My Point of View/By Rolando Larraz
After three weeks of vacation, I was thinking very seriously about staying in retirement, but I could not pass up the opportunity to, first of all, show my respect to a fellow Cuban that spoke at the Republican convention last Monday.
Nothing could make me more proud than to listen to a successful Cuban American businessman in Florida speaking at the Republican convention the way Alvarez did by almost repeating what this newspaper and myself have been saying for the last four years.
“I am Cuban born,” said Alvarez, owner and president of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors. “But I am an American. This is the greatest country in the world. If I gave away everything I have today, it would only be 10 percent of what I was given when I came to this country.”
Maximo Alvarez is proud to be an American. He wasn’t born in the United States, but he bleeds patriotism. A self-made man, Alvarez has relied on hard work and determination to build a thriving retail gasoline empire in southern Florida — and he salutes the United States for allowing him to make that possible.
Most of the speakers at Monday’s Republican convention took the time to emphasize the danger of turning this great nation into another Cuba, Venezuela, or any other of those communist countries that erroneously believed that communism is the best system to turn to.
They did not attack the Democrat candidate on a personal basis as the Democrats have been doing with our president for the last five years; they attacked the system the Democrats are trying to implement in the United States; they did not attack with name calling, but with facts.
I never met or heard of Maximo Alvarez before last Monday when he spoke at the Republican convention but I can tell you that he made me very proud to be Cuban; he is a good example of what a real Cuban can be.
When former president Barack Obama won Florida the first time he ran for president, it was something that I could never comprehend: how a state that is full of Cubans could vote for a communist-mentality candidate was something I could not grasp.
When I started this newspaper twenty-two years ago, I was already retired, but since I was suffering in my own skin the injustice of the local government and police abuse, I decided to start the Las Vegas Times newspaper to fight them both, but the two business partners I had did not share my ideas so I then changed the name to the Las Vegas Tribune all alone to do just that, fight corruption and to speak the truth and nothing but the truth.
When Barack Obama announced that he was running for president, the Las Vegas Tribune endorsed him; we were the first newspaper to do so, but something incredible happened that made us change our minds and correct our hasty mistake, apologizing to our readers for not doing our homework.
Obama for president headquarters in Houston, Texas displayed a picture of political mercenary and killer, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and a Cuban flag making it inconceivable that a presidential candidate headquarters would have another country’s flag and a picture of a killer, a murderer, hanging on the wall.
When I called and asked the reason for that, they hung up on me. When I called Obama’s main headquarters, they told me that they would get back to me, but as the well-trained puppets that they were, with no minds of their own to realize they would be responding to a newspaper that had already endorsed their candidate, and therefore with no legit
reason to respond, they never called me back.
Isn’t that what the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, following orders from Sheriff Joe Lombardo and enforced by a female civilian in charge of the PRO office, does to us when we call its Public Relations Office?
I, as Maximo Alvarez, may have been born in Cuba, but I love this country and after sixty-some years in Las Vegas, I love this city and want the best for all of us.
I am honored to be the publisher of the first Spanish newspaper and the only one in the ‘60s; my brother and I started the first Spanish television show on KVVU channel 5, and my friend, the late Agustin Menendez, and I started the first Spanish radio show.
In all the years I have been in this country I have always tried to be productive and protect the rights of all citizens. I have worked hard to open the eyes of those who are confused about the communist system that the Democrats try to implement in this great nation, even if doing so costs me money.
Why does it cost me money? Because the Democrats do not allow local businesses to advertise in our newspaper, but thanks to all the good people that contribute to our publication we are able to put out the best newspaper anyone can put out with no money and for that I am grateful to all of them.
When Hillary Clinton was running for president I wrote, and I said on my radio show, that if she wins the presidency I will close the newspaper, the radio station and any other business I may have at the time. Today I repeat the same promise: if the Democrats with their communist ideas and mentality take over this country that I love so much, I will close every one of my businesses and retire.
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column.
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Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at 702-272-4634.
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