Well, I'm here to say gracias, first of all. Thank you so much for this recognition. I think it's the recognition of myself, the recognition of the staff that have believed in the mission of Al Dia that have been simple over the past 20 years.

For those who don't know much

about Al Dia, you know, know just the

paper that you see in the streets and the

car that drive around in the City, this

was yet another idea born in the

neighborhood 20 years ago. This, for

those who don't know, was a one-man

operation, homemade business 20 years

ago, putting out of our home, which used to be my home in North Philadelphia, a newsletter that evolved to be, through many efforts, the publication that you know today.

So I'd like to recognize the people that are here standing with me who are part of our staff or part of the staff that put together that book, which was a true labor of love, where we attempted to put together in the covers of -- hard cover of a book like this the work that we did for 20 years. But beyond that, to record the history of the Latino community that have been part of the City of Philadelphia for the past 200 years. We found the photo albums of the

family that lived here before even any

Hispanic media existed in the '40s and

the '50s and the '60s and the '70s.

There's no Hispanic media. Now we have

media that is beginning to tell that

story that is largely in the shadows.

We have to -- I want to thank

Councilwoman Maria Sanchez for buying the book for each one of you. I encourage you to take a look at that and find the very beginning of this experience, started the very birth of the republic in 1780 when we had the first Latino who came to Philadelphia and was part of the life in the City for a couple of years. And we have other name that you will find in the book who attempted to put together basically the reality that have been in the shadows in this city. Now it turns out we have a media, and the work is largely undone, Maria. I think we have just begun to show, and this book is simply a modest punctuation to enlightenment on Latino issues. Where

these people that continue to be in a big

question mark in the City and in the

country and our immigration reform is

been discussed, I think it's for all of

us to have a better understanding of what

the Latino experience has been.

I'm personally grateful for the

recognition, and to us it's a challenge to continue in the work that we need to do.

I just want to say thank you so much for the support we have received so far. And keep in mind that we are a media that was born in the neighborhood as a disadvantaged business. We are not corporate-owned media. We're media that was born in the neighborhood. It's a truly grassroots media that attempts to say what their distinct goal is what the Latino experience is in the City and what are the Latino perspective on the issues of the City.

So thank you so much. And to Maria, thank you, Council President

Darrell Clarke and all you members of

City Council. And, of course, I would

like to highlight the people that went

through the big challenge of putting that

work together. I have here with me David

Cruz, who is the photographs of Al Dia

for the past ten years.