Hello everyone. How's everybody doing?
(Audience) Good.
Good. Well, here is my story.
I am Dianna Martinez, I am the daughter of two parents
who dared to cross to United States
and have a better life for them and for me.
I am part of Boyle Heights.
And so my story begins
when I was just a young girl and my dad would tell me,
"You have to talk to people, tell them what you think, your opinions."
And I remember, he would stand me in front of him and ask,
"OK, present yourself, tell me your name, where you're coming from
and who are your parents."
Simple as that and I would start to cry, because I couldn’t even say my name.
I would start crying and sobbing saying,
"Do I really have to? You know my name, don't you?
But it was just a stepping stone, it was where it all started.
I began talking to other people, little by little,
breaking out from my introverted shell.
And started getting involved at the community of Boyle Heights,
but I didn’t know what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do.
And it all changed, when I stepped into a community garden,
learning about the community and that got me thinking:
"Why not do something on my own?"
That’s when we created Project Alebrije in Casa Americano.
That lasted for three years,
I’ve been a mentor for this past year for the Las Fotos’ Project.
It’s something where I'm just throwing myself out there, saying,
"Yeah, why not, let's try this."
And it’s been something where I am just growing and growing and I am learning.
I see myself doing something on my own, creating my own future
and creating the future of others, by teaching them
that dreams are possible, anything you set your mind to is doable.
And I have a little trick for you to show you these twenty years how I’ve evolved.
Like everybody knows, we all grow with a blank piece of paper.
A book isn't written, because the story hasn’t been told
and with this I just want to show you:
we are that page, there’s nothing said or done,
but because of the people around us, they start to mould us and tell us,
"You can't do."
You start thinking above.
And that's when you start seeing pictures, something that is different.
(Applause)
And the only thing, they don’t have to just tell you,
but you also have to act, you have to do something.
Because all these mentors and people around me, they have told me,
"You can do it."
And not only did I listen to them, but I actually did something
to create change: I started adding colour to my life.
(Laughter) (Applause)
And if it wasn’t for all that, my life would just be black.
(Laughter) (Applause)
And so I thank everybody here
and I know that height isn’t measured from head to toe, because I’m just 4'11",
but it’s measured from head to the sky.
Thank you.
(Applause)