(gentle guitar music) - USA is a land of opportunity.

It's a land of immigrants.

Who's the true American?

You come here for a better standard of living, for a better future for yourself and your family.

My name is Casimiro D. Rodriguez, Sr., President and Founder of the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York, Incorporated.

The story of my dad and my family is the story of many others.

There was a movement called Operation Bootstrap.

Back in the late '40s, early '50s, the US government and the Puerto Rico government came up with an agreement regarding industrializing a lot of the work that occurred in Puerto Rico, and many residents migrated to USA.

My dad ended up in the State of Michigan working the farms.

He heard about great opportunities here in Western New York.

He eventually made it to the city of Lackawanna where he gained employment at the Bethlehem Steel plant.

Once he gained employment, he sent for my mom and some of my other brothers and sisters.

He worked all three shifts.

I remember that one week he was working the day shift.

Another week he worked the afternoon shift, and he provided for all of us.

I think about the slogan, that the family that prays together stays together.

That's for real.

Faith was the cornerstone of their determination and dedication and commitment to succeed.

The role that faith played in my family, it played in many families.

It helped overcome many of the obstacles that many families faced.

My parents were dominant in Spanish.

They spoke broken English, and I recall that my mom had appointments.

I used to go with her to translate for her.

You know, here you have a doctor or you have a nurse telling you what's wrong with your mom, and here seven, eight-year-old is translating for her.

That's why today, anywhere that you go, it's very important that the languages are spoken and that you have folks that look like you, speak like you and serve you.

I would like to see more Latinos, Hispanics in government, in every agency, in every boardroom.

We need to make sure that we're at the table to be able to influence the minds in order to provide better services for our community.

It's a privilege to serve community that's underserved with the relationships that you build and the partnerships that you build within community, with agencies, with government, with other organizations, we need to advocate for those opportunities.

Our parents did not have higher education.

They saw the value of education.

That gave me the opportunity to go to high school, finish high school, finish college, and graduate.

And through a good education, you get a good job, good employment to be able to provide for my four children and my now 10 grandchildren.

We have to make sure that our children do not lose their traditions, their customs, where they came from, and how that played an important role in their parents and grandparents, and how valuable that is to their lives and their future.

Right now, we're in the midst, in the organization that I lead to build the Hispanic Heritage Cultural Institute.

It's going to be a facility where you celebrate the arts, the culture, the customs, the history, document the history.

You got to know where you come from in order to know where you're going.

What I would like to make sure that the Rodriguez family is noted for is that we made a difference.

We made a difference for a community to have a better future, and hopefully, we can all celebrate as to who we are and what the future holds for a community like Western New York.

(upbeat guitar music)