good evening. i'm harold holzer director of roosevelt house. and on behalf of president nancy canter, who is it's a pleasure to welcome all of you on zoom in

person and in our c-span audience to the first roosevelt house public program of calendar year 2025. and in another milestone worth noting this evening marks the beginning of the 15th anniversary year of roosevelt house as a public policy institute founded and striving to meet the goals set by eleanor roosevelt herself when she turned this building over to hunter college lodge in the midst of world war two, always, she said at the ceremonies on main campus that day, there was an effort at the home to look on all human with great respect and to have a true understanding of the points of view of others which our objective as we plan,

our public programs and engagement for sacred space in the coming year and all the time. so we turn this evening to the subject latino heritage and influence. we're also reminded that here in the home that eleanor and franklin roosevelt shared for five years, we're reminded that both the president and the first lady visited the island of puerto rico within year of the president's beginning. eleanor, as usual going first as her husband's eyes and ears to report on the economic devastation gripping the island in the midst a depression that we customarily think of as a mainland phenomenon, it was more than a mainland phenomenon. and by the way, fdr, his visit in 1934 was commemorate, aided in puerto rico by a statue showing him in his wheelchair.

only the third statue in the world that offers such a realistic view of the president and certainly worth remembering and acknowledging here in house where he recovered from polio in 1921 and where he learned to use the wheelchair. yes, he had to learn in that armless wheelchair that was created so that he could fit into the elevator that is still here. and you'll see. take a look when you're at the reception, at the tiny elevator that he maneuvered, that armless wheelchair into the style that used for the rest of his life. we are really excited to to have this program at roosevelt house tonight. and let me go right to introducing our discussants we have a an amazing surprise interlocutor as you've seen.

sure. in your printed programs no less than the chancellor of the city university of new york felix matos rodriguez. born and raised in san juan he received a b.a. in latin studies from yale university, his m.a. and ph.d. in history from columbia. but he's and hunter now so he's completed cycle before becoming eighth cuny chancellor. he served on faculty of hunter as professor of black and puerto rican latinos and as director of the center for puerto rican studies. after returning to island to serve as a chief advisor to its governor, he came back to new york as president of hostels community college, and then as president of my alma mater, queens, and is about to mark his

sixth anniversary as chancellor, the first latino to head the university in its 173 year history. so welcome home, fellow. needless say it's a thrill to welcome the man the hour civic leader, community activist, political strategist, government official philanthropy and overall force of nature. luis miranda. i. i have the honor of serving with him on the board of nyc tourism, but that's just a one of many organization that he somehow manages to be at small ously gracing all with his strong presence and wise counsel. the hispanic federation which he founded, the latino victory fund, which he chaired as the

northern manhattan arts alliance, viva broadway, the amber charter school, east harlem. and he's on the board of the public theater as well for louis cuny is a familiar base as well because he is the former chair of the center for latin american, caribbean and latino studies at the graduate center. and in his spare time, he has served in several mayoral administrations and consult on the political campaigns of such luminaries as clinton. chuck schumer, kirsten gillibrand, ferrer, tish and others. all this, and he is also a founding of the consulting firm, the miramar group and subject and hero of a document called siempre luis, which screened at sundance and aired on hbo. he's also the grandparent two

hunter elementary school students is worth noting. somehow, he also found time to write relentless my story of the latino spirit that is transforming. the book. we're here to tonight, nancy pelosi no less, has hailed it as a deeply personal reflection on identity, resilience and the pursuit of justice. part memoir and part call to arms. relentless invites us to experience louie's journey from vega alta, puerto rico to college at nyu and from to his inspiring career and life story and it's great to have the opportunity to explore it here at roosevelt house. so let me briefly tell you how the program will work. our guests will have a conversation of about 40 to 45 minutes, followed by an audience q&a.

for which we will ask you as always, please, to wait for a microphone that our staff will bring around you. and that's for the benefit of our large zoom audience tonight. and for c-span viewers, as. at the conclusion of event, we invite you all to raise a toast to louis at reception upstairs in the four freedoms room where can and you must purchase copy of relentless and of course get it inscribed by its author with that please welcome our guests luis miranda and with chancellor. and felix montessori who. we're trying to figure which one is stage left. well, thank you. great be here with you. luis thank you for that great

introduction. thank you, president kantor, for always having great events here. rolls-royce, housing. thank all of you for joining us for this first talk of 2025. luis antonio miranda junior. i love i dropped the junior a long time ago. that's another story. but that's the way that the roll call would call right back in school in in puerto rico. in fact, when i registered at nyu, i register. i had just arrived as luis antonio miranda concepcion junior and. i got my i.d. it said luis a m si junior yeah. i dropped everything and i have

been luis miranda jr ever since. so the delighted to have you. to have you here. and those are coming from latin american countries in which both of your parental last names are used are very familiar with with that and that issue. let me let me begin with how mention the wonderful things that you've been involved in and all the activities and all the career and everything that you have done so a lot of spare time is, something that you probably don't have. so i wanted sort of see where the urge to write a book came from. garcia marti talk talks about the fact that that books have their own history and they come to us and they tell us they need to be written. this is something that you have been thinking a long time. no, not at all. it was a there i, i guess i

complain a lot during trump. then after biden after reading article or after article or all of this. no. on the latino vote and the latino who were people never heard of. and i have been in this space for a little while at least i know their name, even if haven't read anything that they written. so i constantly complained. ridiculous. look at this and i will send to people. and finally a friend said to okay, why the you then write what you think makes sense to you instead of complaining about who at least are writing about it. and i figure that was just like

sound advice. and i said, well, if get me a publishing house, i'll do it. and went and she got me one. so then i had no more excuses than work with collaborator and do it at the end. the only hiccup was that hachette moved up the publication. and so things had to happen quicker. we had to it in spanish and because i had insisted that both had to be published at the same time. and then they said so we also audio of both spanish and english at the same time. so it was some very bizarre

months to meet the deadline. so it was there. and obviously anybody who knows and knows about your passion about latino politics and all things latino, but you could have gone in 15 different directions in writing that book and you to sort of organize said around an autobiography which which i want to explore a little bit about that choice. but one of the things that i think was is really powerful about the book is for people that know you, your more public engagements, they might not know part of that early history of yours, right? big altar, right. which is not of the thousands of people immediately think for what you think all puerto rico right and they should but they did they should not and i'm now a lot more than a couple of years ago. and you've invested a lot of energy and time also in the

economic development of the town. some of the people might not be as familiar. right. the work that you've done. people used to tell you from being a la. i said no, no, no, that's a bad time about that. and actually isn't isn't the the is at the pueblo or nangle del pueblo in so that that in puerto rican is the town of who are kneeling nearly what do you think of luis immediately when you think about that. right. but and you i mean your family still there and my family is know i, i, i was fortunate to sort of grow up in a small town. it gives you a community that otherwise you don't and lose and i in the village because we were nyu students for a little while and when we said of course every

puerto rican is going back to the island as was it it takes a little while to kill the myth of the return. and so when killed it then we need a place. and we actually looked around i almost moved to new jersey jersey. you have to understand, my wife was raised in new jersey and lived in new jersey when we got together. so we looked at the furthest i could, was inglewood, just on the other side of the of the bridge. and and then we went to washington heights and for me, washington, it's the equivalent of big alta.

it was just full of the many kids rather than puerto ricans. but it was that same sense of community where the lady down the street will see me come from the subway and tell me by the you daughter we're sitting at bench since 1:00. and know she was not in school it's that sense of people telling you how bad you're managing your home. in real time. until languages in to and different accents different spanish accent but but so coming new york right. never in my wildest dream felt

that i will stay in new york. i all way wanted to come to new york. in fact, i talked about in the book. what ended up happening in the way i organized the book is that as i began to talk about latino, it was so twain with my own family. and my family dynamics and so it ended up there was going to be very little autobiographical and mostly own thinking and experience is about politics and the community. but at the end that was so important and so part of everything i did that then organized the book differently and we benefited from that. so let me you mentioned the importance of of your family in

all your story. and i imagine that most of the audience here is familiar, least with another miranda. and in the family right, would you like to give some equal opportunity to the three other miranda. there are not as well known laws, your wife lucy, that daughter abigail. yes, absolutely. and and i try to at the end of the day, if you look my phone, the num number that an worker will call if i fall in the street it's my she always answers the phone that is not so for my wife. she always knows what to do and

she will act very, very quickly. but my wife says all the time she is meaning me so and she managed this, you know, her story when lou and i got married lose heart luisita and she was years old and had set from the beginning that i adopt her which i did several months after we married and luisita it's the one who cut manage the most in the house hold and who works the hardest. the people work, but not as hard as rosita works. she manages.

three kids right now. you last year all this to college and she and i manage the visit to all of the colleges and she and i went to all of the colleges with our grandson are lin manuel you all know and i talk about him he works but not as hard. as much as thought. and he will tell you himself if you read the book and you read the preface, that's how he starts. people think that i am the hardest working miranda, but i'm not, and i'm glad he acknowledges. my wife she works very very hard and through our lives and quite

frankly, until hamilton and the abundance that hamilton brought to our lives are we were a average middle class family we never able to give to anybody more than 500 bucks but we worked in all of the institutions we got involved in and that meant that for luisita and the manuel to go to college. we worked day and night because we had promised, we had seen it in in the lives of so many of our friends that, we wanted to give them our to them, which

free education that when they finished they will not owe a penny and. we had seen so many of our friends will send their kids to school all with an $80,000 debt when they finished. so luzon and i taught as adjunct in cuny every single night our lives to be able to pay tuition out cuny thank you. cuny okay. and i taught statistics, which is the only thing that i learn in graduate school. i went to a clinical psych program, but i hated patients. it was not good mix. i hated that. they told me the problems we got that we got, we got that we all you know, when you work.

yes. and luce taught psychology, so we worked hard and lose worked very, very hard and continues to work very hard. but now she also has some fun. miguel nephew by family ties. but i adopted him when. he was born and became his legal guardian early on. he's now 24. he got the best of the family. we didn't. the financial hardships that we had, you ask, lin-manuel and lin-manuel, will you a story where see that drop two classes which meant that she was going to spend an extra semester in

college. and when she told us, luis cried because it was a nother semester of having to teach everything. single night in order to be able to pay college really, and have any of that. we were able to pace, get more any difficulties and now he's at that of his life where he's to figure out like every kid with a liberal art education what do you do next. and that's sort of the stage that well, thank you for filling us in on the on the on the on the other miranda's. one of the things you talked your journey and you talked about and while you and you get married, you sort of established your roots here in in in new york. and it's interesting because you go through many other

organizations that either you work for or you work connected with. i they really provide like the skeleton or the of that latino community initially more puerto rican but then you know by latino from the seventies on. right and the organizations that were launching pad for many electrofishing tools for many campaigns are for many who are not elected but were in public service. right. and i found that to be a really great story about how you managed to be in a speed up, you know, later the hispanic federation, the community service society, the different agencies that were kid that were key to the latino community working with mayor in in hispanic affairs.

right and and out of that story ride comes your of many your stories but the story of the involvement in the campaign to have potentially the first puerto rican and the first latino mayor for gay ferrera for cuny trustee. can you talk about what i like about that infrastructure and how is that different today and how you think that that might have impact? i mean, you're in a way, you were there to write about latino politics, about the state of latino politics here, new york. yeah, i, i have learned in in working with african american community that churches were their beginning but i remember to my church not anymore were spanish mass was in the basement or in the catholic school gymnasium so the catholic church

was our church. it was not when i when i came new york and clearly that the the priests were not latino either. i you. no, no, no. they they all at least leasing. good shepherd up in washington heights. they spoke spanish and weren't great people. it was just the institution and and the way the institution was set up. so for me. the easiest way to organize, guys, was through the nonprofits sector. i had seen it in a speeder and how it was so instrumental in my own development as a place where i with others who thought like me who were like me and so

developing those institutions was important. and many of our leaders came from those institutions were nurtured in those institutions. that's when when hurricane maria devastated puerto rico in 2007, i had a apprehension about going and work with government in puerto rico. i know you worked in took power you but i like and then every time we heard of some major who kept water in his basement for a while. grillo got i'm glad we didn't do that. we went to a nonprofit that was underdeveloped but there and so job in the last eight years it's how do you further develop that

nonprofit sector as a way to provide services to develop people to make sure you launch their careers of of many the hispanic federation for me was a real challenge and it was united way decided that they were organized in the nonprofit sectors in seven sectors the food groups and the religious groups, the blacks, the asian the latinos, the kappa and the protestant, and create a federal asian organizing agency for each of them. and so hispanic federation and asian american federation were created at the same time. and i was given an eight page

concept paper. i'm like i'm not doing this. and. $300,000 go and develop a hispanic. so at the beginning it was how do you begin to bring together groups don't necessarily trust other yet i remember when went and i met with carmen arroyo who ended up legendary electrofishing off of the south bronx and proud graduate of was and you know puerto rican leader open organization at that point and i said can ming i want you to join the federation so i'll do that. your little garnaut, they are. goldman you know what?

yes, i'm listen, carmen. so was this educate nation process. if i go to the mayor with puerto rican ness. we're 750,000. if i the many kids were million when i speak for more europe increase this in the eye of the person talking to and just need to make sure that we act that way and what was even more is that i i'm a firm believer that for the kids to develop power, they have to elect their own people. they have to you cannot just elect puerto ricans. and we with that that the latino is moving forward.

so you need to then begin to develop real power in other communities because the some of the parts is then going to be much bigger than each of the parts. so it was now take it for granted. but i always had this image me going with seven mirrors to every to sort of look bigger and and and more powerful. i know they were mirrors i never at least i never lied to myself i make fun of my of me all time but it was up. and then the second thing that i did it's to figure out my exit from the very beginning i said if this is going to succeed, it has to outlive me. and lorraine cortez vasquez,

your trustee, was the second president of the of the hispanic federation. and someone who is i remember telling you'll be the third president, because by then you'll be developed enough and sowing grain in. our power as a community that people will want you to be the president. so, so me. let me make a jump. you were talking about the power and the growth. this community and the aggregate of people coming together. so tell that story amazingly in the book and but 2025, there's no latino citywide elected statewide there's i'm getting there i'm getting there slowly right. i stop because i want people to

move forward quickly and so so so what was what's the explanation that i don't know. and i think i'm becoming. no, no, no no, no more, no more. there's. i believe that this is a very different cold city. i now have involved in many, many throughout country now, last night i was with senator gallegos from arizona. and how difficult it was in state where there are third of the population are. and it takes a that's why elected freddy was so important. eight takes an entire generation

to develop a group of leaders and there are times comes and goes by it is then the job of the generation to do that. so i hope that this new generation we have i remember when we met at the hispanic federation we had 12 chairs at the hispanic table and all the elected officials sit there. now, many, many more. but the community and, the bigger community have figure out with input of this people who make it to the next level. okay, we have many, many more to pick from. so one of the things that struck me in the moving away from

politics a little bit, but is you dedicated an entire chapter to hurricane maria and and the work after that and you could have picked probably a number of other chapters to mark both your personal story and story of the evolution of the latino that you were trying to do to tell in the book why you, maria, was such a marker that i just came from puerto rico and on december. 31st no one on the island had power if that were to happen in state, there would be congressional hearings today.

but in puerto rico no one gives a --. really, i wish i put it in stronger. i don't know what c-span does with that that, but i was there and not only no one from the outside world gives a --. but people are so used to the mistreat that two things happen. one lots of ladies just connected to the electrical pole the middle of the town and did her hair because they're not going to not to a party because there is no power and people may do i remember my sister telling

that she had become an expert cook in the drill where you make populacao and things like that. that's where she cook. that's where she made coffee. so puerto rico for me, you know, it's it's it's home. on the one hand. but i knew that with trump in the white house, nothing would happen. so mobile. i seen with our. that we all had and for me what was even more illuminating was that for my kids our home was at standstill for six months. lin-manuel wrote not any songs

to participate in any thing that was happening any sort life my daughter. dedicated six months and her family everyone just cans and traded on what can we do for well to record so it was our call to duty it's what we needed to do so being there for power to go out the entire island seven years later it's a bit this because you like it naturally didn't. maria, i don't even know how to say that in english. is that you you swim and, you swim and you swim, but you die when you get to the shore. are and and change will not come

to puerto rico i believe until the status gets resolved because very little well it's happening all other than a bit of spinning wheels. but for rose it's what we need it to do first with the needs that have when hurricane hits you and then for the arts for lee manuel, who always very important how do we help the arts. i said, well, honey, first people have to have water. yeah. and and food. and then sing to them. but all of that needs to happen. and that's why immediately we organize take in hamilton are to puerto rico and everything that

we raised then was for the arts and and thank for that leadership too because one of the things that helped after maria is a recognition by a lot foundations for example here that before where not they didn't have puerto rico in radar at all and a result of maria they got lot more involved. you know mellon foundation in the arts have a real game changer. for example in doing some work there. so kudos that for that leadership. let me me you been talking about your life in washington heights and then you talked about call puerto rico home and so you've lived a life that many migrants here in new york city and other places have, which is know one leg in new york and one leg back in your country of let it be puerto rico, the dominican republic or how do you navigate

that? is it is it is it does it get lonely at times? you feel that that that neither side embraces you. is it natural you and when when did you in doing that decided that that that you were a new yorker. but first we have a housing puerto rico and i had been talking we got there the 27th on the 27th and then the 28th. and then i looked at the temperature in york and then the 29th and the 30th when he beat nice to live here. then there was the blackout. and then i to lose. this is why we live here. so it i killed the of the return probably in thirties. then it was clear that we were

going to spend our life here and my circumstance chances were also different lose came here when she was two years old. so for her this is home. puerto rico is the place where her parents were born and and raised. oh, i lose. but for a long time i obsessed because i'm obsessed with death, about a place where we will be rest in puerto and in my town and all of that. and he was probably 15 years ago that we set you know what i got to puerto rico to die it's a family it's here our

grandchildren and not here their life it's are going to be here. if we're there, we'll be forgotten. yeah. no one is going to be put any on art where. are we lonely, bay alba are and in fact in this trip i went to visit my went to a cemetery for my mother father as i always do and i'm like, cono it's dirty. i tell my you here, you have to clean thing. so that's what i thought. and then we started looking at where we'll all be buried and i could be very more because then i went to everyone in the family say, do you mind being cremated. because we have to fit in small place to do it. well the rico you could pull the kind that i want you the

centigrade but here not you mind being cremated and people aren't like stories i want. why are you talking about that sick? because we all have to in a place that it's 20 by 20 all the losers have to be there. so it was for me. that's symbolic of realizing this is home and this is home for future generations of my family and it never stopped me from working hard because where you live it's where you're making home. but now the other day they they us the living landmark award you you were there harold and and

i'm like, wow a living landmark in new york. i loved the state building and now i'm like an empire state building. but in the flash so i am very clear that this is home but i could hard in puerto rico and will to do that in developing a power base in the island not interested in but interested in alternative ways to create power for the people. so thank for that because that allows me to ask something what are the most on useful sections in the book? you're reading an autobiography. seldom do you have the go into

extensive detail about the plans for their funeral right. and there's an entire chapter. well, there's an entire section about the funeral. right. so i a i mean, now i get a little bit of a sense of where that's coming from, right. with the with this creepy side of the conversation. but but i mean, a wanted to sort of ask you why the obsession with the funeral and then be really what the hell are you going to do if they don't your instructions. oh i don't know but i something will. listen i a heart attack in 2017 2017 with a difficult year. it was hurricane maria i.

turn 62 and my that had a heart attack at 62. my grandfather had a heart attack 62. so when i turned 62, i to the doctor and say check out me because this clock it's ticking i was actually luck. you're going yeah you're my life after 20 i was seen i was in london because the manual filming mary poppins and lo called me and said you got the letter back from the doctor the most trump ish letter you could think about your heart, the best heart in the world. nothing to worry about. no one in america has a better than yours. and a month later, i had a heart attack.

it was a pause. negative. the first false negative they have had with that no thing where they could do a 3360 of your heart and in my family no body things better than me. yeah that's why if we go on a trip, i pack for everyone everyone because i have in my head why do all the activities that we're doing, what the things that you should wear and loose is fine with that, right it's let's work for you, we'll give you equal time at the end. so i figure i am not going to burn my family with the details of a very elaborate funeral.

so if write it down, somebody will follow some of it and at least the end will be, as i imagine it. so then you have to get the book so you can get the playlist, the list of the people who are going to be invited assuming they're still around. right? i mean, yes yeah, yeah. no, no. i guess you know, lots of people show to funerals. there's some people i don't like. i don't my thing that they're going to pay respects to my family yeah, that's cool. but they come that will be fine to and i want to make sure that there is a mom and were my family is with those people who

have in this journey through life just for a second just for a little while then you anybody come here you so carter at trump carter's funeral, i wanted to puke. the guy had spoken horrible things about wonderful man. and he's there. i don't want that. well, we'll try to live it. so before we go to q&a, i have one more mandatory question that i need to pose to you. cuny seems to be around your life a lot. you go to ask peter. and one of the first things that you working as peter is admissions. you taught for many, many years as a as an adjunct. you went to the hunter.

your grandchildren also. and then i found out the book, i didn't know this. your first wife finished a degree at because she followed you. yes. yes. right. so cuny has been surrounding you and is an important institution also in the history of the growth of this latino. and the puerto rican one in new york. so can you say what cuny has meant to you? it's telling you without cuny would have been difficult to pay for. lin-manuel, i lose a seat. thus education. because even though you don't pay a lot through agents or i don't know now, but certainly then, that's certainly not that the vote was yours right in five by the union today. right? so you heard it here first salton sea you you pay a lot to your agents. not then it is an important

point, nancy. tuition like right now, we're much more involved in the elementary and high school gives our grandchildren are there are so when i see that you're play area knits we all get involved in that are and and but cuny. i remember when i when start my first assignment at a speeder was open admissions and i it was like my education to new york you telling that it was open until we got to the door and then when we get to the door then it's closed and those are real questions that i asking this kid from puerto rico that

they tell me just and find out because they were preparing the briefs and all of the legal battles around open. but they will not be the development that we have had in the latino community in new york without cuny. it's just as simple as that. so same way to q&a. please keep questions brief, right? and then also make sure that get a microphone so we have their in the back. thank you. i went for the. thank you. i'm michelle. all so after reading your book i thought certainly relentless was a wonderful title but i renamed

it superhero so i ask so i ask you i did for freddy breyer during that primary how do you build coalition it's in new york especially if people like me are freddy it's a special case of what i it's the best african-american latino coalition that we have built, the african american had an african american can be late in the race and freddy, 70% of the african vote and in new we vote very tribal and that the in happen in that election and any

partly the in happen because freddy had a real coalition of black and latinos in the bronx so the rest of course can take a candidate who had worked well within african-american community and go to other borrows particularly brooklyn where there is such a large african-american community in fact it was that teaching what allow me to run tish james campaign later on as an african-american candidate for for a.g. but there is no doubt that without that coalition we can not elect a latino and it's i wish was different but white elected trump let's be real 15%

of african-american voted for trump. 30% of latinos voted for trump, 65% of white people throughout this country voted for trump. that's when i hear. but you guys voted for trump. yeah, three out of every ten said one out of every ten of you voted for him. so we need unfortunately, because we should be able to elect whomever want. but in new york it has to be a black and coalition to elect latino mayor. and i'll finish with this i talk about it in the book. i'm big in numbers. as i said, the only i learned in clinical psychology with statistics as weird as sound, everything else was mumbo jumbo.

sorry, honey, i know. you learned a lot. went to school together. she really learned a lot. i didn't finished. she did. but we know that election that we. 60% of the african american vote in the freddie election, 75% of the latino vote and 20% of the white vote. we got 18% of the white vote. and we lost by 20,000 votes. other there in the back. guess is what is your opinion on statehood for puerto rico. i know that some of the earlier

referendums in the last decade rejected and more recent ones seem to favor it. do you feel that would be more advantages? disadvantage disadvantages to the change of status? and what is your opinion? it i'm glad you're asking me that question as i'm 70 i guess four years i avoid that question. i believe that status it's the core of everything that happens in puerto rico. i wish denmark will switch greenland for puerto rico and we can a denmark territory is built leave me. it will be better than what we have now. but they're not going to do that. puerto ricans have to decide what is it that they they want

to do? i think the commonwealth as a status served its purpose in the economic development puerto rico, but we either become a and it will be a different kind of republic that the kind of republic that i learned when i was growing up in puerto rico or a state i we are a country and we need to become a republic. i am thankful that congress will never give statehood to puerto rico. they will think that. have seven democrats in. two democrat. but the governor of puerto rico. it's a republic in and was head of latinos for trump so that

notion is as real as it was probably a decade ago. but i that we have to restore of the status one way or another because we can not move forward until that that stops everything. i remember and i'll stop here because i could go on forever and ever and ever we needed a piece of equipment that was in ship park in the bay but outside in internal waters and we had to go on the trump to get an okay for the jones act not to be apply to be able to get that piece that was miles away so

that we didn't have to import it so that's how perverse invasive the issue of star was is for puerto rico. let me every book every book, the editor says you don't have so many pages so there must have been a number of juicy stories that. didn't make it into the book. this audience here has hunter good money to be here listening to you to they deserve at least something good that they didn't make into the book that you share with them. are we're on c-span. we're safe. i have learned that nothing is off the record i've been around too long to know that nothing.

it's off the record. there were many stories that actually they make into into the book. one in particular i won't give names because the people are all alive when. my son read the book. lin-manuel gave me a pages single space of notes, all very good notes. i accept it so, rejected others, but big note was that you can not call 43 people ask calls because he has no meaning. if there's so many in your life, how you differentiate one from the other.

and i think i only left three because i realized that's a great note. and then i had to rank people are. but for freddie's campaign, when we were so close to winning, i got a call from a reporter a very well known reporter that time who to me can and will you set up a meeting with freddie ferrara and me this man about to be mayor. and i don't know who he is. i've never met with him. i've never had a conversation with him. this is who had been board president for two decades as and

in my idea of the meeting, in fact, i said you should be ashamed of yourself that you're asking me in a city like new york, with puerto ricans being 20% of the population, with this dude been deputy mayor for having been the borough president for so long that you have never met with him, shows me you're disdain for my community. he said, no, that's not. i meant, i said, but that's what you did, people. me mean lots of things that they don't mean that they make it into book because i would have to put names and all of that and. hachette didn't want it, so before harrell pulled the plug, let i want to end on a high here not on how many people were right so lin-manuel has a

beautiful line in in in the preface the book and he says in pursuit of his dream luis model for me how to fall in love with my work and chase dreams of my own as you hit what dreams? how we are left one dreams for me. i want to continue to tell and i want to get maureen to document stories and meeting people who want to tell stories because our stories are just not told and. finally, in my life, i have the resources to help people tell our stories so. on that great note, assuming that c-span does not counsel you, you're invited to tell those stories here at hunter why don't we make a big round of applause for louie thank you.

thank you for being here. so