Dear Friends,

I hope all is well.

As we approach the final days of the  Legislative calendar for 2023,  I want to provide an update on our outreach to Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams and share details on several upcoming events of importance in Albany.

May 22nd is Italian American Day, sponsored by the Italian American Legislative Caucus. All are invited to “Mulberry Street,” an indoor street fair celebration of Italian Culture starting at noon, where Italian American Legislators will be in attendance.   

The Governor is hosting a luncheon at the Executive Mansion, and several of us are attending at the Governor’s invitation along with members of the Caucus.   I will be attending along with my dear friend and honoree, Lidia Bastianich. 

I will continue the conversation I had privately with Governor Hochul on behalf of our community. Our goal in Albany is to bring to the attention of the IA caucus support of Indigenous Peoples Day on the existing Native American Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.  We, of course, will urge the IA caucus members to prevent the Ramos bill from seeing the light of day and be defeated if it does. 

There are other initiatives that we will be presenting to the IA caucus that we want them to support going forward. 

La Voce recently interviewed Mayor Adams. He spoke very positively about the contributions of Italian Americans to NYC. I reached out to him to thank him for his comments, and he responded to me with appreciation. We must continue and expand our open dialogue with government officials and all people of goodwill who can help our community and our goals. 

All my best,