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Hello everyone. How's everybody doing?

NOTE Paragraph

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(Audience) Good.

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Good. Well, here is my story.

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I am Dianna Martinez,
I am the daughter of two parents

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who dared to cross to United States

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and have a better life
for them and for me.

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I am part of Boyle Heights.

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And so my story begins

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when I was just a young girl
and my dad would tell me,

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"You have to talk to people, tell them
what you think, your opinions."

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And I remember, he would stand me
in front of him and ask,

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"OK, present yourself, tell me
your name, where you're coming from

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and who are your parents."

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Simple as that and I would start to cry,
because I couldn’t even say my name.

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I would start crying and sobbing saying,

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"Do I really have to?
You know my name, don't you?

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But it was just a stepping stone,
it was where it all started.

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I began talking to other people,
little by little,

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breaking out from my introverted shell.

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And started getting involved
at the community of Boyle Heights,

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but I didn’t know what I wanted
to be, what I wanted to do.

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And it all changed, when I stepped
into a community garden,

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learning about the community
and that got me thinking:

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"Why not do something on my own?"

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That’s when we created
Project Alebrije in Casa Americano.

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That lasted for three years,

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I’ve been a mentor for this past year
for the Las Fotos’ Project.

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It’s something where I'm just
throwing myself out there, saying,

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"Yeah, why not, let's try this."

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And it’s been something where I am just
growing and growing and I am learning.

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I see myself doing something
on my own, creating my own future

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and creating the future
of others, by teaching them

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that dreams are possible,
anything you set your mind to is doable.

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And I have a little trick for you to show
you these twenty years how I’ve evolved.

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Like everybody knows, we all grow
with a blank piece of paper.

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A book isn't written,
because the story hasn’t been told

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and with this I just want to show you:

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we are that page,
there’s nothing said or done,

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but because of the people around us,
they start to mould us and tell us,

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"You can't do."

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You start thinking above.

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And that's when you start seeing pictures,
something that is different.

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(Applause)

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And the only thing,
they don’t have to just tell you,

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but you also have to act,
you have to do something.

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Because all these mentors and people
around me, they have told me,

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"You can do it."

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And not only did I listen to them,
but I actually did something

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to create change:
I started adding colour to my life.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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And if it wasn’t for all that,
my life would just be black.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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And so I thank everybody here

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and I know that height isn’t measured
from head to toe, because I’m just 4'11",

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but it’s measured from head to the sky.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)