SPEECH I DIDN'T GIVE IN 1964

THE UNDELIVERED

SPEECH

I still have that half written speech I was to deliver at my graduation from high school as Valedictorian; it goes like this: “As I stand here today in front of my graduating class and the parents and friends of my classmates, I can attest to the fact that my accomplishments are not so much the result of my hard work and perseverance. Only in America would a young Cuban refugee who didn’t even speak English four years ago when I embarked on an involuntary exile into a foreign land and culture would he be able to address his graduating class as their Valedictorian. It was because in America it is possible. It is because we celebrate diversity and we as American citizens, which I am not yet one but hope to be soon; believe that hard work and perseverance will reward those and it will do so without taking into consideration the color of their skin, their religion or place of birth.” That speech was never given. I hope that before I die, I can go back to Huntington Park High School and deliver it before a graduating class, perhaps 70 years later.

If you had been following my blog you would know that I took an English final and got an A but the teacher gave me a B for the course because he said: "I would never give any of my students who have an accent an A" and that knocked me down into fourth place. Ironically, the Valedictorian was Rudy Hix, a German dude who had a thicker accent than I did.