Each semester, students at Texas A&M University have the opportunity to participate in the Latinx Graduation Ceremony, the only commencement celebration delivered in Spanish and English. The fall 2022 ceremony will be held on Dec. 18, 2022, in Gates Ballroom in the Memorial Student Center (MSC).
The Latinx Graduation Ceremony is an optional, additional ceremony designed for graduates with Spanish-speaking families. It began as a student-led initiative in the fall of 2018 when former Senior Class President Andrea Flores ’19 wanted to found the ceremony with her peers.
Flores, who was also the first Latina to be elected Senior Class President at Texas A&M, said “a student reached out to me and asked if I could start the ceremony so her Spanish-speaking family would be able to understand what was being said at the ceremony.“
Flores spent the fall semester trying to get approval from faculty members to start the ceremony but was unsuccessful. In the spring of 2019, Flores and her friends decided to organize the ceremony independently. Within three months, they raised $10,000 and got 40 students to participate in the inaugural Latinx Graduation Ceremony held in May 2019.
During the same semester, the Department of Multicultural Services (DMS) at Texas A&M hosted its first Student Success & Multicultural Graduation in coordination with three student organizations: the Asian Presidents’ Council, Black Student Alliance Council, and the Hispanic Presidents’ Council.
According to the DMS website, the “Multicultural Graduation was founded on the need and intentions of creating a formal space for [Texas A&M’s] multicultural graduates to celebrate and honor their cultural heritage and history with their family, friends, and the campus community.”
In the spring of 2021, the Department of Multicultural Services (DMS) at Texas A&M divided the Multicultural Graduation Celebration into three cultural ceremonies: the inaugural Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Graduation Ceremony, the inaugural Black Graduation Ceremony, and the 3rd annual Latinx Graduation Ceremony. The move under DMS made the Latinx Graduation Ceremony an official Texas A&M ceremony.
All graduating students are able to participate in the ceremony, regardless of their major and their degree (undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral). Students who register for the ceremony pay a small fee for their spot in the ceremony and for a stole—a white Latinx Graduation Coalition stole or a sarape stole.
For more information about the ceremony, students can visit the DMS website or email tamulatinxgraduation@gmail.com.