Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Congratulates Stanford Latin American Studies Graduates
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Congratulates Stanford Latin American Studies Graduates
The CLAS community, M.A. Class of 2020, and their family and friends gathered virtually on July 12, 2020 to celebrate this year’s graduates with words of encouragement, praise, and advice from faculty, family members, and a surprise keynote speaker.
The virtual celebration began with the same feeling of excitement and anticipation that fills the air of graduation ceremonies, as the music of James Robinson, who plays live during all of CLAS’ commencements, opened the event. CLAS Director Alberto Díaz-Cayeros gave his welcome remarks in both English and Spanish from the garden of our beloved Bolivar House. He reminded us that this year’s celebration was unlike any other as it took place in a time with unprecedented challenges that required that we all do our part to stay safe and keep others safe.
As Director Díaz-Cayeros began congratulating the class of 2020, not just on their academic achievements but also on their resilience and resourcefulness amidst these trying and changing times, the feelings of strength and togetherness could be felt even through the attendees’ computer screens. “We are so, so happy for you, we are so happy for your families, we are happy for your loved ones because this is a voyage that requires all of us to work together. Of course, the merit is yours, you are the graduating class, our M.A. students, but it is a shared success,” remarked Director Díaz-Cayeros.
As he named each of the graduates, their loved ones handed them their capstone or thesis books. This symbolic gesture was followed by words of gratitude from the graduates in the order that follows:
Alan Arroyo - Chávez - Capstone: Understanding Violence Against the LGBT Community in the Colombian Armed Conflict: Constructing Durable Peace Through Education and Gender Ideology
Advisor: Michael Rosenfeld
Eda Marcela Benites Nieto - Thesis: De-essentializing 'Hispanic': A Critical Approach to Ancestry Estimation with FORDISC 3.1
Advisor: Dr. Bridget Algee-Hewitt
Jessica F. Cordiglia - Capstone: Quechua Language and Identity in Perú: Huk Perupa Simin Tawachunka Pusaqniyuqmanta A Language Rights Journey
Advisor: Guillermo Solano-Flores
Jessica Magallón-Gálvez - Capstone: When Legislation Isn't Enough: How Systemic Underfunding and State Sanctioned Impunity Allow High Rates of Violence Against Women and Feminicide to Continue in Brazil
Advisor: Alberto Díaz-Cayeros
Mary Elizabeth Prosser - Thesis: “Othering” and Integration: The Role of Ethnic Identity in the Assimilation of Second and Third-Generation Chinese Immigrants in Peru
Advisor: Professor Asad L. Asad
The celebration continued with a pre-recorded video of messages from the graduates’ family members, faculty advisors and mentors, Tinker Visiting Professors, who sent their congratulatory words from Brazil and Spain, and the CLAS team. Several faculty members recalled great memories from the times they spent working and teaching the students, and others reminded them of their strengths and the responsibilities that come with them. The video ended with words by Professor Bridget Algee-Hewitt, “you are going to do great things, I know it, so just get out there and do them.”
CLAS is a collaborative community with horizontal equality, nonetheless, it is customary to award a certificate of excellence to the student with the highest grade point average during graduation. This year there were two students with almost indistinguishable grade point averages, Eda Marcela Benites Nieto and Jessica Magallón Gálvez.
Shortly after awarding and congratulating Eda and Jessica for excelling in their studies, Director Díaz-Cayeros enthusiastically revealed the surprise keynote speaker. “We have a special message for the graduates from an admirable Maya K’iche woman from Guatemala. Social and political leader, activist, writer and spiritual guide. She has incessantly worked to defend and safeguard the rights of women and indigenous peoples and has had an extraordinary trajectory in the region’s peace talks. Amongst her many accolades, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 and the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1996… Let’s listen to Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum.”
In her message, Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum recalled that prior to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, like many others, she experienced the brutal repression that ravaged Guatemala for decades, leaving her with no choice but to be courageous and speak up on behalf of all those who no longer could. After endless years of fighting for human rights, especially those of indigenous peoples, through the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, she continues on her quest for peace, for the return of refugees to their lands, and for the protection of cultural, ancestral, and human rights. She invited the graduating students to prioritize social missions “because education is and must be for the collective memory. It must be for life, and not only for personal success.”
Doctor Menchú Tum commended the mission of CLAS and the work and dedication of its professors and congratulated the students for their achievements and their families for their support. She then proceeded to lead a toast in honor of the graduates:
“The most important thing for you all today is that you are just beginning a long road in which you have to protect the human being, humanization. All that concerns your thoughts, your analyses, and your diagnostics, and above all, what your conclusions may be, they all have to deal directly with the human being because this generation is graduating in a time that is not normal, in a pandemic, in which there is a lot of sadness and uncertainty, but there is also this goal that you have achieved I toast to you all and our dear director because the fight continues. Keep moving forward.”