In a speech that tugged at the heartstrings of all Americans, last night Maximo Alvarez, a Cuban immigrant whose family fled Fidel Castro’s regime as a part of Operation Pedro Pan, warned Americans about the dangers of communism.
Several times during his speech, Alvarez was on the brink of breaking down into tears as he recalled wisdom from his father and explained how much it meant to him to be an American.
“I know all about the past. I’ll never forget my own. My family has fled totalitarianism and communism more than once. First my dad from Spain, and then from Cuba,” Alvarez began.
“By the grace of God, I lived the American dream, the greatest blessing that I’ve ever had. My dad, who only had a sixth-grade education, told me, ‘Don’t lose this place, you will never be as lucky as me.’
“I heard the promises of Fidel Castro, and I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who suffered, and starved and died because they believed those empty promises. They swallowed the Communist poison pill.”
He then told the American people that many of the promises he hears from the Left don’t sound new to him.
“Those false promises: spread the wealth, free education, free healthcare, defund the police and trust the socialist state more than your family and your community, they don’t sound radical to my ears. They sound familiar.”
Alvarez then proceeded to explain how he sees the current riots going on around the country, specifically in Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Illinois and Kenosha, Wisconsin as eerily similar to his upbringing in Communist Cuba.
“When I watch the news in Seattle, Chicago, Portland and other cities, when I see the history being rewritten, when I hear the promises, I hear echoes of the former life I never wanted to hear again. I see shadows I thought I had outrun,” Alverez said.
With his eyes beginning to brim with tears, and his voice starting to break, he continued: “I am so grateful to America, the place where I was able to build my American dream through hard work and determination… I may be Cuban-born, but I am 100% American.”
“This is the greatest country in the world. And I’ve said this before, if I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1% of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours. The gift of freedom.”
Video from MSNBC
No longer able to hold back his tears, Alvarez offered a powerful and stirring conclusion. “I still hear my dad: ‘There is no other place to go.’ Thank you, and may the good Lord bless America.”
Today, as a part of his American dream, Alvarez is now the owner and president of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, a network of 300 gas stations in southern Florida. According to its website, Alvarez’s company has been a consistent sponsor of Miami Children’s Hospital and the Muscular Dystrophy Association because of Alvarez’s commitment to helping those in need.
Operation Pedro Pan, of which Alvarez was a part, was a mass exodus of 14,000 children from Cuba to the United States from 1960 to 1962, the largest child exodus in the Western Hemisphere, over concerns that Fidel Castro would indoctrinate young children with Communist ideology.
The second night of the Republican National Convention will begin tonight at 8:30 PM EST on all the major news channels.
Here is the full-length clip, 7:02 minutes long, of Alvarez’s speech:
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