Three leaders within their respective industries gave toasts at TIME’s Latino Leaders dinner on Tuesday night in Miami, where they each honored their cultures and the people who raised them.

Nelson German, a chef, restaurateur, and author; Julián Castro, the CEO of Latino Community Foundation, the largest Latino-serving organization in the U.S.; and actor, singer, and advocate Sofia Carson, all spoke at the event.

German, who was raised in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, reflected on the experience of growing up in a Dominican immigrant family and shying away from his language and culture as a child.

“We wanted to fit in so badly to reach that American dream,” he said. “But now things have changed … We now are embracing those parts of ourselves more fully. We are embracing our cultures, our heritage, our motherlands.”

The act of honoring one’s culture, he said, is about looking both forward and back.

“It's not just about the future; we have to honor the past.…