Goya CEO received in Miami with standing ovation, quotes iconic Reagan speech

“GOYA, GOYA, GOYA!” The Miami crowd chanted as GOYA Foods CEO Bob Unanue walked on stage to address Wednesday afternoon’s Hispanic Leadership Conference at the InterContinental Miami resort hotel where he delivered an inspirational speech that was met with applause and cheers. 

The GOYA food brand became a symbol of both Latino heritage and free speech among the pro-liberty Hispanic community–and also among non-Hispanic conservatives–after Unanue endured calls in 2020 from the radical left, which took to social media to call for a boycott of its products in response to his praise of former President Donald Trump.

The calls for a boycott backfired and spiked sales nationwide instead, according to research at Cornell University.

“In case you are unaware the United States is the second largest Latino country in the world after Mexico, it is said by 2050 Latinos will be the largest single group in the United States, or as I am predicting in two weeks if the border stays open” Unanue joked with the crowd.

He then reaffirmed his praise for the United States and said that Latinos all over share a common vision and set of values, cherishing the freedoms the nation offers.

“There is a reason why people risk everything from around the world to come to America,” he said. “It is in search of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity and one nation under God.”

Turning to the pages of history, Unanue recalled a speech made by President Ronald Reagan during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift Crisis when dictator Fidel Castro emptied the prisons of the island and encouraged tens of thousands of Cubans to set sail across the Caribbean Sea by raft.

In his comments, Unanue made a reference to Reagan’s direct reference to Cuban poet and professor, Heberto Padilla.

In that famous 1980 speech, which Reagan made to a Cuban American crowd, he said, “I think one of our most dangerous problems in America is that many of our own people take our blessed liberty for granted. In 1980, a Cuban scholar named Heberto Padilla came to the United States after spending 20 years under Castro. He marveled at what he saw, something that he hadn't even noticed during his visit here 20 years before.

“When visiting the campuses of our major universities he said, ‘I am struck by something that will be obvious to all Americans: No one government official or colleague has asked me what I was going to say in the seminars and courses that I am going to give this fall. This is new for me. Simple, but true. It is difficult to ask anyone born into freedom to realize exactly what she or he possesses,’ what freedom is,” Reagan said, quoting Padilla. 

Unanue continued paraphrasing Reagan, saying, “freedom is invisible, it is the absence of government censorship, it is the absence of the secret police, the absence of agents of repression.”

In that famous speech, President Reagan went on to reflect on the transformations in Havana that changed the landscape of a once-free society forever. The 40th president went on to say that we all have a responsibility to teach young Americans about how Cuba lost its freedom, and also thanked his Cuban American audience for the contribution they were making to the United States. 

“Perhaps the best gift you can give to your fellow citizens... and you've already contributed so much to our well-being is a better understanding of that which they cannot see, the human freedom that surrounds them,” Unanue quoted Reagan saying. 

“Perhaps you can help them understand, something you know instinctively, the awesome responsibility we have as Americans. For if we fail there will be no place for free men to seek refuge. I'm counting on you to help me explain the threats in Central America, threats you recognize so clearly.”

He recalled how in 2018 Trump sounded the alarm of socialism in Latin America and at home, adding that “President Trump has said they are not after me, they are after you, I am just in the way.” 

“In 2018 at that point in our country life was great, the economy was booming/humming, no inflation, we had the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate on record.”

“President Trump’s message was crystal clear: we can never permit America to lose its freedom, lose its leadership in the world, turn away from God and become a communist, socialist nation, Unanue said.”

The GOYA CEO warned that communism creeps across countries stealthily, almost unnoticeably and advised Americans to be alert. 

Cubanos, Venezolanos, and others know too well, but both times found out too late that the cancer of communism comes like a thief in the night,” he warned. “Before you realize it, your freedom and your opportunity to worship God towards a prosperous life are taken from under you. 

“Today after two years of socialist policies, and wokeness, people coming to America looking for freedom, opportunity and prosperity may think they are too late, but that is not the case, there is hope, we have a Latino population that treasures God, and values family, freedom, Patria, country, and work,” Unane said as the crowd joins him in applauses.

He then finished by thanking Trump for fighting back and not being deterred, predicting that the 45th president would return as the 47th president and bring the country back to God. 

The Reagan speech that Unanue quoted was also the same in which he announced he was asking Congress to approve funding to create Radio Marti, a component of Voice of America that enabled the U.S. to broadcast news directly to the people of Cuba. 

“The greatest threat to dictators like Fidel Castro is the truth,” Reagan said in that speech, adding that “Cuban Americans play a unique role in the preservation of our freedom. Your Hispanic heritage enables you to better relate our goodwill to our friends in neighboring countries to the south.”

Reagan added that “Cuban Americans understand, perhaps better than many of their fellow citizens, that freedom is not just the heritage of the people of the United States, but the birthright of the hemisphere. We, in the Americas, are descended from hearty souls, pioneers, men, and women with the courage to leave the familiar and start fresh in the New World. We are, by and large, people who share the same fundamental values of God, family, work, freedom, democracy, and justice.

“The stark contrast between your life and that of the neighbors and loved ones you left behind in Cuba stands as evidence to the relationship between freedom and prosperity. Contrast in Wealth” 

“About 10 million people still live in Cuba, as compared to about a million Cuban Americans - people with the same traditions and cultural heritage; yet the Cubans in the United States, with only one-tenth the number, produce almost two times the wealth of those they left behind. So don't let anyone fool you. What's happening in Cuba is not a failure of the Cuban people, it's a failure of Fidel Castro and of Communism.”

Reagan then commended Latin American freedom fighters in his speech, adding, “Our struggles for independence and the fervor for liberty unleashed by these noble endeavors bind the people of the New World together. In the annals of human freedom, names like Bolivar and Marti rank equally with Jefferson and Washington. These were individuals of courage and dignity. They left for us a legacy, a treasure beyond all imagination.”

When Unanue concluded his own remarks and comments about Presidents Reagan and Trump he left the stage and shortly thereafter the 45th president entered the stage to a roaring applause to address the Hispanic American Leadership Conference.