Full Equality for Puerto Rico

Floor Speech

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Ms. SALAZAR. Madam Speaker, I thank the Resident Commissioner.

Madam Speaker, for over 120 years, Puerto Rico, as we have said here, has enriched the United States with its culture and its people.

The beautiful island of Puerto Rico that I know so well is the jewel of the Caribbean. Millions of Americans have flocked to its beaches and rainforests to soak in the incredible natural beauty of the island of Puerto Rico.

With that background, 105 years ago, as we have heard before, Puerto Ricans became citizens of this great country, the United States. Puerto Ricans are true Americans and true patriots because over 35,000 of them currently serve in the United States Armed Forces.

Madam Speaker, 235,000 Puerto Ricans are veterans who have served alongside their fellow countrymen from the mainland, from the beaches of Normandy to the Mekong Delta. Its people, the Puerto Ricans, have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom and in the name of the United States of America.

I should say that Puerto Rico holds a very special place in my heart because after my parents fled Castro's Cuba, my family found refuge in San Juan, the capital of the island of Puerto Rico. Because of that decision, I spent a fantastic childhood in the island because we went to live in paradise in the 1960s.

It was in Puerto Rico where I first learned about American values. It was in Puerto Rico where I learned the meaning behind the American flag and the central value of freedom and liberty.

Puerto Ricans received the Cuban exile community with open arms. That is why today I take this opportunity from the floor of the United States Congress, as a Congresswoman for the city of Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community in the United States. I thank the Puerto Ricans for their noble act of welcoming millions and millions of Cubans to the island and giving them the possibility of living in freedom, in peace, and living in paradise.

Puerto Ricans have welcomed people from around the world to visit paradise and the Caribbean on American soil, the best of both worlds. Today, Puerto Ricans are American ambassadors, showing the beauty and diversity of our great country to the rest of the world.

For that reason, I thank my very good friend, mi amiga, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, for her leadership on this floor. She is a relentless champion for the island's future, for what the island deserves, and for what we need to see for the future of Puerto Rico.

Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Thank you, Maria Elvira. You touched my heart with those words.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Wild).

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