I attended Raza Grad yesterday. While there, I didn’t once think that the event was separatist or that it was making UCLA virtual Balkan peninsula in June. Raza Grad was the third graduation I attended over the weekend, and the second at UCLA. It was different than the first I attended, a schoolwide graduation at Mt. San Antonio College and the Psychology Department graduation at UCLA.
Instead, I just felt proud because I knew several of the graduates. They were all students I had seen grow throughout their four of five years at UCLA. It made me glad that I decided to stay here for graduate school because I didn’t have to sever my relationship with these students after I left MEChA Calmecac. I went from being their counselor to being a friend.
After reading the article and post linked above, I felt annoyed. Those guys don’t get it, but I don’t expect them to. After all, they didn’t attend a university where they initially felt lost. They don’t know what it’s like to transition from a high school where most student share your ethnic background. They don’t know what it’s like to be the only brown face in a class of 100 or more students. True, there are a lot of Latinos at UCLA, but no where near as many as the communities a lot us come from.
In response to the post at MayorSam, I offered my informed opinion, unlike a lot of the other commenters who had no idea what they were talking about.
I participated in UCLA’s Raza Grad five years ago. I also participated in a departmental graduation. I did not participate in the large 3,000 student graduation typically held on Friday afternoon.
I chose to do this for the following reasons:
- All of my friends were doing Raza Grad
- I was highly invested in MEChA, the organization that coordinated the planning and fundraising for the graduation*. I’d attended the ceremony before and knew I wanted to be part of it when the time came for me to graduate.
- The ceremony is fun and less dry than most graduation ceremonies. Danzantes lead the procession of graduates and following the keynote speaker, a band plays during the middle of the ceremony and students dance with their friends and faculty alike. For my graduation the band was Very Be Careful.
- I could invite as many people as I wanted unlike the larger graduation which limits the number of attendees a graduate can bring.
The fact that the ceremony is in English and Spanish was less important since the 18 family members who attended were all fluent in English, but I know this is not the case for many Latino students at UCLA.
Separatism and segregation did not come to mind when I decided to participate in Raza Grad. Instead it was about community. Raza Grad celebrated our accomplishments, but did so in the context of our families. You can see this as you flip through the dedications. Everyone thanks their parents. You don’t get anything like that at the larger graduation.
As I was leaving Pauley Pavilion, I bumped into an education professor. He had all the Raza Grad logos from the many years he has participated in the ceremony sewn on to a single stole. He asked, “will I see you here next year?”
“No,” I replied. “But I’ll be here in two years.”
*There’s a separate committee that does a lot of the work. A lot of those students in the committee are not in MEChA, but many are.
Those guys don’t get it, but I don’t expect them to. After all, they didn’t attend a university where they initially felt lost. They don’t know what it’s like to transition from a high school where most student share your ethnic background. They don’t know what it’s like to be the only brown face in a class of 100 or more students. True, there are a lot of Latinos at UCLA, but no where near as many as the communities a lot us come from.
I agree with the criticism and it comes across as strongly hypocritical and selective when you factor in that it is those that defend affirmative action on diversity grounds that tend to be the primary supporters of these separatists graduations. Your defense of such acts reminds me of this news story, but I guess ‘separate but equal’ means something completely different when minorities do it, huh?
i did Chicano/Latino graduation, and that’s all. i guess some people do see it as separatist when latinos have their own graduation (as do other people of color) but these same people don’t find it problematic when the departments graduation (let’s say philosophy or political science) do not have a proportionate amount of people of color (these are public institutions afterall). hey, you know where i would like to see equal representation, at the prison system, we have way too many brown and black folk, and not enough European Americans, they should have a lawsuit about that. but really, i don’t care what republicans, or conservatives have to say, i am not really looking for their approval/validation.
i haven’t been to your page a while, i still need to comment in other places.
Right on!
Raza graduations have funk, flavor and un chiingo de tears and gritos. At least the ones at CSUN where I have been to many.
Ofcourse some get it, some don’t. Some see it as seperatist and some don’t. SO WHAT.
The parents and younger siblings that come see that the university is open, when it really isn’t, and that gives hope. Hope breathes strength. Strength that can be used toward change.
Quote: “Here is a simple idea. Lets have an “AMERICAN GRADUATION”, this would be the ultimate exercise in diversity.”
What people can’t wrap their brains around is that such celebrations like graduation day at UCLA ARE so-called “American.” Such graduation celebrations are representations of our different cultures which inspire so much pride in each of us and in each one of our family members that traveled so far and worked so hard to see that despite the hardship of leaving everthing they loved behind for a better life, we have succeeded in this country and maintain our ever present culture and humanity. To embrace the opportunity that this country has provided us and worked to the bare bone to keep our heads above the oppression that comes with that opportunity. Such is the story of every willful immigrant group. Celebrations like our graduations inspire us to keep it up and keep going.
Plus, really anyone can join in on the ethnic graduations; there is no exclusion. However, just as we think the regular ones are kinda really really boring and dry, the ‘non-ethnics’ probably think the ethnic ones have too much celebratory stuff going on to handle. Such racist commentary makes me sick, but I’m glad that we can hold our own.
You can’t make anyone happy. As one commentator said on the blog these celebrations are paid for partyly by students. What should it matter to someone else what your group does with its money.