My First Speech
A few words on peace and my life journey
It’s Sunday, 5th of May, at 6.30 pm, I come on stage in the Davis Hall of the International House of New York. I feel nervous and excited. I look across the audience. Roughly 350 residents, alumni, and trustees are waiting for me to deliver a few words. With a smile on my face, I start sharing a speech — my very first speech — that took me several days to write:
🕯 Introduction
Good evening ladies & gentlemen, my dear friends,
Thank you so much for gathering here tonight for the Candlelight Sunday Supper of 2024!
It is both a privilege and an honor for me to be your host for this very special event. This dinner is all about celebrating the friendships we forged and the love we shared.
And to start with, I invite you to pause for a moment, to reflect on the past year, and appreciate all we’ve been through together. So let me ask you a question: can you remember your first day here at I-House? Can you see it? How does it feel?
Hopefully, it was a good day, amidst the distance from home, the jet lag, and the anxiety of having joined a place where you hoped to belong.
🗓️ Recap of the Year
Can you remember all the events we went to together? Can you name a few? 3? 5? or a dozen perhaps?
We started the year with picnics in Central Park under the August sun. It marked the start not only of the discovery of New York but of a journey around the world. We celebrated Ramadan, the Holi festival, Christmas, and many more.
We discovered new flavors with each “dinner with friends” and of course at Night of Nations. We sipped horchata dancing to the rhythm of Mexico. We ate cheese on horseback roaming the plains of Kazakhstan. We got some Kaiserschmarrn in the streets of Vienna. It is not less than 50 countries that we traveled to that one night. What a journey!
From guest speakers to ice cream socials, we had it all: knowledge to broaden our minds and a community to expand our hearts.
As we gather in the glow of these eternal candles, I invite you to continue this journey with me through my own story.
😔 Where is Home?
Like most of you, my story spans several continents. It started in South America, continued in Europe and North America, and soon, I will turn my gaze towards Asia.
I write each of these chapters in a different language, and for each of them, I attribute a different painting of emotions, memories & people, a different mosaic of values, philosophy & art.
🇻🇪 Spanish
My story begins in Spanish.
I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela 🇻🇪 I was probably too young to speak it but the very first words on that very first page of my life could well be “papa” or “mama quiero leche”.
This language reminds me of a beloved Spanish teacher, and people like Che Guevara who fought for ideals of justice, freedom, and fairness.
Deja que el mundo te cambie y tu podras cambiar el mundo
Let the world change you and you can change the world
he said
This language also brings to mind a country that my parents decided to leave due to political instability. A country, my birthplace that I left when I was only 1 and a half years old. The impact this had on the rest of the book is beyond my understanding, but I’m sure it shaped how the story unfolded.
🇫🇷 French
I wrote the following pages in French, my mother tongue.
It’s the language of my parents, my brother, my whole family, my first friends. It’s the language of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvres, and Versailles. It’s the language of love & poetry.
In Savoir Aimer — To know how to love, Florent Pagny sings:
Savoir aimer
Sans rien attendre en retour,
Ni égard, ni grand amour,
Pas même l’espoir d’être aiméTo know how to love
Without expecting anything in return,
Neither consideration nor great love,
Not even the hope of being loved
This is one of my favorite French songs for it is about an essential part of life: unconditional love.
🇺🇸 English
At 14 years old, I felt uprooted once more. I left my friends, the peaceful French countryside, and the comfort of a place I knew, to land in a city where people were speaking a language I could only poorly understand, a city where everything seemed oversized, a city where I felt lost. That place was Houston, TX.
English evokes for me freedom & self-reliance, inequalities & division.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Today that chapter in English continues with all of you, and I’m extremely grateful for it.
🇨🇳 Mandarin
Given the friendships I have made here — the amazing friendships I should say — it seems that soon, I will start writing in Mandarin with a Chinese ink brush.
🏡 I-House As A Source of Hope
Traveling around the world, as early as my mom was pregnant and leaving my birthplace not even knowing how to walk, I’ve for long felt like a stranger wherever I went. “Where is home?” I used to ask myself.
I found a place I could call home eventually. This place is here. And I start to comprehend why. Essentially, I-House is a haven, a shelter, a safe, for us of course, and more broadly for a Humanity founded on moral courage, mutual respect, and empathy.
🌎 The Potential of this Humanity
Can you envision the potential of such Humanity? What I see is peace, on a global scale.
Last year’s guest speaker said: “The next Peace Nobel Prize probably sit in this room”. I believe in these words. I believe in them because here, we learn and cultivate qualities that are essential to bringing Humankind to a place of peace, love, and hope. I believe in them because here, we transform the horrifying thunder of bombs into the sweet sound of laughter, the deadly bullets of lead into the warmth of a hug, and the haunting smell of sulfur into the soft perfume of a bouquet.
Where else on Earth can one see a Russian and a Ukrainian hug each other at this very moment?
Where else on Earth does the French embrace the German, the Chinese the Japanese, the Japanese the Americans even when the whole world is divided?
I-House is a bridge, a bridge across the divide. It teaches us one important lesson: wherever you’re from, whatever you believe in, and whichever story you carry, we all share the same struggles, the same hopes, the same dreams, we all share the same inherent quality of love, we all share the same humanity.
The reason I stand before you tonight is my hope that you’ll find some truth in these words and will keep them close to your heart.
Whether you’re staying with us for a bit more time or on the leave, keep in mind to bring the qualities you’ve cultivated here wherever you go. Make that place a haven, a shelter, a safe. Lend your hand across the divide. Open your mind, open your arms, and most importantly open your heart.
Thank you all for your positive energy, your unwavering kindness, and for being who you are! 💛 Thank you!
This was a really powerful moment and an amazing experience! I’m really grateful that I-House gave me the opportunity to share these words. I enjoyed both writing and saying this speech, and I am definitely looking forward to the next one!
Many people in the audience came to me to congratulate and thank me. I’m thankful that these words echoed in their hearts 💛
Dear reader, thank you for joining me on this journey for a New Humanity 🙏
I invite you to take some time today to reconnect with your Humanity within. Intentionally show generosity, love, and care to people around you 💛
Feel free to watch the speech here
To continue this journey with me, join our global community
and read my vision for a new Humanity 👇
