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Speaker 1: I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to give them my fear. I'm like, if you

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Speaker 1: want to come, come because this is like this monster

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Speaker 1: that feeds on our terror, and what they represent are

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Speaker 1: people who eat fear. They sustain themselves on anxiety, and

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to give them that.

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Speaker 2: From Futuro Media and RX, It's Latino USA. I'm Mariao Posa.

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Speaker 2: Today a conversation with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez aka aoc SO.

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Speaker 2: Dear listener, We're just a few days into President Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump's second term, and well, it's been pretty intense tonight.

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Speaker 2: President Trump's cracked down on illegal immigration is expanding not

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Speaker 2: just ice officers, but other federal law enforcement agencies, sweeping

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Speaker 2: across the country.

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Speaker 3: We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf

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Speaker 3: of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

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Speaker 4: President Trump has signed several executive orders to reshape the military,

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Speaker 4: including directive banning transgender service members.

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Speaker 2: So on today's show, we're going to speak with someone

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Speaker 2: who's been sounding off against Republican Donald Trump for years,

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Speaker 2: but someone who's also criticized her own party, the Democrats,

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Speaker 2: and that's Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Grtez, who represents parts of

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Speaker 2: Queens and also parts of the Bronx in New York City.

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Speaker 5: Are you good?

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Speaker 1: God? I mean considering right.

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Speaker 2: We hadn't seen each other since twenty twenty one, that

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Speaker 2: was shortly after the January sixth attack on the Capitol.

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Speaker 2: This time we sat down in a small studio in Astoria, Queens,

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Speaker 2: and we got to get to talk about what went

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Speaker 2: wrong for the Democrats in the twenty twenty four election,

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Speaker 2: also what Trump's return to the White House means for everybody.

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Speaker 2: And at the same time we talked about the beauty

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Speaker 2: and value that immigrants bring to the United States. But

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Speaker 2: we started our conversation with something that was breaking in

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Speaker 2: the news earlier that same morning. It was a video

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Speaker 2: posted to social media of the new Department of Homeland

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Speaker 2: Security Secretary Christy Nome in New York City. The video

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Speaker 2: shows Immigration and Customs enforcement taking a man into custody.

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Speaker 2: It was an arrest that, according to DHS, was part

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Speaker 2: of a wider ice operation in the city. So your

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Speaker 2: response to it's happening here in a so called sanctuary city.

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Speaker 1: This administration is much more prepared and planned this time around,

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Speaker 1: in terms of the kinds of chaos that they're trying

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Speaker 1: to unleash. More than legal programs, more than policy, They

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Speaker 1: are trying to invoke fear. This is for show, and

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Speaker 1: so they bring in a bunch of agents. They bring

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Speaker 1: in this whole army of people for television, all of

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Speaker 1: this imagery, in order to invoke fear.

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Speaker 5: The fear is real.

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Speaker 1: That is how authoritarianism works. These are the tools to

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Speaker 1: get us to sacrifice and surrender our civil liberties more

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Speaker 1: than they take them.

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Speaker 5: So you remember the last time we spoke in the Bronx.

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Speaker 2: We had a great conversation, but I remember that I

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Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, AOC, she's dealing with stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: And what happened was that it was months after January sixth. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so tell us where you are right now, considering that

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump has now pardoned. Yeah, the people who were

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Speaker 2: coming after you, and.

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Speaker 5: That day changed me.

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Speaker 1: It just there was a before that day and there

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Speaker 1: wasn't after that day. And I had a moment where

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Speaker 1: I very concretely believed that I was going to die.

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Speaker 1: I was locked in a bathroom. There was banging on

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Speaker 1: the door, and I didn't know who's on the other side,

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Speaker 1: I feel like my mind took whole inventory of my

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Speaker 1: life and was like almost making peace with the fact

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Speaker 1: that this was about to happen. I felt like afterwards

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Speaker 1: I had a lot of things that I needed to

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Speaker 1: reflect on, and in some ways it was like kind

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Speaker 1: of a gift, but in other ways it was very

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Speaker 1: challenging and very very difficult. But I think now, like

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Speaker 1: I need.

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Speaker 5: To interrupt you.

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Speaker 2: When you say this was a bit of a gift,

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Speaker 2: you're saying that kind of having to experience that confrontation

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Speaker 2: with life death, but also so looking at the trauma

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Speaker 2: that you then had to face and grow from.

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Speaker 5: So help us to understand that.

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Speaker 1: So, my dad died at a very young age when

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Speaker 1: I was when I was eighteen, and right after he

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Speaker 1: passed away, of course you feel like the devastation of

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Speaker 1: a loss, but I also felt an immense amount of

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Speaker 1: gratitude because I got to know him, Like I got

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Speaker 1: to be raised by this person. And so in times

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Speaker 1: of tragedy and travesty and devastation, there's also these gifts

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Speaker 1: of clarity. When I was like kind of locked in

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Speaker 1: that bathroom and I thought that it was over at

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Speaker 1: that point, and I was raised in a religious context.

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Speaker 1: I'm a spiritual person, and I felt like, you know what,

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Speaker 1: if I'm going to be taken in this moment, then

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Speaker 1: it means that that is what is supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: And I say that because now, yeah, like Trump pardoned

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Speaker 1: virtually all the January sixth insurrectionists, including specifically people who

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Speaker 1: were arrested with specific threats against my life, and I

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Speaker 1: kind of feel like I don't want to give them

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Speaker 1: my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear,

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Speaker 1: and I feel more like squaring up than anything else.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, if you want to come, come, because this

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Speaker 1: is like this monster that feeds on our terror, and

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Speaker 1: what they represent are people who eat fear. They sustain

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Speaker 1: themselves on anxiety, and I'm not going to give them that.

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Speaker 1: These people need cynicism, they need apathy, they need chaos,

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Speaker 1: they need anxiety, and the more we give them that,

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Speaker 1: the bigger they get. This is like, it's funny. When

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Speaker 1: I was running in twenty eighteen, I often talked about

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Speaker 1: like people were saying, why should you vote for Why

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Speaker 1: should we vote for a waitress instead of this twenty

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Speaker 1: year incumbent. Understandably right, I didn't have experience. They did

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Speaker 1: what have you? And I often talked about the story

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Speaker 1: of the Wizard of Oz, and this was my mom's

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Speaker 1: favorite movie. And I know it's like in the zeitgeist

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Speaker 1: now because it gets out, but genuinely, this has been

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Speaker 1: like a story that has defined my famili's life. It

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Speaker 1: was just like this piece of Americana that was so

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Speaker 1: important and all of these big scary things. It reminds

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Speaker 1: me of like at the end of The Wizard of

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Speaker 1: Oz where you yank back the curtain and it's a

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Speaker 1: little guy and it's a small, scared, incompetent little man,

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Speaker 1: and I think we just need to remain focused. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they are capable of immense amounts of damage. It can

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Speaker 1: be scary. It's not something we ignore. It's not something

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Speaker 1: we check out from, but we register it. We say okay,

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Speaker 1: and then we figure out what our options are and

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Speaker 1: we do the best we can day by day.

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Speaker 2: So the sixty five million billion dollar question would be,

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Speaker 2: and you know what I'm about to ask, which is

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Speaker 2: I don't Yeah. After the election of Biden, then strong

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Speaker 2: midterm elections, and then this, so what happened.

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Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of focus back and forth on

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Speaker 1: the presidential But I think what has not sunk in

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Speaker 1: and what there has not been as much discussion about,

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Speaker 1: is that it's not just that we lost the presidential election.

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Speaker 1: We lost the Senate and we lost the House, which

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Speaker 1: means that at the very least, if Democrats were able

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Speaker 1: to win the House, we could stop bad things from happening.

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Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean that we can always make good

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Speaker 1: things happen, but it does mean we can stop bad

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Speaker 1: things from happening. Now in terms of the election, there

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Speaker 1: are so many different factors. I think it is just

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Speaker 1: a fundamentally unfair position to be put into having to

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Speaker 1: run a presidential campaign in ninety days. And I think

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Speaker 1: that Vice President Harris she works so hard. Shortly after

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Speaker 1: Trump lost in twenty twenty, he started his presidential campaign

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Speaker 1: all over again, so he has three four years of

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Speaker 1: NonStop campaigning. But I think structurally, overall, the Democratic Party

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Speaker 1: has this confused message. We're supposed to be a party

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Speaker 1: of the working class, and I think working class people

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Speaker 1: have not been seeing government work for them, despite a

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Speaker 1: lot of the things that the Biden administration did do.

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Speaker 1: Biden Easley is probably one of the most pro labor

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Speaker 1: presidents that we have seen in modern history, first president

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Speaker 1: in American history to walk a picket line with the UAW.

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Speaker 1: But then you have GAZA, which I think really tore

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Speaker 1: up a lot of the mobilizing base in the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 1: It's not about like did it lose us voters? I

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Speaker 1: think it really lost us more baalizers.

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Speaker 2: And you know, for you personally, I remember seeing that

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Speaker 2: video of you being confronted with protesters raising the issue

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Speaker 2: of GASA, talking about the word genocide, criticizing you, and

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Speaker 2: you getting visibly upset.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you can call it a genocide if you're.

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Speaker 3: Not playing there's a genocide happening, you're not actively against it,

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Speaker 3: you're lying.

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Speaker 1: And I think there's been a lot of misinformation at play.

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Speaker 1: I think, to me, that's sometimes where my frustration has

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Speaker 1: come from. That's sometimes where my heartbreak has come from.

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Speaker 1: Because I have no problem with, of course activism, but

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Speaker 1: to me, if you're going to take the enormous steps

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Speaker 1: of confronting a public figure, then you can probably be

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Speaker 1: bothered to do a basic Google search, And the amount

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Speaker 1: of misinformation that has exploded because people are chasing retweets

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Speaker 1: of a lie has been really painful. We are on

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Speaker 1: the platforms of billionaires, and these billionaires modify these algorithms

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Speaker 1: and they wield them politically. It was really hard watching

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Speaker 1: people and communities that I am aligned with fall for

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Speaker 1: right wing misinformation.

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Speaker 5: So you feel like you were a victim.

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Speaker 2: You were being set up with a lot of misinformation

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Speaker 2: as opposed to I should have been clearer, I should

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Speaker 2: have said something differently, done something differently.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like, if we want to talk

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Speaker 1: about individual decisions or moments, that's one thing. But the

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Speaker 1: idea that I was somehow late to this, I think

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Speaker 1: is a complete falsehood and lie. I was a original

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Speaker 1: co sponsor to the ceasefire resolution, basically as soon as

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Speaker 1: Congress was back in session after October seventh, I was

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Speaker 1: one of the first members of Congress period to designate

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Speaker 1: what was happening in Gaza a genocide in a speech

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Speaker 1: on the House floor directed towards President Biden.

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Speaker 6: If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like,

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Speaker 6: open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of

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Speaker 6: one point one million innocents.

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Speaker 1: It looks like.

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Speaker 6: Good and decent people who do nothing or too little,

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Speaker 6: too late.

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Speaker 1: It was almost like not amplified at all. At the time,

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Speaker 1: which is fine, but I don't control that right. I

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Speaker 1: was up there in early spring. And for me, if

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Speaker 1: we want to talk about you know why, I don't

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Speaker 1: call it a genocide on day one. To me, that

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Speaker 1: term is significant, It is important. It is something that

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Speaker 1: must stand up to scrutiny at the International Criminal Court.

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Speaker 1: It is something that is definitional. This is something that

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Speaker 1: Palestinians not only are facing now, but this is also

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Speaker 1: of course something that communities and peoples around the world

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Speaker 1: have encountered. This is not something that we just say

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Speaker 1: because of a bunch of comments on social media. This

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Speaker 1: is something that we say because we are bearing witness

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Speaker 1: to something that is transpiring before us, and that we

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Speaker 1: have to make the In my context, in a legislative

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Speaker 1: and legal context, I have to feel prepared to make

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Speaker 1: the case. And by the way, it wasn't like a

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Speaker 1: light switch went off. We immediately called for a ceasefire.

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Speaker 1: I called it a human rights atrocity. And also, people

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Speaker 1: are very angry at me because I call out anti

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Speaker 1: Semitism where I see it, and I do think there's

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Speaker 1: a distinct line and no condemnation of what the Israeli

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Speaker 1: government is doing. It does not equate to antisemitism. Anti

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Speaker 1: Zionism does not equate to anti Semitism. But anti Semitism

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Speaker 1: is on the rise, and I'm not going to sit

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Speaker 1: here and pretend that I don't see it if I

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Speaker 1: see it, and so you know, that may put me

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Speaker 1: in a certain complicated space for people, but it does

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Speaker 1: not put me in a complicated space with myself, and that,

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Speaker 1: to me is the most important thing.

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Speaker 2: When we come back, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tells us

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Speaker 2: what the Democrats need to do to win back voters

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Speaker 2: and how she's trying to counter the Republican narrative around immigration.

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Speaker 2: Stay with us, yes, and we're back, and we're going

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Speaker 2: to jump right back into my conversation with Congresswoman Alexandria

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Speaker 2: Casio Cortez aka AOC. So what happens now the external critiques,

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Speaker 2: your critiques of the Democratic Party, the frustration with so

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Speaker 2: many young people with the party. Right there are two

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Speaker 2: years until the midterms. What can you do in these

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Speaker 2: two years? And also understanding the way you say it,

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Speaker 2: which is I was in fact targeted for missing disinformation,

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Speaker 2: how do you change all of that so that the

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Speaker 2: Democrats have a chance we need something.

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Speaker 1: I mean, and I want to be clear, like I'm

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Speaker 1: I don't feel like this is like a victim frame

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Speaker 1: when it comes to misinformation. I just think this is

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Speaker 1: the environment that we live in now. I mean, even

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Speaker 1: right now, in this present moment, there's so much fear

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Speaker 1: that people think that any police officer walking down the

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Speaker 1: street could be indicative of an ice rate. We have

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Speaker 1: so many people calling in ice raids, but there's only

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Speaker 1: a couple of them that are actually ice rays, and

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Speaker 1: so we have to every time someone calls something in,

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Speaker 1: we have to send a person out there, and it

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Speaker 1: can be a drain on resources. And so anyways, I

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Speaker 1: say all of this because the misinformation environment is just everywhere,

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Speaker 1: and the more a space thinks that they are immune

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Speaker 1: to misinformation, the more susceptible and vulnerable they are to it.

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Speaker 1: To be frank, because what we actually need are people

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Speaker 1: who are just willing to just take a beat the

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Speaker 1: moment you see something that is evoking an emotion, anger, fear, whatever,

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Speaker 1: just take one beat to Google it verified. And it's

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Speaker 1: really important to do because people will often amplify it

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Speaker 1: out of good intention, right, but it needs to be verified.

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Speaker 1: And if you're a person that's reporting it, take a picture,

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Speaker 1: make sure it says ice on their back, Identify the time,

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Speaker 1: the location. That information should be there, and it should

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Speaker 1: be there if you amplify it too. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of families and parents in our neighborhoods that are

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Speaker 1: legally transitioning guardianship over their children to someone else, and

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Speaker 1: they're preparing to leave their children here and to return

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Speaker 1: to their home countries so that they can start the.

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Speaker 5: Clock on their return.

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Speaker 1: On their return. Because for people who may not know,

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Speaker 1: if you're here undocumented and you want a chance that

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Speaker 1: coming here you can that way, first of all, you

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Speaker 1: cannot be deported, and second of all, you kind of

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Speaker 1: have to wait out a penalty period of about ten years.

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Speaker 1: And so if their child is eight years old, they're

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Speaker 1: making the heartbreaking decision to leave their kids here so

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Speaker 1: that in ten years, when their child is eighteen, their

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Speaker 1: child can maybe try to get their parent and reunify

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Speaker 1: with them. And these are people who pay taxes, who

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Speaker 1: are upstanding citizens, what have you. But anyway, so what

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Speaker 1: do we do in the next two years? I feel

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Speaker 1: like I have a famously tenuous relationship with the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, so when people say she's too close to

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Speaker 2: the party, You're like.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, h receipt please. I have a weird relationship

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Speaker 1: with the Democratic Party. I am a dissenter. I don't

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Speaker 1: believe in a two party system. But I also understand

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Speaker 1: that the Democrat Party is a coalition and if we

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Speaker 1: want the party to change, the balance of the coalition

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Speaker 1: has to change. But right now, if you open the

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Speaker 1: hood on the Democratic Party, what you have, I think

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Speaker 1: is a bit of a power struggle over the last

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Speaker 1: couple of years, and also a transformation how the party

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Speaker 1: views itself. I think if you asked five years ago

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Speaker 1: what the biggest fissures in the party are, I think

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Speaker 1: people would say progressive versus moderate, like this neoliberal camp

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Speaker 1: and the Democratic Party that is very friendly with corporations

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Speaker 1: and business and always pushing to the center. Others would

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Speaker 1: say pushing to the right. And then there is like

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Speaker 1: this progressive camp, and even that progressive camp, like some

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Speaker 1: of it is focused on working class politics, others of

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Speaker 1: it are focused on more identity and identitarian politics as well.

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Speaker 1: But I think that's changed now and I think there

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Speaker 1: is a generational confrontation happening within the Democratic Party. I

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Speaker 1: think there's a lot of people that want to say

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Speaker 1: we're a new party now or no. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: more newly elected Democrats that are out there, but they

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Speaker 1: are not by and large the decision makers in the

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Speaker 1: Democratic Party. But a lot of those decision makers are

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Speaker 1: still not just the same people but from the same

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Speaker 1: school of thought. And so you can have new figures

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Speaker 1: that still either ascribe themselves or have to appeal to

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Speaker 1: people that still have to have this kind of understanding

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Speaker 1: of politics. That is, I would argue ten twenty years regressed,

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Speaker 1: the electoral coalition that Democrats went for and have been

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Speaker 1: going for have largely been affluent vote and affluent white voters.

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Speaker 1: And I think, especially when we talk about Latinos too.

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Speaker 1: I will tell you, in our community, the anger was

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Speaker 1: less about like, oh, we need to deport immigrants. The

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Speaker 1: anger was actually how the Trump administration and the campaign

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Speaker 1: was actually very surgical and very sophisticated about drawing a

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Speaker 1: wedge between undocumented people and recent arrivals and asylum seekers.

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Speaker 1: That resentment exists because of the lack of movement on

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Speaker 1: a path to citizenship, and so I think what is

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Speaker 1: being misread about the moment because so many people understandably

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Speaker 1: are so disgusted with Trump that they tune him out.

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Speaker 1: But as a practitioner of politics, if you did not

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Speaker 1: listen to a single Trump rally, if you weren't listening

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Speaker 1: to how they were talking to people this time around,

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Speaker 1: you would miss that the Trump campaign was talking to

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Speaker 1: people very differently this time around. I think they've learned

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Speaker 1: from their mistakes. I asked a lot of Trump voters

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Speaker 1: in my district, where do you get your news from?

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Speaker 5: Who do you trust?

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Speaker 1: Increasingly people are saying I want to hear from the

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Speaker 1: politician themselves, and that they will believe what that politician

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Speaker 1: says more than what the media says about that politician.

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Speaker 1: And so when Trump says we're not going to deport you,

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Speaker 1: We're only going after the quote unquote like rapists and murderers,

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Speaker 1: people believe him. And what you do with when a

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Speaker 1: lot of people believe a liar is a tricky scenari

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Speaker 1: in which we find ourselves. People used to trust media

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Speaker 1: outlets more than they trusted politicians, but then that credibility

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Speaker 1: has eroded over time, and so this is the soil

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Speaker 1: in which misinformation flourishes, in which you know, strong men

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Speaker 1: can just say their things and people will just believe it.

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Speaker 2: So you went on Instagram Live and you talked very

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Speaker 2: clearly about immigrants. You're like, by the way, let me

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Speaker 2: just tell you the facts, right, Yeah, So it seems

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Speaker 2: trying to correct the narrative. What Alexandria wants America to

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Speaker 2: understand about immigrants is well.

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Speaker 5: There's two things.

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Speaker 1: First and foremost, this idea that people are immigrants or illegal.

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Speaker 5: Et cetera. Like we're talking about ourselves.

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Speaker 1: This is the fabric of our country, the fabric of

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Speaker 1: our community. And when people say, oh, I think it's fine,

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Speaker 1: they just need to be here legally, they're shut down

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Speaker 1: all legal pathways day one. The CBP one app when

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Speaker 1: they say, oh, you want to come here, enter through

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Speaker 1: report of Entry. That was the app literally app for

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Speaker 1: application both legal ways, the legal pathways, even.

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Speaker 2: Though you're gonna have to wait in Mexico for who

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Speaker 2: knows how many months under who knows what conditions, but

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Speaker 2: you want to do it legally.

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Speaker 5: You're so desperate to do it legally.

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Speaker 1: Yes, So when you shut down legal pathways, you supercharge

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Speaker 1: undocumented pathways. And so that's number one. If you don't

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Speaker 1: want undocumented people in this country, which, to be honest,

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Speaker 1: nobody wants documented people in this country. We want people

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Speaker 1: to be documented, right, We don't want people living in

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Speaker 1: the shadows and in fear. These are human beings, but

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Speaker 1: they are also assets to the United States of America. Now,

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Speaker 1: when I move to the economic case, I want to

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Speaker 1: say first that yes, it is fraught, you know, because

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Speaker 1: it is painful to see. Sometimes people only talk about

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Speaker 1: the economic case because we're more than just a labor force,

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Speaker 1: were more than just a people to be exploited. But

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Speaker 1: let's be clear, the people who are voting in this

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Speaker 1: way oftentimes don't respond to a case of compassion and humanity.

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Speaker 1: And so if you want to be hard nosed about it,

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Speaker 1: understand that America's immigration force and our community of immigrants,

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Speaker 1: including and especially the millions of undocumented people in this country,

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Speaker 1: are why America has prospered, especially why we survive the

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic, And for all of the people who

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Speaker 1: cast to vote based on grocery prices and inflation. If

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Speaker 1: you think your groceries are expensive, now wait until the

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Speaker 1: farms are empty. If you think houses are expensive, now

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Speaker 1: wait until there's no one building them. If you think

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Speaker 1: that having someone in your home to take care of

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Speaker 1: your ailing mother or grandmother while you have to go

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Speaker 1: out and earn an honest living while you're at work.

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Speaker 1: If you think that's expensive, now wait until that immigrant

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Speaker 1: workforce is gone. Understand the consequences of what this means,

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Speaker 1: because for America to not accept immigrants is the definition

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Speaker 1: of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

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Speaker 2: See, it is different geopolitics. A lot of things have

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Speaker 2: changed on their side, but also in terms of Latin

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Speaker 2: America and world politics. Right, So he went after Mexico

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Speaker 2: with thinking.

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Speaker 3: In terms of twenty five percent on Mexico and Canada

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Speaker 3: because they're allowing vast numbers of people to come in

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Speaker 3: and fentanyl to come in.

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Speaker 5: Went after Panama.

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Speaker 3: China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give

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Speaker 3: it to China. We gave it to Panama and we're

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Speaker 3: taking it back.

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Speaker 5: Went after Colombia.

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Speaker 4: The President announced he's slapping a twenty five percent tariff

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Speaker 4: on all imports from Colombia. The move is in retaliation

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Speaker 4: for Columbia's decision to rescind permission for two US Air

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Speaker 4: Force deportation flights to land.

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Speaker 2: So what's your sense of what's going to happen with

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Speaker 2: the Latin American geopolitics of this moment and this administration.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's important to understand that the Trump administration and

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Speaker 1: Steve Bannon, they have very strong ties in Latin America.

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Speaker 1: They have been working with right wing movements. There is

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Speaker 1: an ascendant right wing in Chile, in Colombia, in Brazil,

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Speaker 1: in all of these places that have direct connections. But

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Speaker 1: you have these populist movements in Latin America that have

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Speaker 1: taken foot, and so you have the ascendancy of Claudia Scheinbaun,

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Speaker 1: of Lula of petron of Borich, And of course everyone

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Speaker 1: has their own challenges because governance is hard, but it

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Speaker 1: is actually the first time we've seen these populist movements

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Speaker 1: have a real opportunity at governance and showing people what

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Speaker 1: is possible when people's movements actually gain power. And Glaudia

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Speaker 1: Scheinbaum's popularity is directly tied to these transformative social policies

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Speaker 1: that they have ruled out in Mexico, and so, you know,

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Speaker 1: in terms of the future, I think we can obviously

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Speaker 1: predict that Trump is going to be hostile to the

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Speaker 1: people who stand up to him. But if the people

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Speaker 1: who stand up to him stand together. Then we can

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Speaker 1: keep an anti democratic small d democratic leader kind of

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Speaker 1: as contained as we can. We can do what we

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Speaker 1: can with that, which is why you know, it's like

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Speaker 1: when Trump wants to announce twenty five percent tariffs on Colombia,

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Speaker 1: some of the primary ex one of the primary exporters

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Speaker 1: of not just coffee, but flowers right before Valentine's Day, Flowers.

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Speaker 1: Flowers like to approach the Latino community with hostility in

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Speaker 1: this country. In the Western hemisphere, a Latin hemisphere. This

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Speaker 1: is a Latin American hemisphere, the Caribbean, Central America, South America,

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Speaker 1: North America. This is just not in our best interest

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Speaker 1: as a country.

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Speaker 5: It's just not Alexandria.

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Speaker 2: What entity place thing that you do to find that

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Speaker 2: piece that strength, Where's it coming from?

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Speaker 1: You know? As a Puerto Rican, we Puerto Ricans have

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Speaker 1: I think, such a funny relationship to challenging circumstances Toga. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, Laregato, because we're the oldest colony in the world,

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Speaker 1: right and so difficult conditions are not a new thing

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Speaker 1: for us. And I don't think it's a coincidence that

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Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans are very funny, and we're very loud, and

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Speaker 1: we dance a lot, and because it's like, genuinely like it.

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Speaker 1: A conscious choice to be happy is a form of resistance.

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Speaker 1: And this is something that sometimes I culturally sometimes feel

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Speaker 1: a little desjoyed from the American left, Like I actually

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Speaker 1: feel sometimes more at home in a Latin American left culturally,

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Speaker 1: because there's almost this idea that you're not allowed to

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Speaker 1: be happy in the US when there is suffering going on,

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Speaker 1: and that is the opposite of like, when you actually

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Speaker 1: look at people who are enduring some of the deepest,

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Speaker 1: most brutal regimes, they are sometimes the most conscientious about

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Speaker 1: cultivating happiness, joy gathering, music, dancing, And so I want

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Speaker 1: people to know is like, you're allowed to be happy.

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Speaker 1: You're allowed to be happy, you are allowed to cultivate joy.

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Speaker 1: In fact, you need to because our job is to

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Speaker 1: build the world that we want, and if we do

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Speaker 1: not allow ourselves to gather with our friends to be happy,

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Speaker 1: then we are not reminding ourselves of why we're doing

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Speaker 1: any of this. We cannot be joyless people, we will

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Speaker 1: not sustain ourselves, we will not last long. And I

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Speaker 1: think about this specifically in a Latino context and in

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Speaker 1: a context of immigrants, right, Like everything that they're trying

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Speaker 1: to get us to do is trying to get us

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Speaker 1: to hide and trying to get us to not exist

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Speaker 1: in public. We have to make music. I think what

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Speaker 1: Benito is doing is like a perfect example of this. Right,

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Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans, what we're experiencing right now is such a

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Speaker 1: deep pain at our displacement, Like not only is it

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Speaker 1: a colony, but we are being actively colonized in another

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Speaker 1: wave by American real estate investors and they want a

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans. And this is something that

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Speaker 1: is a deep source of pain. And yet when we

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Speaker 1: make art about it, when we gather in it, when

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Speaker 1: we fuel ourselves up with joy in that, then we

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Speaker 1: become stronger than ever. We have to become something and

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Speaker 1: be something that other people want to be a part of.

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Speaker 5: Thank you for coming into the student, good to see you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, like guys.

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Speaker 2: And that was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortes of New York.

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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Renaldo Leanos Junior. It was

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Speaker 2: edited by Andrea Lopez Cruzado, with production assistants by Roxanna Guire.

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Speaker 2: It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau, Julia Caruso and j J.

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Speaker 5: Carubin.

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Speaker 2: NI Latino USA team also includes Fernanda Chavari, Jessica Ellis,

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Speaker 2: Victoria Strada, Dominiquineztrosa, Luis Luna Marta Martinez, Tasha Sanoval, Norsaudi

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00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 2: and Nancy Trujillo. VANILLEI Ramirez, Marlon Bishop, Maria Garcia and

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Speaker 2: myself are co executive producers and I'm your host Mariano

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Speaker 2: Krosa join us again on our next episode. In the meantime,

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Speaker 2: you know where you can find me on social media.

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Speaker 2: I'll see you there and as always, hibaracimbre not yas.

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Speaker 1: Latino USA is made by Possible, in part by the

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00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: Tau Foundation, the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the

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00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: front lines of social change worldwide, and New York Women's Foundation.

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00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 5: The New York Women's Foundation funding women

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00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: Leaders that build solutions in their communities and celebrating thirty

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Speaker 1: years of radical generosity