KRISTEN GONZALEZ: GONZÁLEZ: I know we´re saving the speeches for later, but today we really proved that socialism wins!
LUIS CARLOS VELEZ: Socialism wins! That´s a very strong phrase. What does socialist mean to you?
GONZÁLEZ: I am a proud democratic socialist because for me it means building a world that works for working families like my own. It means building the black and brown immigrant communities.
VELEZ: A question, about, let´s see: China, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, are socialist countries. Do you think those countries have a better economic model than we have here in the United States?
GONZÁLEZ: I´m not talking about China, or Cuba or Venezuela. I´m talking about democratic socialism
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Democratic socialism in the American context is a strict set of moral and policy values that ensure that we are taking care of the most vulnerable among us. And so, being democratic socialists is different from what we see in all of the countries that are socialist
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And again, not to get it completed, democratic socialism is different from socialism, is different from communism.
VELEZ: what I´m seeing here, immigrants fleeing from socialist countries in Latin America, are arriving here, at the U.S., by the thousands. What would you say to a Venezuelan, to a Cuban that are listening to you right now, and I was thinking, you know, probably, probably, they´re coming to the wrong country? Is this the wrong country for them?
GONZÁLEZ: I would say that I am working for building a democracy that welcomes immigrants from all the world. That we are a country that is built on immigrants.
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I am working towards a world that welcomes everyone, that ensures that the most vulnerable in our society are taken care of. And that we´re not building a system that privileges a few at the cost of many, that we all have the capability to stay at home and have health care and that we do things to address the climate crisis. That is a global crisis, not just here in New York, but across the world and affects all of the countries you mentioned. That´s what I would say to them.