October 10, 2014First Lady Chirlane McCray: [First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks in Italian]I’m sure my accent isn’t perfect, but Italian is such a beautiful language.[First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks in Italian]Who can resist using words with so many vowels – words that express all the drama and performance of life. Before going any further, I want to thank the generous sponsors who made tonight possible. We received financial support from Broadway Stages, which is led by our friend, Gina Argento. You can clap.[Applause]And the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which is led by the wonderful Angelo Vivolo.[Applause]And we received in-kind support from a long list of sponsors. Bar Toto, one of my – one of our favorite places, is providing those wood-fired pizzas you may have tasted outside. Domaine Select Wine Estates is providing wine and cocktails. Amedei Store is providing chocolate. Antica Pesa is providing baccala.[Laughter]Ferrara Bakery is providing cannoli. And De Cecco USA is providing pasta. Now, Bill and I are so lucky – we got to sample all of this food last night.[Laughter]It wasn’t just delicious, it was also just a great way to celebrate our roots and Italy and everything that we are experiencing here tonight. We are a multicultural family and all things Italy are part of our daily lives. From our children’s names – Chiara and Dante – to Bill’s barber Mario, to our favorite dishes and delicacies.Some of you know that we had an opportunity to visit Italy this summer. It was an extraordinary journey. We visited Rome, Naples, Carpi, Basilicata, Venice. But the highlight of the trip was our visit to the towns where Bill’s grandparents were born, Sant""Agata de"" Goti and Grosseto. I can’t tell you the feeling we had as we watched people flowing from their homes, coming up down from their windows to greet us in the streets. The whole experience was just so moving – moving beyond words. I think that as our world gets smaller and people move around more, it’s very important for us to get bigger, to expand our knowledge of other people, other cultures, other places. I could never have imagined this experience we had this summer. And I know that my life is richer and more interesting because of it.Now the great thing – about living in New York that is – is that our connection to Italy did not end when we boarded our flight back home. Sometimes it feels like everyone we met in Italy came back with us.[Laughter]We met Italians who really live in New York and Italian-American New Yorkers who are just visiting like us. Those relationships are one of my favorite souvenirs and the best way to relive our trip. Those relationships are also proof that the bond between Italy and New York is as strong as ever. It’s a bond that has been forged over centuries. To study the history of New York in America is also to study the history of Italian immigrants.Now that truth is vividly illustrated by The Italian Americans, a multi-faceted project designed to press the reset button on the public perception of Italian-Americans. As you know, too often the public perception of Italian-Americans veers into stereotype. The Italian Americans project is sure to help change that. Its center piece is a documentary that will air on PBS in February 2015 and it’s a visual feast. It features rich archival footage and lively interviews with prominent Italian-Americans – probably many of you. It will be accompanied by a campaign to engage everyday Americans, with a curriculum for our schools and a companion book. I am particularly excited about the book because it was written by a dear friend of mine, Maria Laurino.[Applause]Bill and I owe Maria so much. Not only did she hire me as a speechwriter, back in the day for Mayor Dinkins. She also introduced us to her husband, Tony Shorris, who is now Bill’s first deputy mayor. Maria’s book also entitled The Italian Americans is fantastic.[First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks in Italian]And I know this project is going to be equally great because it has Maria’s stamp of approval. And so you are in for a very special treat tonight because we got our hands on the official trailer for The Italian Americans. And now we’re going to share it with all of you. So, enjoy. Enjoy the evening. Enjoy the program and have a great night.[…]Mayor de Blasio: [Mayor de Blasio speaks in Italian]It’s really a tremendous honor to have everyone here with us tonight – and we have a lot of special people here. But first, I want to say [speaks Italian].[Applause]So, Chirlane, I have to say, is one of the great Italophiles you will ever meet. And I chose well, because she – when I said we need to name our daughter Chiara, she said let’s do that. When I said, we need to name our son Dante, she was there with it. And her love for everything about our culture and our homeland is very, very deep, just like the love she has for the origins of her family. And that’s something that, in a sense, is one of those Only in New York things. You just heard a proud woman of African descent speak Italian with a sense of pride and ownership and connection to it that’s deep and real, and that’s what makes New York City wonderful. Let’s thank our first lady for all she does.[Applause]Now, I think I can say, I don’t know an Italian-American who doesn’t feel an inherent pride in Maria Bartiromo for what she has achieved.[Applause]And the great thing about Maria, when you get to know her, she’s an extraordinarily genuine person. She’s obviously incredibly accomplished but nothing stood in her way. This is something Maria, as you are defining what makes us – something in common about our Italian experience – that perseverance is another value I see in the history of the Italian-American people. Maria had to break through her own challenges on the way up in a field that was male dominated, particularly in business and finance reporting. And she had to prove that a gal from Brooklyn could go to the very top of the profession and be the best there was. And we all have that sense of someone who fought her way up because she was the best, and she makes us tremendously proud every day. Thank you, Maria. [Applause]Now, I want to talk about another Maria. You heard from Chirlane, we’ve known Maria Laurino for over 20 years. We have a deep friendship with her. We have an equally important, tremendous respect for her work. What she is doing, and what everyone associated with the Italian Americans is doing, is long overdue. There’s been efforts over the years to set the record straight. Some of them got through – a lot of them didn’t amidst all the noise. The Italians-Americans, I can tell just from watching that trailer, is going to grab people – it’s going to make them pay attention in a new and different way. What the truth is about the lives of tens of millions of people who did so much to build this city, and this country – and it’s long overdue and we’re so appreciative. Let’s thank Maria Laurino for all she has done.[Applause]I know that director, Joe Maggio, couldn’t be with us. He claimed it was more interesting to be in Palermo than here. I don’t know why that would be.[Laughter]But I want to thank everyone associated with the Italian Americans – PBS and everyone associated – for making this a reality for all of us. And we have some wonderful guests here tonight I want to acknowledge – someone that Chirlane and I feel a special appreciation for because she gave us the roadmap of what we would do in Italy and made so much of it possible for us. We met with such a wonderful cross-section of leaders in Italy, which was an inspiring experience, and that is our beloved council general of Italy, Natalia Quintavalle.[Applause]And a tremendous congratulations to Frank Bisignano for being the grand marshal this year of the parade. That is a tremendous honor and well deserved. Let’s thank Frank.[Applause]Now, there are a number of members of my administration here and I want to call them out – I was hoping they’d all stand up here with me, but we Italians are not always organized so they’re everywhere. Some are Italians, some are not Italians – all appreciate Italy and Italians, or wish they were Italians.[Laughter]Or some, like Tony Shorris, had the wisdom to marry an Italian. So, let’s thank our first deputy mayor, Tony Shorris.[Applause]A true, true connoisseur of all things Italian – our fire commissioner, Dan Nigro.[Applause] The man you want to call when there’s an emergency – our emergency management commissioner, Joe Esposito.[Applause]And a lady with a tough job, but she does it brilliantly – the president of the School Construction Authority, Lorraine Grillo.[Applause]An honorable mention to non-Italians, who are so good they should be Italians – our new commissioner for the Office of International Affairs, Penny Abeywardena.[Applause]And our new Veterans Affairs commissioner and former brigadier general, Lori Sutton.[Applause]Finally, I want to say a few things but I want to thank the elected officials who are here tonight. Again, some of them have the joy of being Italian-Americans, others honor our people. Of course, one of the most consistently involved of all the elected officials happen to be Italian-American. One of the ones who acts on his pride the most is my old friend, New York City Councilmember Vinnie Gentile.[Applause]I’d like to thank a dear friend – Assemblymember Luis Sepulveda, from the Bronx.[Applause]Councilmember Danny Dromm, from Queens.[Applause]Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, from Manhattan.[Applause]So, I have to tell you, I think we could all understand what it is when you’re blessed with the help of so many friends to achieve something, and you wish that the people who made it possible could be here. So, if my grandfather, Giovanni, where here tonight, he would feel such pride but he’d also know that the reason I have the honor of standing before you is because of what he did 100 years ago, literally – coming to this country in 1905 – starting, like so many of us, with very, very little and finding his way forward. And, I have to tell you, I had the honor – my grandfather lived until 93-years-old – and I got to hear from him what his values where, what he believed in. He was an incredibly sophisticated man for a guy who grew up in a really small town outside of Naples. And he taught me my values. He taught me my sense of how we had to embrace and support everyone. The way he showed his love for every member of our family gave me my sense of how to live this life the right way.And it’s interesting – there are a lot of stereotypes which, thank god the Italian Americans will help to address. But there’s a lot of stereotypes and one is, you can imagine, a southern Italian father born – he was born a long time ago – because my parents had me pretty late in life. My grandfather was born in 1884 in Sainte Anne de Grotte, a town of 5,000 people in Benevento. He comes to New York City and his daughter – my mother Maria – happened to be academically gifted. And she got an opportunity to go to Smith College in Massachusetts. And you would imagine that an Italian-American father from a small town in Southern Italy would not like the notion of his daughter going anywhere outside his view – and he didn’t on one level. But there was something about him that understood the potential in my mother and wanted her to have that opportunity. So he encouraged her, he supported her. He’d go up to Massachusetts – as strange as it was to go to Amherst, Massachusetts if you were an Italian American, he would go there – and bring her food and bring her support. And that’s what made so many things possible.My grandfather didn’t have a college education, but my mother got a college education and it changed the trajectory of our family. It all began – like for so many of us – not just with the values of our parents, but with the values of our grandparents and beyond. That’s what made us who we are.And so Chirlane is right – this summer was extraordinary – to go to my grandfather’s hometown, to go to my grandmother Ana’s hometown, Grassano, in Matera Province. The love that people expressed was unbelievable. Part of it was their feeling for New York City, which is something we should all be proud of. New York City all over the world is put on a pedestal – it’s a dream, it’s an example to people all over the world. But part of it – a lot of the media here didn’t understand and I don’t blame them, it’s hard to understand – but if you are in towns all over Southern Italy, the people had to leave because there wasn’t the opportunity they needed. They came here, they came to other parts of the world seeking opportunity. But then you’re remembered – you’re remembered for what you were – that those towns were the foundation, those villages made us who we were, that when you come back to say thank you and to show appreciation, to show a sense of really understanding where it all began, there’s something powerful in that.You know, Italy’s gone through some amazingly good times and some tough times too. This is a tough moment in Italy. And I think there was some appreciation of Americans who consider ourselves children and grandchildren of Italy coming back to say thank you, coming back to commend the Italian people for all they mean in the world, for all they mean to us. People appreciated that recognition and that support. And I think it’s something – if I can editorialize – and I think Natalia will agree with this – I say it wherever I go – we, as Italian-Americans, we have to keep saying thank you to our homeland.We have to keep visiting. We have to keep buying as much vino as possible. We have to keep – we have to keep investing. We have to do a lot because that place gave so much to us – and we have to keep the culture alive here. I’ve known a lot of people – some in this room – who’ve said to me, ‘We have to preserve the language.’ Well, first of all, I want to thank the first lady for preserving the Italian language this evening.[Applause]But we have so much to give to our children, our grandchildren by connecting them to their culture, by keeping this beautiful language alive, by showing them what it means. You know, Chirlane and I endeavored – from the time we decided to have children, we had a dream that we would bring our children back to their ancestry. And we went, years ago, to my grandfather’s hometown; we went to where, in Barbados, her grandparents came from; we went to West Africa to show our children a sense of the depth of their roots – and it makes you stronger. It makes you stronger when you see all that was there, that foundation that made us who we are. It’s impossible, by the way, to feel stereotypes of the kind that have been so often forced on us if you actually spend time in Italy and in your ancestral hometowns and you see the goodness of the people and the hard work – all the things Maria talked about. When you see the truth of what we came from, it’s very easy to dispel the stereotypes that surround us each and every day. And so I want us all – my admonition this evening – to really take the pride we feel today, the pride we’ll feel on Monday at the parade – live it every day, but spread it – spread it to our children, spread it throughout our families, act on it, because it’s something so precious, something so powerful to draw upon.I also want to say one thing that – it’s very interesting how children react when they’re given that opportunity to see where they came from – and one of my favorite examples was Dante. Dante is very struck by his Italian roots. He is particularly fascinated by the history of Rome – and obviously, our town not far from Rome – and everyone was part of the Roman Empire once. And Dante, if you ask him to talk to you about his favorite Roman emperors, he’ll start running down the list, and it sounds like they’re all alive today when you hear Dante talk about it because he feels such passion, he feels such a connection to that part of his heritage and what it means – and what it meant for the world. Because we have to acknowledge with pride as Italian-Americans that so much of democracy and philosophy and so much of what made up modern culture came from our homeland – and that should be a source of continued pride.So, thank you for letting me express some of what I feel and the pride I feel. Thank you for allowing my family to host you. As Chirlane said, this is the casa del popolo, and it’s a place that’s meant for all in every sense – for all New Yorkers – but now that it’s in Italian hands, it’s especially meant for Italians.[Laughter][Applause]And with that I say – this is a beautiful evening to celebrate together. The fact that there is a portable wood-burning pizza oven in our driveway is really a testament to how much Gracie Mansion has changed in the last year –[Laughter]– and we want everyone – everyone – to experience it and to enjoy it. Buona festa a tutti! Grazie![Applause]