Hello class of 2019
I come here today to 
not only speak about my 
story but to speak on our 
journey together and val-
idate it.
Although each of our 
journeys have been dif-
ferent, we all fought with 
the same resiliency. 
We 
have 
conquered 
so much and sitting here 
proves that whether it 
was going through tough 
classes, long nights, or 
lots of cramming. We got 
through it. 
We even thought our 
summer experience with 
ALMA, CSP, or Bridge 
was going to be our col-
lege experience, but we 
quickly came to find out 
it wasn’t. 
We sat in classes with 
people who did not look 
or talk like us. 
We engaged in difficult 
conversations where we 
were tokenized 
We experienced exclu-
sion from this university, 
and with little knowledge 
on how to navigate it. 
And, 
let’s 
not 
talk 
about the food
But, we rose together 
to create spaces for our 
community, to support 
one another. 
Through these spaces 
we danced, laughed, and 
created many memories 
together. 

And most importantly 
it gave everyone a home 
away from home
Because of your work, 
your efforts, and your 
time future Latinx stu-
dents will no longer feel 
alone. 
You have gained the 
skills needed to make a 
change in your own pro-
fessional careers.
In 
this 
moment, 
I 
would like for you all to 
imagine in your head of 
who you want to become 
whether it is being an 
activist, a politician, or 
teacher (2 seconds) now 
imagine yourself in that 
position. I am standing 
here today to tell you, you 
can be that person and if 
you continue to live your 
life with the same resil-
iency you fought to create 
spaces for our commu-
nity and achieve this 
degree you can achieve 
that image. 
As you go into your 
professional careers, the 
statistics will always be 
against you. But, those 
statistics 
don’t 
know 
what is en tu corazon 
(points at heart). In here 
lies your passion, deter-
mination, 
and 
drive. 
And most importantly 
you have the people here 
in this room to support 
you on your next jour-
ney. Both combined your 
unstoppable. 
I didn’t want to make 
this speech about me 
because I always strived 

throughout 
my 
work 
with La Casa and Latini-
dad Magazine to provide 
a voice to the voiceless 
pero mi familia esta aqui 
y tengo que ablar de mi 
un ponquito. Les quiero 
dicer a mis padres que 
sin ellos no estaria aqui. 
Ellos han trabajado en 
fabricas desde que cru-
zaron la frontera mas 
de 20 anos y con mucho 
amor y esfuerzo me saca-
ron adelante. 
I am the girl from Her-
mosa community on the 
west side of Chicago, first 
generation Latina who 
made it. Y sin mi familia 
no estuviera aqui con 
ustedes. So quiero dicer-
les muchas gracias y los 
amos mucho. 
I know many of you 
feel the same about your 
families. So, let’s give 
them a huge applause
At the end of this cer-
emony, I want you all to 
give them a huge hug
I want to reiterate how 
resilient our community 
and each one of you are
And make you under-
stand how powerful your 
voice and actions are in 
creating change 
The world is not ready 
for you but it needs you 
You are the leaders of 
our generation and have 
paved the way for future 
generations. 
Always go with your 
head held up high and 
take on the world.
Thank you 

9

Thursday May 9, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR

How ‘Old Town Road’ showed 
unity in the Black community

Every community has 
its lost of taboo topics. 
Some in the black commu-
nity include mental health 
(sadly) and therapy. But 
one that is not often real-
ized is country music. It’s 
ok if someone doesn’t like 
the stereotypical things 
like rap music or Kool-aid. 
But don’t let anyone find 
out that you liked Taylor 
Swift in her “You Belong 
With Me” days and you 
might get your revoked. 
Even 
in 
a 
community 
where they accomplish-
ments of each one is widely 
celebrated, Darius Rucker, 
who won multiple Gram-
mys in the country catego-
ry got no such praise. This 
trend change when the 
remix to the country song 
“Old Town Road” by black 
country artist Lil Nas X 
came out.
 The popularity of this 
song didn’t at first come 
from the song itself, but 

from the story behind it. 
When the original version 
of the song came out about 
a year ago, it reached #1 on 
the country charts. How-
ever, not too long after, it 
was taken down due to the 
fact that it was too “urban.” 
This was met with the 
anger of many, especially 
since “urban” is usually 
the polite way of saying 
“black.” So when the remix 
featuring Billy Ray Cyrus 
came out, many people 
decided to support it for 
the culture. 
 
Even though this 
is how the popularity of 
Old Town Road started, 
this country song with 
a hip-hop beat quickly 
caught on in its own right. 
The fact that the song has 
a beat that is more similar 
to more mainstream songs 
is what reeled many peo-
ple in. And for those who 
watched Hannah Montana 
growing up, the fact that 
Billy Ray Cyrus was on a 
verse added a bonus ele-
ment of nostalgia. Since the 

remix came on, I’ve seen 
multiple people advertise 
it on their Snapchat, I’ve 
had people that I’m hang-
ing out with sing it while 
we’re at dinner, and I even 
heard it at a fraternity 
probate. 
Though 
there 
are many that are still 
just listening to the song 
for support, it still signals 
a shift in how we support 
those in our community 
that don’t fit exactly into 
this preconceived notion 
of blackness.
 
Simply 
listen-
ing to a song shows the 
amount of solidarity that 
this community can hold. 
We are willing to put aside 
our generalizations about 
who we’re supposed to be, 
as well as our community 
taboos in order to uplift 
one our people that was 
wronged.
 
No 
community 
is perfect, and this one is 
no 
exception. 
However, 
it is still a beautiful thing 
knowing that we can pull 
together when needed.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEXANDRIA POMPEI
My commencement speech

‘Us’: Reflecting on privilege 
dynamics in the US

On March 22, 2019, the 
highly anticipated movie 
“Us” directed by Jordan 
Peele was released. This 
movie was released with 
the intention and expecta-
tion of solely being a horror 
movie. This was a shocker 
to many, after Peele’s pre-
vious movie “Get Out” 
reflected on many racial 
tensions in the United 
States. Although “Us” had 
the intention of just being 
a horror movie, it turns 
out this was not the case. 
Many 
were 
confused, 
including me, about what 
happened in the movie. 
However, after doing some 

research, 
and 
watching 
many 
analytical 
videos 
on YouTube, I found that 
these easter eggs meant 
much more than what 
appeared to the eye. 
Immediately 
after 
watching the movie, I was 
confused. I got the main 
plot of the story, the world 
of the shadows or the “teth-
ered” came back to kill 
and take over the humans 
above ground. However, 
there were many easter 
eggs that I noticed, and 
knew were important, but 
did not know what exactly 
they meant. Everyone had 
a conspiracy theory after 
the movie, but it still didn’t 
make much sense to me 
and not all of my questions 
were answered. Finally, I 

came across a video put 
out by Insider that objec-
tively 
explained 
these 
easter eggs, and exposed 
the underlying theme of 
the movie ... privilege. 
Now, to dive into the 
theme of privilege, we can 
do some character evalu-
ations, 
beginning 
with 
the tethered vs the “regu-
lar” people. The people/
families represented in 
the movie were those of 
upper 
middle/high-class 
people. Both families were 
traveling on vacation, had 
summer homes, and gen-
erally ideal family and 
home lives.

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

JACKY DELGADO
MiC Contributor

KAYLA THOMAS
MiC Blogger

NADIA DAVIS
MiC Blogger

