Nuestro Orgullo
This year I had the beautiful privilege of serving as mistress of ceremonies for our virtual department graduation ceremony. I'm parking the remarks here as part of our collective archive, along with a picture of myself on that same precipice years ago. I am pictured on the far left in vivid recollection with my graduate school fortified Andariegas for life (from left to right: Rosanna Alvarez, Ana Lilia Soto, Marlene Chavez, and Rosie Valdez Bravo). Life takes us through circular journies in beautiful ways.
(Photo credits go to Marlene Chavez who has a much better version of this photograph in her personal archives!)
To the San José State University Chicana and Chicano Studies Graduating Class of 2021:
It is such an honor to have joined you as mistress of ceremonies this evening and to welcome you all into this next chapter of your lives.
My journey with this department started as a graduate student after having unraveled in my own meticulously planned journey.
When I began my journey I thought it was a detour on the way toward figuring things out; little did I know how much this department was, and is, and always will be HOME.
I now have the great privilege of teaching within this dept and having grown into my own floricanto - the poesia that is our collective legacy. It has been beautiful to hear our constellation of poetry unfold in the spirit of poetry in action - overlapping threads of palabras del corazón.
In all of us
for all of us
from all of us;
the fabric of who we are.
I’ve developed a habit, or a practice rather, in my teaching: on the first day of every class, I ask students:
Who are you / quienes son, and who do you come from / de quienes son.
And I follow that with asking them to articulate their vision for a more just and equitable world.
That reflection is more than our identities; it’s an intentional rooting while unpacking of our responsibilities.
Grounding and rooting us in our why.
In some ways, it’s an activation of how we show up as pillars with community,
intergenerationally mindful of WE,
asking questions in full criticality,
like:
how are the children of a literate people-- systemically vandalizedwhose histories are regal? who sometimes lack wordsso far beyond feeble their hearts rule their mindsthey’re serpent and eaglesensing wise truthsrespecting the landthey are poem and danceintellect in their handsnurture them whole speaking beauty to powerseeds in their veinscanto hondo, full flowers
And your graduation dedications speak to that intentionality, and in some ways activate that childlike spirit.
And as you embark on this next part of your journey, REMEMBER:
Remember that there is value in "failure." They tell us to dust ourselves off; that if we plan ourselves into perfection, failure is not an option; but where's the adventure in that? And where’s the liberation?
Remember that there is value in tinkering, envisioning, like the children we once were before we learned to fear.
Remember to plant your bare feet in the ground; reach down into your roots.
Remember to find your folks who might not be like minded but like-valued and like-energized to co-conspire, collaborate, collectively liberate.
Remember to latch on to joy and a life well lived in a community where your disruption of systems might not always be well-liked.
Because you will always be loved.
It has been, and continues to be, such a beautiful joy to see how your journeys continue to unfold;
to meet you and bear witness to your tenacity, your brilliance, and your commitment to making our world a more just and equitable place that acknowledges us all in the fullness of our humanity.
Ese rostro y corazón
that flower and song
-- poetry in action;
To see you rebirth yourselves
several times over,
while giving us life.
Refined,
Defined.
Refusing
to be confined.
Cycles of regeneration
in wholeness
--fortified.
In Declaration...
Re-membering:
Todos somos //
quienes somos //
porque somos //
de donde somos //
con cargos y orgullo . . .
en como somos
-- un homenaje
a nuestra poesía:
familia,
home,
bridge.
floricanto, de puro corazón.
Nuestro orgullo y declaración
¡FELICIDADES!