Family Affair: The 2nd Annual Dolores Huerta Chicana/o Latina/o Graduation Celebration

Graduation is a big accomplishment, especially for me and some of the other members in these organizations who are planning the event, as the first in our families to graduate from college. - Karla Alonso, senior, History/Chicana/o Studies

For senior Karla Alonso (History/Chicana/o Studies), one of the most important parts of graduating this year will be that all the members of her family will be able to appreciate the pomp and circumstance that mark such an occasion, by attending the 2nd Annual Dolores Huerta Chicana/o Latina/o Graduation Celebration, sponsored by the department of Chicana/o Studies, the Dominguez Hills chapter of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), and the Chicana/o Studies Association.

“Our focus for the event providing a bilingual ceremony, in English and Spanish,” she says. “For a lot of our graduates, that is important because they have a lot of family who are coming from Mexico, El Salvador, and other places in Latin America. They felt that the University’s commencement ceremony was really great, but that their family members wouldn’t know what was going on because it is only in English. Graduation is a big accomplishment, especially for me and some of the other members in these organizations who are planning the event, as the first in our families to graduate from college. It’s very important to have our all of our family members understand that.”

Students participating in the event will have the opportunity to thank their family and friends from the stage. There will also be a student representative speaking on the theme of returning to the Dominguez Hills community as an educator or activist in order to give back to their alma mater and its surrounding areas. Alonso, who is planning a teaching career, echoes this sentiment in her own plans.

“I would love to come back. I love this campus, it’s been good to me,” she says.
“It’s so important for this campus in particular, because we have such a diverse population, such a diverse student body. It would be nice to have more diversity in our faculty and administration also. If we could get those graduates motivated about coming back here, we could get them to motivate future students and encourage them to attend grad schools, medical schools, and law schools. We have a large variety of majors and minors, with not just Chicana/o Studies majors but graduates in biology, sciences, and psychology. It’s great to have them say, ‘Here I am, I was a biology major, you can do it too.’ That’s what we’re aiming for, to get that kind of inspiration going, for our campus especially.”

Alonso, who serves as president of the Chicana/o Studies Association, appreciates the Dominguez Hills atmosphere of diversity that allows a variety of celebrations to exist on one campus.

“It’s great that the campus allows us to celebrate graduation this way, like with the Douglass-Bethune Graduation Celebration and the Latino Awards,” she says. “It’s great to be able to say, ‘We accomplished this.’ We want to say ‘thank you’ to the University for letting us celebrate it the way we’d like to celebrate it.”

The 2nd Annual Dolores Huerta Chicana/o Latina/o Graduation Celebration will be held on Saturday, May 13, 12-3 p.m., at the Home Depot Center Tennis Facility. Students can register for the Graduation Celebration by May 4 in the Division of World Cultural Studies Office located in LaCorte Hall, C-316. There is a $35 registration fee; each student can invite an unlimited number of guests. For more information, contact Karla Alonso at csagrad@yahoo.com  or Ruby Ramírez at (310) 243-3326.

-Joanie Harmon