in boston and it's really important to recognize what is our strength which is the diversity and vibrancy of our city and i am particularly proud of the latinx and hispanic community here in boston which accounts for nearly one out of every five bostonians representing district six in the last 11 years i've had the incredible honor of representing the neighborhoods i grew up and my very many happy memories around the holidays we're attending mass at blessed sacramento church in jamaica plain where my mother taught at the school for bilingual christmas eve mass every year you see what's really important as we celebrate this incredible culture is to recognize the leaders of our community you're going to be hearing from many of them from all man neighborhoods from all districts throughout this program so once again i just wanted to say thank you for this incredible opportunity it is so important that we celebrate hispanic heritage this and every month here in the city of boston there's to a great virtual program and i can't wait till we're back together in person next year this is district councilor ricardo arroyo and it's my great honor and pleasure to introduce the hispanic heritage month celebration for the boston city council i'd like to thank my two co-sponsors on this julia mejia and matt o'malley this is a great day to celebrate our culture our heritage it's a great privilege for me and somebody who is of hispanic descent to represent the hispanic and latino community here on this council and it's a wonderful day to uh appreciate and give a special thank you to those of us who are of hispanic descent who work on the council who make sure that this place moves and ticks and does all the work in the people's business here and i also want to thank you if you're watching this whether you're hispanic or not if you're hispanic thank you for the contributions you've done to our city if you're not thank you for taking the time to honor those who are hispanic who have made those contributions hello everyone it is counselor at lawrence junior here coming to you for hispanic heritage month super excited to be joining this month as you know latinos are the largest population of immigrants here in the city of boston and we have business owners from barber shops severe salons into restaurants and so much more latinos are making a name for themselves here and in case you didn't know this is the first time in our history that we've had more than one latino serving on the council at the same time and lastly i want to give a shout out to two amazing latinas that are part of our office cisco bias and sandra served for all that you do to serve the community and so much more thank you happy hispanic heritage month to you all [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] um [Music] is the latino community in boston means everything to me i remember my days growing up in boston in the vida victoria and how blackstone elementary school my identity was reinforced and i was always taught to treat others with kindness and respect [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hi my name is miner perez i am an immigrant from guatemala i am very proud to be a latino and very proud to be a union member i work for the largest construction union in boston and throughout the united states the carpenter virginia i'm also the liaison of boston city hall for the carpenters union what i love the most about my job is it gives me the opportunity to help all bostonians and europeans i believe there is many social programs that can help a person thrive in this life however i do focus on what i believe to be the best social problem giving a person a job giving a person a career to me that is very important at this moment i want to wish everybody a happy hispanic heritage month thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] america [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] hello happy hispanic heritage month my name is lydia rivera i was born and raised in boston and i am of colombian and puerto rican descent i am proud to be part of the hispanic fabric here in boston and blessed to have grown up in the wonderful community of dorchester a career at the mbta a labor degree from umass boston along with the many mentors and friendships i was able to grow and realize my professional dreams today i am principal of libriv communications a minority and women-owned business i also host a podcast called building boston and beyond focused on ensuring residents across massachusetts are aware of what's going on in the community and what resources are available to them i come from a family of public servants learning english from listening to vinyls my mother clara rivera worked for the city of boston under mayor ray flynn my mother too is a dreamer if there are opportunities and resources failure to seize them is not an option thank you mama i leave with you my favorite spanish proverb national hispanic heritage month is a good time to learn the facts about life realities for millions of latinos in the united states that is the only way to celebrate the many contributions we make to our country and understand the challenges we're fighting to change we celebrate the latinos accounted for 51 percent of our nation growth during the past decade and renowned the most multiracial group in the united states to me the significance of national hispanic heritage month it is an important reminder of how much strength we grow as a nation from our immigrant roots and our values as a nation of immigrants hi my name is milagros marte i come from dominican republic and living in boston over 30 years and a host and radio producer and also a leader in our community i appreciate the city council speak me to that recognition what important for us that this month's celebration because we can share our culture tradition and how which traditions we are we are very hard work person and we're glad to leave it in boston and be part of god's wonderful city thank you so much again and i can do it better than in spanish i promise gracias when an immigrant says goodbye to the land of origin most likely misses his family his friends his food his language and traditions however he never loses his heritage his knowledge from past generations 60 years ago when i arrived from cuba to the united states to the city boston have given me the opportunity to acquire knowledge and to develop skills to become successful in many enterprises in the last 43 years my work in radio and in television has allowed me to promote and to preserve the hispanic heritage to create awareness of the important values in life to protect our democracy the faith in mankind the love for family and nature and especially our faith for god i want to thank the city especially michael flaherty to celebrate hispanic heritage and to make aware the contributions that we have made to this city and to this country hi my name is alberto pasado i arrived from cuba to this country in 1965 as a refugee a country that i love so much and i called home i was uh able to fulfill my american dream i was able also to educate my students in a very very good universities and only through my heart very hard work i was the founder of mundo newspaper explaining radio personality a producer as well but more important a community activist and the recipient of 120 public recognition 42 majors are honorary cows degree in humanitarians from cambridge college a cambridge square named me after me yeah and the national recognition for america by joy for being an american by show that was a very very important recognition that i really i really appreciate most recently i was recognized as one of the most important pioneer of the community um if i always work for the progress of the community and i will continue to do so until i die thank you councilman mario mali for being for nominating me and thank you to the city of boston hello everyone my name is marcos bellicci i am the executive director of the four partners mainstreet program here in dorchester in this capacity i'm responsible for supporting and connecting our local small business community team to resources offered by the city of boston as well as other opportunities that can help further their goals and success for corners main streets however is more than that our own history and founding are embedded in community activism and resident leaders continue to help shape our work agenda alongside local merchants we have our hands on many ongoing efforts that impact the success of our business district and the quality of life of local residents including transportation equity environmental justice youth jobs community place making and cultural events i want to say that i'm very grateful for this recognition i am surprised and honored especially given what i already received from work and community as an immigrant in my own land i also want to say that this recognition honors those who have come before me and those who have yet to come i grew up in a farmworker family along the u.s mexico border one of my earliest experiences and memories at this country goes back to when i did not know the english language i was accused of something at school and was unable to defend myself for a brief moment i had no voice and felt helpless hopeless and angry as a result of this experience and recognizing that it's very easy to be excluded creating a space for other voices to be heard has been central to my work this past year and a half of supporting immigrant small business owners during a pandemic highlighted how critical it is to be present and accessible to those with least access whether it's presiding over a board of directors or coordinating a local community guard i appreciate the opportunity to bring other voices along this has not only allowed me to meet wonderful people and leaders it's also helped my own development and so my message to all those who share in the work of community is very simple gracias thank you greetings my name is jose fabio masso and today we are here talking to my father jose carmelo marcel iii my father is mostly known for his contributions to 46 years of radio programming on his show he's also known for his many contributions throughout the community mentorship advocacy music and culture he leaves a positive impact on everyone he comes across our father is a presence and his positive energy is felt wherever he goes his commitment to his life's purpose in addition to his commitment to his family has been a blessing to us all my mom and dad have been able to stand on the shoulders of giants and because of them being my generation are able to do the same thankful for generations of service leaders and thankful to council of rule for this recognition we are grateful yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my name is duran i am from dominican republic i am the community lead organizer at greater four corners for the last 14 years i have worked on housing issues foreclosure eviction displacement and housing bills housing stability is my main focus especially especially with all the new development happening in the boston area i'm proud to be uh an honorary as it helps me to show the latin community that anything is possible hola familia bostoniana happy latinx heritage month to all i want to thank mayor janey council president o'malley councilor mejia and councillor arroyo for this recognition and for their ongoing support of our work zero that massachusetts was created two years ago to protect student borrowers and fight for investments in public higher education and the creation of a debt-free post-secondary educational system free of a student debt in the last two years zero dead massachusetts activists were instrumental in passing the student loan borrower's bill of rights at the state legislature and also working with the boston city council to call on president biden to cancel all student debt a student there is preventing our young people from studying families buying homes going to graduate school and starting their own businesses mucha gracias the director of foreign business services at jp industry during the pandemic jp dc provided technical assistance to 194 businesses we know that from those 194 businesses 178 survive which is a great rate of 92 percent of survival [Music] i'm very proud to have worked with all of these relationships they have shown me how resilient they are how they are very willing to work to survive and to strive to raise [Music] we are grateful for the extraordinary support of the own wealth state of massachusetts and also for private funders like the boston foundation and the national association for latino community asset builders hola my name is [Music] [Music] organizations [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my name is dante luna i'm a mixed media storyteller from roslindale high park from the city of boston i say i'm the son of boston i'm puerto rican and dominican my mom is puerto rican and my dad is dominican i graduated from high park high i left high park high and i photographed 48 of 50 states i still have alaska and hawaii left i finished my bachelor's degree when i was 20 years old youtube was just two years old when i started making videos and um i fell in love with the idea of on-demand media with being able to package an idea make it tangible you know put it on the internet have a youtube link that i can send out i take a lot of pride in helping people you know visualize the best of themselves where i'm from a lot of my friends felt like their potential was limited to wherever the orange line could take them to you know because when we get on the orange line we see forest hills that was my station forest hills when you see forest hills you see old grove and you think oh grove is where your potential stops so being a person of color that has unlimited ambition and enthusiasm for their dreams um is something that took me my whole life to appreciate and to love about myself i love boston i love being a part of boston's story and um you know honored to be a part of boston's growth hi my name is and i live in brighton i think one of the reasons that the hispanic community in boston is so special is because we're from all over the place and our families have different backgrounds but it's here in boston that we find community with each other whether we're in a park and you see a birthday party happening with all the thea sitting in a circle or a family down the street is cooking a salad in the backyard i've had the experience of everyone opening their homes their coolers their grills to each other to complete strangers and it's here that we find that new family even when we're far away from so many others hi my name is carlos castillo and i'm an entrepreneur and small business owner here in boston in short a dreamer i'd like to take this opportunity to thank frank baker for this honor to an hispanic heritage month it's city councils like him that enable my small business to thrive in this great city of boston i'm first generation american of domain consent i was born in roxbury grew up in dorchester my parents met here at umass boston and as soon as they had an opportunity to buy their first home we went from their projects to a triple becker i attribute a lot of my success to growing up in boston and being exposed to so many cultures i started my business right here in dorchester on the street where i grew up hamilton i went from working at hamilton hardware through high school to buying and renovating triple deckers on hamilton street this is a great month to be latino to inspire latinos to be proud to be hispanic and graceful culture my mom always tells me [Music] about he came to this country to progress and we come from the bottom and we're only going up every hispanic in the united states in this great city boston can achieve the american dream aim high shoot for the stars paid for help very hispanic glasses frank supposedly my name is milano de los santos i live in mitchum hill mission men's apartment for 21 years everybody most of everybody in the community know me as melee i go to mission church and i belong to two committees at the mission church i belong to the nhs and whatever volunteer work they do i i try to be there to help the community out especially the main one is and maria sanchez house and one girl needs three they do the thanksgiving dinner and we work there you know with a new england baptist to help serve the lunch for the seniors and i work for cheryl half of 34 years and i have four lives at zero house i work volunteer [Music] i was a patient twice and now i'm a family member okay hello hello community hope everybody's doing well thank you for joining today council royal thank you so much for your leadership and the work that you have done continue to do and still have left right um as a mattapan resident i'm really excited that you are our leader here in matapan and that you continue to fight for for what's right i'm nuri scamargo i am the founder of chica project an organization that was created now 10 years ago to empower and inspire young latinas and other women of color to connect and to thrive personally professionally and to really have the tools and the network needed to be ready for that leadership and that next generation right then maybe the next mayor the next city council the next congresswoman the next district attorney right so that's what we do at chica project make sure you follow them at uh instagram facebook twitter chicaproject.org thank you thank [Music] my name is jesus garcia and i'm the latino liaison for the city of boston i've been working in the office of neighborhood services for the past three years and as latino affiliation one of my functions is to build a point of contact between the latino community and the city of boston in order to make sure that the latinos understand or aware you know about the different services and processes that the city provides for all the residents um right now we are celebrating the spanish heritage month and the meaning of the spanish attachment for me is that it's a great opportunity to continue with the engagement of all the diverse of latinos that we live in the city of boston and do our part to continue unite each one of us different countries that we are represented here in the city of boston and uh i think is also a great opportunity to show the different backgrounds traditions and cultures that we have and how rich we are as latinos and we come together here during this hispanic heritage one 2021 so congratulations to all the my latinos in the city of boston thank you so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] well let's hear it for uh let's hear it for everybody that was absolutely fabulous um thank you so much kerry jordan who was our producer and did an amazing job thank you so much candace morales who was our associate producer help with that absolutely great wonderful wonderful job um i want to uh i i saw my friend uh gladys oliveira as well i know um we we may have her video a little bit later so bear with us on that for one thing but before we get to that just wanted to acknowledge counselor uh wu has joined us yes uh counselor wu would you like to say uh any words of greeting thank you mr president and thank you everyone we of course are missing the chance to be together but i'm really grateful that thanks to your leadership and counselors mejia and arroyo we are still getting the chance to celebrate our incredible community and the superstars a few of the superstars within it so i'm really grateful to be part of this council and this um ongoing tradition so just wanted to say very very excited to see you and um next year we will do this in splendid style well so thank you very much welcome councilor wu and we've also been joined by council andrea campbell welcome counselor campbell i credited you in the opening of uh doing a wonderful in-person event when you were council president glad to uh continue it virtually and as councilor wu said uh look forward to doing it again in person next year but concert campbell uh uh welcome thank you um i just had a suit jacket on and i just threw that off because i said we're all hanging out we're celebrating this is so exciting and and thank you council o'malley for your leadership thank you to central staff of course for helping to pull it together um and thank you to councillors uh ricardo roy of course and julia mejia for organizing it bringing us all together and congratulations to all the honorees not just those from my district who my entire team loves um but to everyone for the work you do every single day to support all of our communities not just those who are in the latino latinx community so thank you so very much congratulations to everyone and a special shout out to my chief of staff ellie i love you um you make us better particularly not just during this month all year on the issues that affect this community so love you lady thank you council o'malley thank you very much and um it's so great future i think i see one of our colleagues from the state delegation uh rep randy fluker oakley uh representative uh thank you so much for joining us if you want to say hello we'd love to uh we'd love to see you and hear you and thank you so much councillor o'malley hello um city of boston colleagues into our whole latinx community i just want to say thank you so much for making this celebration happen virtually and thank you so much for your contributions not only through september 15th and october 13th but truly all year round we are better because of you and i'm glad we were able to to celebrate you just a little bit this afternoon yeah wonderful thank you thank you so much um and i do apologize uh counselor edwards if you're still on i know uh gladys someone we all know well uh somehow the video was uh inadvertently uh not included in the final product but um if you wanted to introduce gladys and gladys if you wanted to talk a little bit about yourself just so we can uh properly honor you along with the amazing other honorees welcome hey gladys how are you great to see you so councilor edwards great to see you do you want to introduce gladys and we'll hear from her yes it's absolutely my honor to introduce gladys oliveiras who's a long time resident of eath boston from colombia who has demonstrated i think the american dream she's not only come here she she grew here and she also is now leading here in east boston as the head of east boston's main street she is really providing a bridge for our local economy between local uh restaurants owned by latinos in east boston and restaurants owned by our traditional italians and folks who are just coming in from all over the place they go to gladys because gladys knows how to build bridges and build businesses so gladys it is my honor to introduce you uh to say a couple words and thank you so much and it's just an honor to recognize you in all of your work thank you thank you very much this is a honor and so wow surprising for this believe me and thank you to you councillor edwards and also thank you to all you who who made this possible okay and no uh you know i i had nothing to say i'm here and it's boston for you all thank you thank you very much thank you glad it's well said sorry about the video but this was even more special and i can tell you enough campaign experience anyone running for office knows one of the first calls you make is to gladys because she has a powerhouse in a number itself um so listen again to our honorees dante luna ludis camargo lydia rivera carlos castillo efrain toledano mili de los santos pilar ortiz alba olivar marcos valencia myra duran luis bravo glados oliveiros regular gonzalez jose garcia mota villagos marte peter cuenca mino perez claudio osorio uh jpndc specifically carlos espinoza toro and zdm claudio martinez alberto congratulations felicidades thank you for all you do for our city um this was just a wonderful event and we have a couple minutes left so if any of our honorees wish to say anything just raise your hand and um we're happy to we're happy to hear from you in our waning minute it's been great to be together so please the uh if anyone wishes to speak um you don't have to but you may do so if you'd like just raise your hand and let me know right well seeing no takers um i will just conclude before turning it over to councillors uh mejia and arroyo once again um well let me start with them counselor counselor mejia the floor is yours and then council arroyo and then we'll close things up uh i think counselor mcgee has written such a beautiful tribute showcasing the brilliance of our culture here here absolutely um counselor ricardo do you have any other concluding remarks hey everybody just want to say uh one thank you to the central staff for all the work that they do uh i wish we had videos of you too uh that's the one edit i'll make in the future uh but in terms of the video thank you so much kerry uh you're fantastic you do so much for the council deeply appreciate you and for everybody who uh received an honor today uh thank you so much for the work that you all do every day in the city i can't say enough good words about the work that all we do some of y'all are legends and some of y'all on the way to legendary status and so thank you very much to all of you well said well said thank you councilman you want to say something to uh before yes i just wanted to say it was so inspiring um and i felt like a sense of like pride um to see so many of our people um showcasing all the brilliance that we bring um to the city of boston so thank you so much for uh for putting this together councilor o'malley and um working alongside our office to make it happen but this is what it looks like when we're all in community and so incredibly grateful for the beautiful uh tribute um and big shout out to central staff um for always bringing it thank you so very much welt said and again i i can't top what my two colleagues said other than to absolutely agree this has been an incredibly powerful inspiring hour um having worked with so many of you known so many of you just seeing the passion and action of that passion that you all have brought to our city is simply remarkable we are a far better city uh because of each and every one of you and it has been a true honor um to be uh be one of your voices at city hall so from the bottom of my heart thank you this concludes our hispanic heritage month celebration the month ends today but we know we celebrate it this month and every month as we should in our great city thank you very much have a great afternoon it's so great to be with all of you thank you thank you very much thank you