[applause] wow. Thank you very much angela. Let me say please, please sit down. All right. Thats for my has ratty. No, thats mine. Angela we really miss you here. You have been such a force and i enjoy working we will get that done. I assure you. Thats a wonderful addition. Not just north beach and another attraction for visitors from around the world as part of the International Community and i honor that so thank you. Thank you for working with me on ending homelessness as well and thank you even for being your civil rights attorney and you are still representing people in need and i appreciate that. I know angela represents again the kind of contributions the Italian Community has made to our great city and continues to make and i am here to tonight to wish you a great year of Italian Culture but to kick start it. It was really just a few months ago that the ambassador ofity italy came through and talk about this wonderful thing they were to do to celebrate year of Italian Culture b
Going to start those events in washington dc with their celebrations but let Us San Francisco celebrate mayor aleato and our wonderful history here and allow us to do a preliminary launch and so thats what were attempting to do tonight and celebrate with you this launch of Italian Culture. Its very meaningful for us to did that year. We have a lot to celebrate. Let me just say that painters, scrptdures, poets, musicians, designers, mathematicians, great architects of the italian country have come here to San Francisco. We have experienced so much of the italian talent here in San Francisco. Thats why we wanted to be celebrating here and i am so glad to be joined not only by senator leno and assembly man amaino and david chiu and scott wiener as well. They all want to get in on this great celebration because its wonderful for our city. I have often said our city and our strength is our International Status and we do that with all the sister cities, with all of the flag raisings, but thi
Said mozel tough and i am glad to be here and i am proud to be an Italian American and its been an important part of my identity. I believe i have the soul in my heart. [applause]. So there you are. And i remember my grandfather saying when he came over on the boat he was told the streets of america were paved with gold and found out there were no streets and he had to do the paving, and i think the strongest part of our culture is the family. We may have our dysfunctions but our families never dessert us and my family didnt know much with the lgbt issue so when i came out of the closet i thought they would be so upset i would lose them. Wouldnt happen. Once my son had a sign that said i love my gay son that never calls and that is it and i want to welcome the counsel general and his partner and actually we share a vice, and its called napoli. I think i can say it right. . [speaking foreign language]. We dont want you to do that but want to work out programs to share our fabulous cultu
Know angela represents again the kind of contributions the Italian Community has made to our great city and continues to make and i am here to tonight to wish you a great year of Italian Culture but to kick start it. It was really just a few months ago that the ambassador ofity italy came through and talk about this wonderful thing they were to do to celebrate year of Italian Culture but transfer that to our country of the United States so i know theyre going to start those events in washington dc with their celebrations but let Us San Francisco celebrate mayor aleato and our wonderful history here and allow us to do a preliminary launch and so thats what were attempting to do tonight and celebrate with you this launch of Italian Culture. Its very meaningful for us to did that year. We have a lot to celebrate. Let me just say that painters, scrptdures, poets, musicians, designers, mathematicians, great architects of the italian country have come here to San Francisco. We have experienc
Italian community has made to our great city and continues to make and i am here to tonight to wish you a great year of Italian Culture but to kick start it. It was really just a few months ago that the ambassador ofity italy came through and talk about this wonderful thing they were to do to celebrate year of Italian Culture but transfer that to our country of the United States so i know theyre going to start those events in washington dc with their celebrations but let Us San Francisco celebrate mayor aleato and our wonderful history here and allow us to do a preliminary launch and so thats what were attempting to do tonight and celebrate with you this launch of Italian Culture. Its very meaningful for us to did that year. We have a lot to celebrate. Let me just say that painters, scrptdures, poets, musicians, designers, mathematicians, great architects of the italian country have come here to San Francisco. We have experienced so much of the italian talent here in San Francisco. Tha