Catherine Cortez Masto: Thank you!
(Laughs)
Bret Simmons: Senator Cortez Masto, welcome to TEDxUniversityofNevada.
We are so honored to have you here,
especially since you are a graduate of the University of Nevada.
CCM: Go Wolf Pack, that’s right!
(Applause)
Thank you.
BS: We appreciate your time.
So, what does it mean to you to represent the people of Nevada,
and why is it significant for a Latina to represent Nevada?
CCM: First of all, let me just say thank you for doing this.
This is an exciting day.
I’ve listened to some of the talk today, very inspirational.
I’m glad I could be apart of it and thanks for the invite.
You know, for me it is and has always been
about really being a voice for those who are underrepresented.
It is not lost on me, every single day that I get up,
and I walk into my office in the U.S. Senate,
or I walk on the floor of the Senate, where others have walked before me,
and I don’t forget that I am a descendant of immigrants.
You know, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a big family,
I’m half Italian and half Mexican.
That’s the good hair!
Big hair.
(Laughter)
But part of it is, for me,
is I grew up knowing my grandparents, knowing my great-grandparents.
And I know, particularly, the struggles that they had.
I have a great-grandfather who immigrated from Italy,
and then I have a grandfather who immigrated from Mexico
across the Rio Grande.
And they came to this country for that American dream.
They had the courage to leave behind what they knew,
their families, their comfort, and come to America for that dream,
and they worked hard.
And then, my parents were the same way.
Working class, family, they worked hard every single day.
My father parked cars at the old Dunes Hotel Casino in Las Vegas,
and my mother was a bookkeeper.
They didn’t graduate from college.
But they worked hard so that their two daughters,
my sister and I, could get a college education
and graduate.
We both graduated from UNR.
And every single day, that’s not lost on me.
Because it is their hard work, their courage,
and that door was open for them.
And they taught us, you don’t close that door.
You keep that door open.
If we have successes,
then we make sure that there are others who need that helping hand –
because there were people there to help us.
There were people there to help my grandparents and my parents,
and still today.
And now, you pay it back.
And that, to me, is why I think it’s so important
to represent those voices, right now, in the United States Senate.
BS: Thank you.
(Applause)
So, your grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants,
my wife is an immigrant – in fact, we’re often called a nation of immigrants.
Why do you think there is so much push-back now against immigration?
CCM: You know, it’s interesting to me as I look back over history.
We’re kind of caught in this vicious cycle,
if you look at history,
where we have this notion that once we get here,
and even though we’re discriminated against,
we’re going to discriminate against that next generation.
There’s this vicious loop that happens, and we see it all the time.
I don’t know if most people know,
but one of the first senators here in Nevada, a United States Senator,
was James Graham Fair.
And he was an Irish immigrant.
He was brought to this country in the 1800s-1850s.
His family was escaping the potato famine.
They came to this country for an opportunity of better life.
He ended up here in Nevada during the Comstock Lode
as many Nevadans know, and he became successful.
He was known as one of the silver kings during the Comstock Lode.
I think he had a wealth of about 40 million dollars,
which is a billion dollars today.
But he went on to become a United States Senator here for Nevada
in 1881.
In 1882, he voted for the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, if you don’t know,
is the first time the federal government actually passed a law
restricting immigration based on race.
And what was so fascinating about all of this
is those very Chinese that now they are going to discriminate against
were working in our mines here in Nevada.
They built our railroad.
They built the transcontinental railroad
that connected the West to the East, to the rest of the country.
And then you have this cycle,
where he knew what it was like to be discriminated against,
but then it happens over and over again.
BS: That’s fascinating, that this has roots right here in Nevada.
So, it’s clear the Chinese immigrants
were an important part of the development of the West.
What other contributions do you think immigrants have made to this country?
CCM: Well, we’ve seen it with the transcontinental railroad,
but, really, immigrants built this nation.
I mean, look at who built the factories, who works in our factories.
They have contributed to science,
to politics, to the arts, you name it,
we have immigrants who have helped us succeed.
And where we are as a country today – look at Google, look at Apple, Facebook.
I mean, Madeleine Albright in politics, Secretary of State.
We have seen the contributions.
And the other thing about this is
it’s not just those people that we become aware of
because they have found cures or they have had prominent positions.
Think about everyday, when you put food your table,
you go to the grocery store and you buy those fruits and vegetables.
Where do they come from?
Who’s working in the fields to make sure that you can eat healthy?
(Applause)
And I think that is lost in the discussion today.
Let me also put this in perspective because I think many people forget.
You know, I am honored everyday that I get to represent the great state of Nevada,
and we’re having this debate on immigration right now.
And I was going to my office in the senate office building –
right there in the capital, the capital where the heart of the debate is going on.
I’m walking in the morning to my office, and I stop in the basement
because there’s a little coffee shop there and pick up some coffee.
And as I walked up to the cashier, there’s a young girl, Latina,
behind the cash register.
She looks at me and she says, “Are you a United States Senator?”
And I said, “Yes, I am.”
And she said, “I just want to tell you that I am here and I am working,
and I am able to do so because of DACA.
And I am so afraid of what is going to happen in my future.
I’m afraid that it’s now going to be taken away.”
Her name was Anna.
“It’s going to be taken away from me, and my family is going to be torn apart.
I have kids, I’m concerned about my future.”
And after reassuring her, telling her were going to fight,
we’re going to do everything we can for her,
it wasn’t lost on me that the debate we’re having,
that’s ground zero for the debate in the capital,
and the very people who are serving us
are immigrants and dreamers that we are having this debate about.
To me, that’s what we need to remember.
They’re real faces, real people, and their contributions are so important
to who we are as a nation and as a country.
(Applause)
BS: We are living in an amazing time,
and we’re having this great debate on immigration.
What would you like to see change in this debate on immigration?
CCM: This is a repetitive debate.
Again, looking at history, this conversation that we’re having now
about immigrants bringing crime, immigrants depressing wages,
immigrants taking jobs, that’s not a new conversation.
We had this in the 1850s with the Know Nothings.
They were a third political party that was created,
they were white Anglo-Saxon protestants who felt that the Irish coming in
were taking their jobs and they were all criminals,
so they wanted to ban them, and they wanted to prevent Catholics –
because they were all protestants – from holding public office.
What’s fascinating about all of this is that they considered themselves
“Native Americans,” that’s what they called themselves.
Not because they were indigenous, but because they were descendants
of the first settlers to the United States,
and they wanted to keep that next generation out.
And to me, that’s what this debate is really about.
We are descendants.
And when will we stop?
When will we stop this cycle of being discriminated against
and then succeeding
and then pushing that next generation out and not remembering?
When will we learn from our past mistakes?
There is a great quote that says,
“Those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
And I think that’s what’s happening here,
this notion that we forget where we came from.
I think we need to make sure that we are learning from the past
and we’re breaking that cycle, breaking that vicious cycle.
BS: How do we do that?
How do we learn from history and break that cycle?
CCM: I think this all starts with all of us.
And it’s just what I said, I do not forget, everyday,
about the courage of my grandparents and my great-grandparents.
I do not forget the hard work that my parents engaged in
so that my sister and I, we all could achieve that American dream.
And I think it’s about remembering it, honoring their legacy,
and then, absolutely, keeping that door open.
And for me, it’s ensuring that people like Anna
get to continue to walk through that door.
(Applause)
BS: Senator Cortez Masto, thank you so very much.
CMM: Thank you.
BS: We appreciate your time.
CMM: Thank you guys so much.
(Applause)
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