Mexican American Council Honors Migrant Student Graduates

With their hopes and dreams seemingly within sight, 46 Homestead and 49 South Dade Senior High School migrant students were joined by their family, friends, and community activists at the 30th Annual Migrant Students’ Recognition Program held on Thursday night, May 29th at the Palmetto Bay Village Center in Palmetto Bay. They were joined in the celebration by 59 migrant students from senior high schools (including Coral Reef Senior High School, M.A.S.T@Homestead, Robert Morgan Educational Center, and North Miami Senior High School) from throughout Miami-Dade County.

The Mexican-American Council, Inc. and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Title I Migrant Education Program sponsored the ceremony. Over $200,000 in scholarship funds were awarded to students. Miami Dade College Homestead Campus Academic Support Facilitator Dr. Kevin Moore presented 47 American Dream Scholarships for two year studies (each scholarship being worth $7,200).

While filled with the expected pomp and circumstance found in the thousands of high school commencement ceremonies held throughout the United States every May and June, over the years the ceremony has been defined by a distinct realization for the graduates and their families: for the overwhelming majority of them, the Migrant Student Recognition Program is the first high school level instruction in their families.

The children of Mexican, Central American, and Haitian migrant farmworkers, the migrant students’ backgrounds distinguish them from many of their classmates. The Title I portion of the ceremony itself is symbolic of greater educational challenges that migrant students and their parents face – Title I refers to the federal Title I under its most recent revision Public Law 107-110, better known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. As Homestead Senior High School Counselor Beatriz Vidales-Ortiz commented after the four hour occasion ended, “At least ninety percent (of the migrant students) come from low income backgrounds, sometimes from single family homes. Their parents’ level of education is just about elementary education”. In describing her admiration for the migrant students that she has come to know, she expressed “These are kids that are fighters, who are going to be productive citizens of this nation and who will open doors for other students in years to come”.

Over the decades, the Migrant Students’ Recognition Program has come to be known for its symbolic passing of the torch - Candlelight Ceremony – where graduating students pass lighted candles to their junior year students who during their senior year of high school are expected to continue their studies. As Juan Torres, a 2012 South Dade High graduate who came back to the occasion to receive a scholarship to help him pursue his goal of becoming a law enforcement officer noted about the Candlelight Ceremony, “it brought back memories of high school. When I did it, it was a responsibility to graduate. I had my cousin pass it to me. It defines me; my responsibility to my parents.” Mr. Torres’s grandparents on both sides of his family immigrated to Texas from Mexico to work in agriculture. His parents worked as farmworkers all over the United States, including between Texas and Florida, where they eventually settled.

As Homestead Senior High graduate Diego Ramirez expressed in an interview following an inspiring and well received speech to his fellow migrant graduates, “Just because we weren’t born here (in the U.S.), we shouldn’t be generalized in negative views. Even as we migrate around the country, we are still able to have accomplishments”.

In describing how much his mother has inspired him, Mr. Ramirez added “She has taught us the struggle of life. Just because it looks hard doesn’t mean we can’t surpass obstacles. That we can keep fighting for what we believe in”. Mr. Ramirez’s mother brought him and his siblings to Homestead in 2005. As he looked ahead, he noted that his plan “is to go to Miami Dade Homestead under the scholarship that I received under the American Dream Scholarships and others that I could be receiving. I want to be an engineer with a minor in accounting or business.”

As South Dade Senior High graduate Aleida Vieyra pointed out following her own profound speech, she would like the non-migrant community to know that while “people are entitled to their opinion. But sometimes in order to fully understand the adversity that migrant students and their families face, they have to understand their stories and be willing to help and listen to them.” In describing her hope for the future, Ms. Vieyra said “I’m going to the University of Florida. I want to study environmental engineering and research ways to better the environment.”

As May 29th approached its end, with the remaining attendees headed to their homes, former migrant student, and 2011 Homestead Senior High graduate and Miami Dade College Homestead Campus Criminal Justice major Raquel Gasca symbolized the migrant students’ aspirations in saying “Dreams are not impossible, It’s how hard you work for them.”