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That's Barack Obama, President of United States. {laughter}
Now, Cecilia Muñoz, who is our keynote speaker tonight,
is deputy assistant to the president
and director of Intergovernmental Affairs the White House which oversees
the Obama Administration's relationship with state and local governments.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Cecilia served as senior vice president for the
Office of Research Advocacy Legislation
for the National Council of La Raza, which is the largest Latino civil rights
organization.
Ms. Muñoz has testified numerous times before Congress and appears regularly
in Spanish and English-language media,
including The Today Show, Good Morning America, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer,
Dateline NBC, the O'Reilly Factor,
CNN Situation Room and National Public Radio.
She has received numerous awards and recognitions from various sources including the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a variety of local, non-profit
organizations. Please join me in welcoming Cecilia Muñoz.
Thank you very much Dean Cullenberg for that introduction.
Class of 2011, you are really dazzling.
Look at you.
I remember her very first time I gave a commencement speech I was all of
30-years-old and I remember standing there wandering
why on Earth didn't they invite somebody famous?
So it's 18 years later and I'm certainly a little older
and I like to think
I'm a little wiser,
and I'm still kind of shocked to find myself standing here.
I'm still kind of wondering why you didn't invite someone more famous?
But you're stuck with me so I'll give it my best shot.
So thank you Dean Cullenberg,
Provost Rabenstein,
Ms. Nguyen that was a wonderful speech.
I'd also want to thank Chancellor White, who I am sorry wasn't able to be here
because I really wanted to tease him about that funny mustache he put on
to do Undercover Boss.
As you probably know
he impersonated a track coach, an assistant professor, a tour guide and a
member of the library staff
in order to get a first-hand look at what it's like to live and work on this
campus.
Shaving your head, gluing on a fake mustache -
a really goofy fake moustache -
now that's commitment.
It sounds to me a little bit like the kind of thing my boss would want to do,
except maybe without the mustache,
but I don't know if the Secret Service would go for it.
But in all seriousness,
I watched that episode and I found it very moving.
The chancellor talked about some of the things that make this place so
special.
You heard already - the most diverse place... campus in the UC system,
the fourth most diverse campus in the country,
he spoke about his pride in the students, the faculty, the staff
and his determination to make things even better.
And I think he did something incredibly brave.
He told a national T.V. audience
that his life's work is part of a larger story.
He spoke about honoring family,
especially parents,
who contribute so much to all of our success.
So I know you've done it already once before, but class of 2011,
even though this is your day, the parents, the family members, the loved ones who
got you here,
I think they maybe deserve another round of applause. {applause}
I want to mention one other thing Chancellor White said.
He said
I was surprised to see how my personal life stories sounded like the stories of
the folks I was working with.
So I thought today that would begin by quickly sharing my story.
It's unique, the same way all of your stories are unique,
but I hope you'll find parts of it familiar.
My parents are from Bolivia,
they came to this country so that my dad could finish his degree...
there's a Bolivian here?!? Hi!
While my parents were here, Bolivia was undergoing all sorts of turmoil.
My parents kept writing back to their family to say "is it time to come home?"
and their family kept saying "no, not yet."
So they stayed.
And after a while they realized that they had become Americans. This became
home.
My aunts and uncles did the same
and we became an American family,
that is an immigrant American family.
One of those big, wonderful, messy, interesting, families that are so common
in this nation of immigrants.
Throughout our country's history people from all over the world have arrived here,
worked hard,
given their children even more opportunity than they had.
That's the American dream and for my mom and dad
it became a reality.
When I got to college I volunteered with organizations that worked with
immigrants. It was a natural fit for me.
And that's what I saw another reality,
if my parents had come to this country just a few years later,
after the laws got much more restrictive,
our story would have been very different.
My parents would not have had the same chance to contribute to this country,
and as their child,
I might not have had the opportunities that got me where I am today.
That contrast between my immigrant family and many of the families that I
worked with helps shape my career.
I realize that what separates my family experience
from the often much more difficult experience shared by so many other
families,
is really something of an accident of history.
And so I began to engage with my country
to, as President Obama likes to say, work to make our union more perfect.
That has become the focus of my life and my career.
More than 50 years ago a Texan named J. Frank Dobie put it really well.
He said,
the noblest minds and natures of human history
have thought
and sung,
lived and died trying to have budge the status quo towards a larger and fuller
status.
And in many ways during my lifetime the status quo has budged.
It is budged enormously
While I was growing up near Detroit, courageous people in the civil rights
movement were challenging segregation and winning hard-fought battles for the
Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.
Just a few years before I got to college
the Supreme Court allowed universities to openly promote diversity on campus.
And in the years since I graduated and began my own career,
those of us in the civil rights movement have found new ways to link arms and
work together.
When I began my work we were thought of as completely separate constituencies.
Latino, African-American, Native American, Asian-American, LGBT and so on.
When the 2000 Census came out and it showed
that Latinos were the largest minority group in the country
the headline in the Washington Post was
Latinos overtake Blacks,
like it was a horse race or something.
It was as if the media couldn't be expected to think about more than
one community at a time.
Today I am proud to say that that is changed.
We come from different communities,
but we have a shared vision for our country's future.
We're fighting for good jobs
for everybody.
For access to education and health care for everybody.
For fair treatment under the law
for everybody.
We've learned that when we joined together,
we get things done.
President Obama is about the product and a proponent of this vision.
In 2004 he told us there was no red America or blue America
but one
United States of America.
In 2008
he ran a campaign based on the idea that what unites us is greater than what
divides us.
In his speeches he often uses the Latin motto "E Pluribus Unum,"
Out of many, one.
Those words aren't just a summary of our story, they're a source of our strength.
President Obama believes America can win
the future,
buy out-innovating, out-educating and out-building the rest of the world.
But that belief
comes with an understanding,
it will only happen
if every American
no matter your race, your gender, your background, who your parents are, who you
are,
everybody
has to succeed.
Graduates you have the same opportunity that I had when I started this work.
You have the chance to honor your family's legacy,
to write the next chapter in your community's story,
and to move our country forward.
Making the most of this opportunity won't be easy.
You are entering a world of
incredible diversity, of cultures, of languages, of lifestyles,
of choices.
In the entire
history of humankind,
no one has ever had as many choices as you.
With nothing more an internet connection you can visit just about any
place,
interact with just about any person,
become informed,
or misinformed,
in just about any subject.
The truth is when you're faced with all this diversity you may at times feel a
little overwhelmed.
And when you're do you might also feel the temptation to isolate yourself.
To spend your time with only those who are just like you.
At the most basic level your future will be determined by how you handle this
temptation.
Do you isolate yourself from the world?
or do you engage with the world?
In my career I've learned that isolating is easier,
but engaging is better.
In fact it's essential.
And I suspect you've learned it too right here on this incredible campus.
As a member of this community
you've experienced the benefits and probably also the challenges that come
with true diversity.
You've developed a sense of empathy.
You've learned to put yourself in another person's shoes.
You're going to rely on those skills for the rest of your life.
And you've also learned that you have a responsibility to use your talents and
your good fortune
to help those around you.
This year Riverside students tutored and mentored at local schools,
helps thousands of underserved students get ready for college,
you performed research on behalf of the local free health clinic and food
pantry,
you helped local non-profits run their websites and launched social media
campaigns.
You invited students from high schools that have low college attendance rates
onto this campus for tours and summer academies.
In the 2010-2011 school year,
Riverside students volunteered more than 2.5 million hours
in the Inland region.
That's 285 years,
a 120 hours per student.
What a remarkable and inspirational achievement.
I know that many of you had to work hard to get yourselves through college
and to see you reach back and pull others up with you,
I can't tell you how happy and proud that makes me.
So this university was the place where you've got a first-rate college
education.
It's the place where you've learned the value of diversity and the importance of
service.
And now,
as you prepare to leave,
it's up to you.
Do you keep up the good work?
Do you find new ways to link arms and move forward together?
It's your choice.
and I want to close by telling you that your choice has consequences.
A little more than a month ago President Obama travelled to Miami-Dade College to
deliver their 2011 commencement address.
The graduates represented 181 countries around the world
and during the ceremony they marched all 181 of those
flags across the stage.
Each flag received a little applause from the people associated with that
country.
But one of those flags was different.
When the American flag came into view at the end, the place erupted in
applause.
Because this is the place which united them all and allowed every single one of
those students to realize the dreams that they fought so hard for.
No matter what your background,
America stands for something special.
That is what's at stake.
You have the choice to isolate
or engage.
And so does our country.
We can choose to embrace the new realities of the world,
to renew the American dream,
to reach out to others in our communities and live up to our highest
ideals.
Or we can become overwhelmed by the size and scope of the challenges we face
and decide that sustaining our country's promise would simply be too much work.
President Obama has staked a clear claim on this question,
but ultimately,
he can't fully answer it.
I can't fully answer it.
But you can.
Let me give you an example.
When the president says we need to out- educate the rest of the world in
order to preserve our place at the forefront of the new economy,
he is challenging all of us to make sure that we get an education and that we do
everything we can to bring others up behind us.
We will do everything we can in our capacity in the federal government to
make that a reality,
but we can't do it without you.
So when you build on the strong foundation you built here at Riverside?
Will you help others achieve their dreams the way you have?
It's up to you answer this question and every other.
If you engage with the world
if you honor your family's legacy,
find common ground with others and give back to your community,
then our country will too.
And if you don't, it won't.
It's that simple.
so class of 2011, the pressure is on.
And one of the reasons I'm excited for you is that I believe you will make the
right choice, the choice that is hard
but right.
One day you're going to be the one standing at the podium may be wondering
why they didn't invite someone more famous.
And when that happens I'll believe you will be able to say
I was part of the generation that kept the American dream alive.
So enjoy this special day.
Good luck as you shape tomorrow.
Congratulations class of 2011,
and thank you.
{applause}