Overview
- Chancellor Cynthia Larive presented Becky G with UC Santa Cruz’s Chancellor’s Medal before she gave an unannounced keynote at the campus Chicane Latiné ceremony.
- Becky G centered her remarks on community, urging graduates to reject exclusion and to claim space in boardrooms and stages where they are often told they do not belong.
- She invoked her Chicana family history on the Central Coast, saying her great-great-grandfather emigrated from Tepatitlán, Jalisco, and worked in Watsonville’s fields, and she told reporters that meetings with UCSC professors and staff helped shape her remarks.
- After the ceremony Becky G stayed at East Field to hand diploma covers to about 450 graduates and pose for photos with each student.
- The event also featured longtime advocate Olga Talamante and served as a platform for UCSC’s Latiné Futures fundraising effort aimed at supporting student success, community programs and research tied to Chicanx and Latiné communities.