Watch the Biggest Moments From TIME's Latino Leaders Dinner

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Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:10 This is our first celebration of our Latino leaders.

00:17 So excited to be here in Los Angeles.

00:19 This couldn't be a better representation of the melting pot.

00:24 So many of my contemporaries and myself are focused on undoing generational curses,

00:29 and that is critical work.

00:31 But we must also keep ourselves permeable to the relationship building of our elders and ancestors

00:37 that have historically ushered us through a changing and challenging world.

00:40 And we have to come together to erase the illiteracy that exists, of course,

00:46 the poverty, the ignorance.

00:49 I remember I wasn't even famous when I met Dolores.

00:52 I was young and the rest was struggling actors.

00:55 And I met Dolores through a friend, and I was hanging out with her.

01:01 And she told me, she said, "What are you doing?"

01:05 She was talking to me, and she said, "You know what?

01:08 One day you're going to have a voice, and you better have something to say."

01:12 And I was like, "Really? I'm going to have a voice? Oh, my God."

01:16 And I never forgot that.

01:18 And she's been a mentor ever since.

01:20 She's the reason I got my master's in Chicano Studies.

01:23 [applause]

01:27 She knows it.

01:29 I want to say congratulations to the spouses and family members,

01:32 because you can't be Latino leaders if you're not part of a pack.

01:36 Who's got power?

01:38 We have power!

01:40 What kind of power?

01:42 Latino power!

01:44 [applause]

01:46 (upbeat music)