By Joe Setyon
Cuban-born immigrant Maximo Alvarez came down hard against socialism and spoke in support of President Donald Trump during Night One of the Republican National Convention.
If America fails and the forces of socialism prevail, he warned Monday, then there is nowhere else to go.
“My family has fled totalitarianism and communism more than once. First my dad from Spain, then from Cuba,” Alvarez, who currently lives in Miami, said during an at-times emotional speech.
“But my family is done running away. By the grace of God, I live the American dream,” he added. “I’m speaking to you today because my family is done abandoning what we rightfully earned. There is no place to hide. I’m speaking to you today because President Trump may not always be politically correct — he is in fact a successful businessman, not your average career politician.
“Our president is just another family man — a friend, but most important, our elected commander in chief who puts America first.”
Alvarez went on to argue that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “is mostly concerned about power.”
It’s not the first time he has experienced a movement on the left like the one he sees in America today, Alvarez said.
“I am here to tell you: We cannot let them take over our country. I heard the promises of Fidel Castro, and I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who look like me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises, they swallowed the communist poison pill.”
Alvarez pointed out how the Cuban dictator originally tried to “hide the truth” of the policies he espoused.
“But the country I was born in is gone, totally destroyed,” he said. “When I watch the news in Seattle, in Chicago, Portland and other cities, when I see the history being rewritten, when I hear the promises, I hear echoes of the former life I never wanted to hear again. I see shadows I thought I had outrun.”
The businessman discussed his gratitude for a country that allowed him to “build my American dream through hard work and determination.”
“I may be Cuban-born, but I am 100 percent American. This is the greatest country in the world,” he said.
“And I said this before,” Alvarez added, “if I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1 percent of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours: the gift of freedom. Right now, it is up to us to decide our fate and to choose freedom over oppression.
“President Trump — he’s fighting the forces of anarchy and communism,” Alvarez said. But Biden and “the rest of the D.C. swamp,” he added, “would hand the country over to those dangerous forces.
“You and I will decide. And here’s what I’ve decided. My decision is very easy: I choose President Trump because I choose America, I choose freedom.
“I still hear my dad,” Alvarez concluded while fighting back tears, “there is no other place to go.”
“Thank you, and may the good Lord bless America.”
Author: Joe Setyon