More than 200 UT Austin students gathered Thursday for a Latinx Grad ceremony that most didn’t think would happen just a few months prior.
With brightly colored serapes draped around their shoulders, the students walked across the stage of the AISD Performing Arts Center as their names were called out in Spanish. Cheers erupted from their families who had come from different parts of Texas and out of state to celebrate not only graduation but also their culture and the achievements of their community.
For months, students didn’t know if the ceremony would happen because of lack of funding. The fate of the Latinx Grad event became uncertain after the university implemented Senate Bill 17 at the start of the year. The law bans public universities in Texas from having DEI programs and training and led to program cuts, funding cuts and the layoffs of around dozens of UT Austin employees.
“We wondered if we’d ever have our names read in the language our parents so lovingly named us,” Liany Serrano Oviedo, the Latinx Community Affairs’ special events co-chair, said during her opening remarks. “The Latinx community has shown up in a way that has exceeded anything we could’ve ever dreamed of.”
Latinx Grad is the only graduation ceremony held in English and Spanish, acknowledging the bicultural heritage of many Latinx students at the university. The Multicultural Engagement Center and the Latinx Community Affairs office used to organize the graduation, but the MEC closed following UT Austin’s implementation of SB 17, and funding that previously went to the organizations housed in the center was pulled.
Many students thought the graduation celebration wouldn’t happen this year without that funding. Other graduations such as the Black Graduation, GraduAsian and the Lavender Graduation, which celebrates LGBTQ students were also affected.
Donations from the community and from the League of United Latin American Citizens made Latinx Grad possible. Students raised more than $8,000 in a few months.
When the graduates walked across the stage on Thursday, they all wore an orange cord. For them, the bright color represents the monarch butterfly, an emblem of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. The students wanted to show solidarity with those who are DACA recipients and acknowledged that 71% of the graduates being celebrated were first-generation students.
“We have such a big overlap with first-gen graduates,” said Katherine Ospina, the outreach chair for LCA. “It has nothing to do with dividing races, it has to do with recognizing the particular plight that Hispanics undergo in Texas and the U.S.”
José Luis Gomez Montoya, one of the graduates, is the first in his family to earn a college degree in the U.S. His mom, Carmen Fira Montoya, said the ceremony meant the world to her. She made an effort to make sure her son spoke Spanish.
“This is the achievement of my life,” she said in Spanish. “I never want him to forget his roots, who he is or how much we can achieve.”
LCA students said they plan to continue holding the Latinx graduation for future classes and recognize the significance it has for entire families.
“This is the most sacred thing I have in life,” Fira Montoya said with tears in her eyes. “His achievement is also my achievement.”
UT Austin is recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which means at least 25% of students enrolled are Hispanic or Latinx. During the ceremony, some graduates wore caps decorated with messages written in Spanish thanking their families and acknowledging their international backgrounds.
Ospina said that while the ceremony was meant to be a celebration, it also served as an act of resistance. She said the DEI ban will be a source of momentum for future generations to be more innovative.
Serrano Oviedo echoed that sentiment in her speech, saying “Today’s ceremony marks the moment we decided to keep fighting, and we promise we are never going to stop.”
