We welcome as our Baccalaureate speaker this morning, Ms. Carmen Yulin Cruz Soto
She is the mayor of San Juan and a former member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives,
and an active advocate for immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the deaf community,
children with functional diversity, and those who have struggled with gender based violence.
She was recently named one of the one hundred most influential people of 2018 by Time magazine.
She first drew international attention in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which devastated
Puerto Rico.
While marshaling the island's scant remaining resources, she also advocated relentlessly
on behalf of the Puerto Rican people, facing down government bureaucracies that
were often inefficient and that seemed at times uncaring.
Her repeated insistence, "this is not about politics, this is about saving lives", galvanized
numerous non-governmental organizations and private companies in support of the recovery effort.
Even before entering politics her focus was on people.
In the private sector she rose rapidly in human resources at Westing House, Colgate Palmolive,
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Celluar One, Scotiabank, and the US Treasury department.
Ms. Cruz earned a BA in Political Science cum laude from Boston University.
She also holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where
she received the first Barbara Jenkins Award for having a positive impact on the quality
of life of other students.
Her humanitarian work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Martin
Luther King Jr. Center's Humanitarian Leadership Award, the Antonio Villaraigosa Leadership
Award, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Humanitarian Award.
For good measure, she was also a record shattering sprinter in high school.
Today Ms. Cruz continues to work for the recovery of San Juan and Puerto Rico and to pursue
her vision of public service not just for the people, but with the people.
She prefers to be called Yulín, so will you give Yulín a warm Marsh Chapel, Boston University welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Have you ever been in a situation so overwhelming, so devastating and so difficult that you have
no idea how things are going to turn out?
You do know one thing: no matter what, nothing will ever be the same.
You know that literally you are in the fight for your life, and in the midst of all that
chaos you must answer a profoundly personal question: what are you prepared to do?
That happened to me eight months ago today as my fellow Puerto Ricans and I began to
face the aftermath of the devastation inflicted upon us by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
I spent the night with six hundred and eighty-five people; families who sought refuge in the
largest shelter in Puerto Rico.
That was to become their home for the next several weeks and mine for the next several
months.
While tropical wind storms were still present, I accompanied dozens of municipal workers
to begin the daunting and monumental task that unfolded before us.
The devastation was like nothing I'd ever seen before.
There were no cars, no people in the streets, no dogs barking and no music playing.
There was nothing.
Just a deafening silence and total darkness.
One thing broke the terrifying stillness of those early hours.
It was the pain, the sorrow, and the anguish of those whose lives were now a mere memory,
buried underneath the rubbish and the debris.
The San Juan and the Puerto Rico that I knew and loved were there no more.
Those charged with the responsibility to come to our aid failed us.
A much needed, timely and robust supply chain of aid—of essentials like water, food and
medicine took too long to get on the ground.
Rather than leadership at the highest places we faced a general lack of urgency and a dismissive attitude.
Neglect started taking its toll and people were suffering the consequences.
We were dying, and they were killing us with bureaucracy and inefficiency.
I had to answer that fundamental question: what was I prepared to do to unmask and denounce
this atrocity?
There was but one thing I could do, raise my voice and bring attention to the humanitarian
crisis brought upon by those treating us as if our lives did not matter.
I did what I had to do and I will do it again and again in every day of my life.
I told the inconvenient truth, on the hopes that someone would listen and our suffering
and the violation of our human rights would end, and boy did they listen.
The Puerto Rican diaspora and the American people from all walks of life opened their
hearts and went and reached places where others said they couldn't get to.
Latino people all over the world answered the call.
Many of you may have encountered that "what are you prepared to do?" moment.
Oprah would call it that "ah-ha" moment.
You have had to make the choice of standing up and speaking up, no matter what the consequences.
Or standing down and play along and becoming an accomplice to a false narrative.
Look around, really look around the world we live in.
It is filled with violence, discrimination, poverty and injustice.
The question is what are we prepared to do to change this world?
What will you do to ensure that people all over the world have a chance to thrive and
not only survive?
Complaining about it will not change much.
You must get out there, fight and make that change.
Fight for what you believe in, no matter if the odds for success are against you.
For when you fight against hate and discrimination, you may not accomplish everything you set
out to do but I guarantee you, as Congressman Lewis knows all too well, you will never fail.
Fight for what you believe in, even if it seems that those standing before you are way
more powerful than you are.
Believe me, they may try to put you down, they may try to shut you up, but make no mistake,
they will fail.
For if truth and fairness are on your side, a more equitable and progressive society is
sure to follow.
If you want a new world, one where we put health before wealth, and we allow every human
being access to quality healthcare, make it happen.
Be fearless.
Stand up, and be counted.
If you believe that children everywhere have a right to schools rid once and for all from
gun violence, you must demand that sensible gun control laws are enacted now.
For something is wrong when it takes months of evaluations and a whole lot of paperwork
to get into college, but you can buy an assault rifle with little paperwork in just a few minutes.
You want change?
Be fearless, stand up and be counted.
If you believe that we should be tearing down the walls of discrimination instead of building
walls of bigotry.
If you believe in keeping families together rather than tearing them apart.
If you believe that education is the great equalizer and that all efforts must be made
to continue to make education affordable for all.
If you believe in creating a workforce where women are judged by their contribution in
the boardroom and not forced and harassed to endure unwelcome advances.
If you believe in DREAMers, and their right to have their dreams come true.
If you believe that love is love, and that we all should have the right to choose who
we love.
If you believe that ending poverty should be at the top of the list of things to fight
for, then by all means be fearless, stand up and be counted.
I know that you will not be alone in this fight.
For even your journey to make it here today has been paved by others.
I am the great-granddaughter of a sugar cane plantation worker.
My grandmother was the first one in her family to learn to read and write, and my parents
mortgaged their home twice.
Twice.
So that I could come to this prestigious institution and get an education and do better for myself
than they did for themselves.
And by coming here, not only did I receive the gift of an outstanding education, but
I learned something that shaped me forever.
Look around, really now, look around.
Look around and see the diversity amongst us.
Embrace it.
Really, this is the world Boston University has put before you.
One where diversity is seen as something to embrace, and to build on.
A world where love and acceptance are stronger than hate and intolerance.
For you tolerate what you do not consider to be equal, but you accept that differences
that we embrace.
This is the world that Boston University has given you these past years.
The fight ahead will not come without risks and sometimes will take a toll on you.
We may despair, but we can never give up.
For me, the fight continues.
For you see, eight months after Hurricane Maria there are still thousands of people
in Puerto Rico without water, or electricity.
Five-hundred thousand without a safe roof on their heads.
Our human rights continued to be violated while we fight reduction of pensions, closing
of schools, massive migration, privatization and the burden of colonialism.
We must collectively answer the question, what are we prepared to do to change the course
of the world we live in?
The answer will no doubt be a challenge, but I assure you, we are all up to the task.
For many of you, as BU alumni, the fight may just be beginning.
Your job as Boston University alumni is to ensure that the world out there becomes one where
in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, a Boston University alumni himself, and I quote
"We learn somehow to live with each other in peace."
May you have enough love in your heart to fight the good fight.
May you have enough strength in your soul to stand up and be counted.
May you work together to usher a new era of equality.
Be uncompromising, relentless, unapologetic, but above all stand up, be fearless, and be counted.
Let's all go out there, change the world, make it a better place.
I cannot wait to do that with you.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.