Announcer a congressional Gold Medal Ceremony was held wednesday to honor the u. S. Armys 65th infantry regimen known as the borinqueneers. They were the last segregated unit of the u. S. Military. At theemony was held u. S. Capitol. It is just over an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the United States house of representatives, the honorable paul ryan. [applause] speaker ryan good afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody. Its great to see you here. I want to welcome all of you to the u. S. Capitol. We are here today to honor the 65th infantry regiment of the u. S. Army. [applause] or, as we prefer to say, the borinqueneers. [cheering] isnt that cool . Amen. Puerto rico became a part of the United States in 1898. And soon after, congress created a special unit of puerto rican soldiers. They went on to fight for our country valiantly, in both world wars and in korea. But throughout their service, they suffered persistent discrimination. For too long, their contribution to our histo
Be sure to watch cspans washington journal on sunday morning. Join the discussion. Announcer a congressional Gold Medal Ceremony was held wednesday to honor the u. S. Armys 65th infantry regimen known as the borinqueneers. They were the last segregated unit of the u. S. Military. The ceremony was held at the u. S. Capitol. It is just over an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the United States house of representatives, the honorable paul ryan. [applause] speaker ryan good afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody. Its great to see you here. I want to welcome all of you to the u. S. Capitol. We are here today to honor the 65th infantry regiment of the u. S. Army. [applause] or, as we prefer to say, the borinqueneers. [cheering] isnt that cool . Amen. Puerto rico became a part of the United States in 1898. And soon after, congress created a special unit of puerto rican soldiers. They went on to fight for our country valiantly, in both world wars and in korea. But throughout their serv
Calvin, what a full day. It really was and the president wrapped up phis day after a state dip were raul castro. And just about everything on the president s schedule is carefully core graphed and metic eye lusly timed out hour by hour until the News Conference earlier today where reporter were able to ask questions to both leaders obama and castro and it was pretty clear obama is used to answering questions and castro is not and thatt difference was made very clear. A night the pomp and circumstance as president barack obama attend aid state dinner with raul castro and the two breaking bread after wrapping up a historic day. The American National anthem playing this morning ap president obama started his day by taking partn the Memorial Ceremony remembering cuban cuban vicepresident salvador valdez. From there it was on to historic bilateral meetiti with cuban president raul castro and a moment frozen in time as president obama shook hands with a cuban leader on cuban soil and it was
Castro decided today enough s enough when asked if cuba was holding any Political Prisoners. Thats not correct to ask me about Political Prisonersn general please give me the name of a political prisoner and i think this is enough. We have concluded. Thank you for your participation. And in an exclusive interview with abc news, president obama addressed castros concept of getting him a list of names. Well, the truth of matter is weve given him lists in the past and they have responded intermittentnt to our engagement so with castro and obama coming together for dinner and preparing for the baseball game of diplomacy its unclear if the two countries will ever be able to bridge their differences. Truly wants change. Do i not believe president castro wants to up end the ruling party forhe system that they have. And a footnote to the state dinner tonight some of the invitees included congressional delegation, House Minority leader nancy pelosi and secretary of state john kerry from the cub
They suffered persistent discrimination. For too long their contribution to our history has been overlooked. So today, today we are setting the record straight by giving them the highest award within our possession the congressional gold medal. Cheers and applause] mr. Ryan i know a lot of people worked very hard to make this happen. And i just want to recognize just a few of them, the people who made this happen. First of all, commissioner pierluisi. [applause] mr. Ryan congressman bill posey. [applause] mr. Ryan senator blumenthal. [applause] mr. Ryan senator rubio. I also want to thank governor padilla. Wed like to thank secretary murphy and secretary mcdonald for joining us as well. [applause] mr. Ryan i would like to point out today that we have here with us some borinqueneers themselves. Jose colon is here with us today. [applause] mr. Ryan Manuel Siverio is with us today. R. Ryan and john polasie. Wheres john . I would like to add that john now lives in milwaukee, wisconsin. Go,