The soon-to-be-Maywood College high school graduates were processed in an auditorium at East Los Angeles College to record prevalence and situations.
Crowd promises allegiance to the flag. The names of each student who joined the American Armed Forces were read aloud. Cheers burst out as students sang the national anthem, hitting the high notes of “Rocket Red Glare” and “Land of Freedom”.
Singer, senior Maria Llamas, also served as the ceremony co-host, speaking in Spanish when she spoke in English. Noisemaker and Shouts announces the names of each graduate student. And, after the Los Angeles school Supt, those gathered cheered for 10 seconds. Alberto Carvalho describes the chart before him:
“From my standpoint, you are the perfect pixelation of America: black, brown, Christian, Muslim, native born, yes, powerful immigrants.”
Maywood College starts at a university that has long been a center for Latino community activism, and like the college, it is located in an area where immigration agents are raiding workplaces and public places, seizing people suspected of living in the United States without legal authorization, and the review of immigration review is pending.
Valedictorian's Abella Gutierrez captured the duality of many graduation ceremonies held throughout the week in the country's second university district – Joy suffered a dark tide of fear.
“A lot of our classes are very optimistic and humorous and I am proud of it because I know I’ve made history here,” said Abella, who will attend UCLA and intends to participate in the architecture major. “So, yes, I'm grateful. I'm so happy.”
Meanwhile, she said: “I’m very frustrated when it comes to what’s happening right now,” referring to U.S. immigration and customs enforcement or raids on ice, or touching on the week of chaos, sporadic violence protests in parts of downtown.
“It’s a scar in our community, knowing that many of our parents and families have to worry about whether they can participate in this event because their safety is compromised.”
“It’s hard,” said Salutatorian Mayah Flores, who plans to attend Cal State Long Beach as a freelance research major, before returning to Maywood College as a teacher. “I think I should feel in such a difficult time.”
Attention is not theoretical. Two teachers at the school confirmed to the times that immigration agents arrested a 10th grader, her sister and their mother and took them to a Texas detention center.
The arrests were not conducted at the school – so far, so far, agents reportedly entered the Los Angeles County campus – despite two unsuccessful attempts in April. Instead, the mother was caught as part of the family application when she reported it to the authorities, according to Guatemalan family advocates.
“Johanna is a top student in Maywood Academy High School, a sportsman on the swimming team and attends a hiking club,” according to the GoFundMe page set up for the family. “She is a valuable member of the school community. We asked her and her family to reunite with her sister and then to return to our community.”
Although the auditorium of about 2,000 people mostly urged 230 graduates, some relatives stayed at home.
After graduation, an elderly man said in an interview that his father was not worried that he would be detained by immigration agents.
Social studies teacher Cherie McKernan said she received a message from students “They were very worried that their parents would be deported. One student in this line sent me a message saying that Ice was actually two stores down from where their parents worked.
Carvalho said to the graduates: “I'm sorry, because the world you're inheriting is not a perfect world. The society we bequeath you is not a perfect society. My generation and previous generations have not eliminated poverty, racism, oppression, depression, depression. We have not addressed climate change. We have not respected this land on this land.
Carvalho seems to be talking about Trump continues: “For those who criticize and demonize immigrants, I want him to know what an immigrant looks like. I want him to know what an immigrant looks like without a document.”
“They looked at me,” he said, referring to an unauthorized teenager who had arrived in the United States.
Yet despite the ominous basis, people are considered holidays, optimistic.
“I feel accomplished – hard work and dedication, and now it’s at the next level,” said Adrian Abril. “I’m going to go to California State Fullerton, professional computer engineering.”
There is also a more traditional tension.
“I won't lie. It's scary,” Sadie Padilla said. “Because you've lived your whole life, elementary school to high school, everything is all for you. Now you have to figure out your own stuff yourself and just look at where you take you.”
“Whatever happened, they had won during this time, graduating from high school – most of them were the first graduates in their families. For this reason, their family moved here, and they succeeded here, surpassing their craziest dreams and going to college.”
