Luis Salgado's Hostos’ 50th Anniversary commencement speech for the 2018 Graduates!
This week I had the honor of taking part at the Hostos College 50 years Celebration. The graduation had me nervous for weeks. Way more than when I have to perform or when I open a show I have directed or choreograph. After all the "attempt" to be ready when I got there I started getting emotional seeing the dreams and example of so many people going beyond, that I end it up not saying everything I wrote but heroes what I worked on with a heart filled with love and respect for each and every person graduating on this special day.
I’m simply HUMAN AND SIMPLY GRATEFUL. Dear Maestro PRESIDENTE David Gomez wow. BRAVO! All my respect you.
Dreams do come true! So many of us have to keep on daring as this is only the beginning!!!
Here is what I wrote and most of what I was able to share!
What an honor it is to be here with you all CELEBRATING TODAY
Hostos college’s 50th Anniversary!!!!
Medio Siglo de empoderamiento y acción.
For half a century, this institution has been a ray of light and a beacon of hope in the South Bronx and beyond.
But I stand here asking myself, How did I get to be here when the rumor has it that it was Between J’Lo,, Marc Anthony, Lin-Manuel Miranda!... How did it get to be me who’s here today? HONORABLE David Gomez, can we talk?…
Sure, I’m kidding... but really...
Have you ever doubted that you are worthy of the opportunities that are coming into your life???? It is human to doubt! How is it that this wonderful team that’s consistently offering higher education and self-betterment opportunities to so many people has let a crazy ARTIST like me, A DANCER who started learning to dance in the yard of a Public School IN PUERTO RICO be here today… It IS human to doubt!
Just last week I was asking myself how was it that our Spanish Language production of In the Heights got 9 awards in Washington D.C, blocks away from the White House… We so often ask ourselves, WHO AM I TO deserve this?... We question our potential so often. Right now I could simply ask How Am I supposed to “inspire you”? When I AM JUST LIKE YOU… But the real question should be in reverse… Who am I to say I’m not the right person to stand here today?...
Just last week I was asking myself how was it that our Spanish Language production of In the Heights got 9 awards in Washington D.C, blocks away from the White House… We so often ask ourselves, WHO AM I TO deserve this?... We question our potential so often. Right now I could simply ask How Am I supposed to “inspire you”? When I AM JUST LIKE YOU… But the real question should be in reverse… Who am I to say I’m not the right person to stand here today?...
How can any of us doubt that we are not the right person to stand where we stand?… YOU are graduating for a reason... YOU took action, I am standing here for a reason, I took action, I dared to do what I love and there are no mistakes… today, WE meet to make a pact, to make each other better! We JOIN FORCES AND BECOME A GREATER COMMUNITY!
Eugenio Maria de Hostos said it best: "I need my days to be filled with action” and what better action than the ones that let, us, BE, USEFUL.”
This college and I share something very special in common…
We have a passion for latinos! For minorities… for dreamers and for the unheard voices… That’s why we both believe in Taking action! Action like the ones you have taken to get here…… actions like the ones you are bound to take!
Action like the ones Hostos’ extended family put to work beyond the classrooms, as they jumped to support the victims of Hurricane María or of the devastating earthquake in Mexico. Students like Matilda Outlaw and the entire Hostos family who followed the lead of President Gómez, offering information and collecting goods for victims. The same way my non-profit organization R.Evolución latina has been able to do, thanks to the support of so many. We went house to house providing families with basic resources, then we went back and helped activate the emotional and psychological healing-process utilizing THE ARTS. We celebrated LA TRADICION DE LOS REYES with over 25 parrandas in partnership with Hispanic Federation and Lin-Manuel Miranda. We took Action and will be taking action again next week with local artists activated by R.Evolución Latina to provide free summer camps in various TOWNS of Puerto Rico to keep on making a difference WITH ART!
Looking into the eyes of some of my boricuas in the island reminds me of the importance there is in what YOU ALL are accomplishing here today! You are the VOICES of your community when they are needed… you are the ones who get to echo loud and clear WHO we ALL are as human beings… -NO PRESSURE Y’ALL!!!!-
As I grew up I faced a couple of hard moments. I could go as far back as, Kindergarten. I still remember the day that my step father came to pick me up and I was in the corner of the room with a tape on my mouth because the teacher said that I talked too much!
WELL, I guess she was right, LOOK WHO'S TALKING HERE TODAY!!!!
People will limit you… but Life does not depend on those who limit you, on a paper, or any other validation… Life depends on the actions YOU TAKE! I could have become shy for the rest of my life because of that moment but I KEEP ON BEING ME!
I could tell you so many moments in life where I felt like being me was not good enough. The time a teacher said that I was going to follow my dad’s footsteps and join the Army while my best friend, was the one who “really” was going to make it in the arts! Or the time back in 2004 during the Mambo Kings when we read, “that Show is full of Latinos It will never make it to Broadway” and guess what, the show got shut down, we didn’t make it and we were devastated… I thought it was the beginning and the end of my Broadway career… and then came the broadway hit In the Heights, THAT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER! It inspired the creation of R.Evolución Latina and I have been a part of 4 Broadway shows and have made an international career representing my people, our voice, our culture, all around the world. Those sites, where I once read those words now publish my interviews and celebrate my LATINAJE, my representation of people like you and me.
ONLY YOU, -WITH YOUR ACTIONS- HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE A NEW PATH! TO BREAK THE WALLS OTHERS TRY TO IMPOSE! That’s why I believe in making bridges not walls!
The other day I got in an Uber... and the driver asked me, “so, what do you do?”... I said... I’m a performer… A DANCER! He looked at me and asked: “You get to dance to stay alive?” you pay your bills dancing? That’s so cool!!!”
I became proud to re-recognize the fact that I make a living from doing what I love. Directing, Choreographing, Performing, Dancing… That thing I got hit and bullied for in school is now the thing I get to share and celebrate! I was excited to see his joy in my work... (I bought my apartment in NY doing what I love... after so many told me I could never make a living from IT)… I got my mom a car, doing what I love after she was once the one sending letters to my school telling them not to let me miss classes for rehearsals. Today, she is the proudest mom!
HARD WORK AND DEDICATION, putting all of the hours into your passion, into your dreams will always give great results. AND IT FEELS GOOD!...
HARD WORK AND DEDICATION, putting all of the hours into your passion, into your dreams will always give great results. AND IT FEELS GOOD!...
I LOOK AT YOU ALL TODAY and I wonder where will you be 5, 10 years from now... To me you look like the future, you smell like HOPE, I know you have the power inside of you to make change! TO REPRESENT! To stand here one day and inspire someone…
But you?… DO YOU KNOW THAT? WHAT SIDE OF THIS STORY ARE YOU SITTING IN TODAY? The one that carries the doubts of tomorrow or the ones that sees the potential there is in YOU. Where do YOU see yourself?
I invite you to look around and ask yourself this things… As you do that, Remember how Hostos is producing well-rounded graduates, 39% of students graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts; 10% in Criminal Justice; 9 in Business Management; 8 in Early Childhood Education; 5 in Nursing; 4 in Community Health. This college clearly supports the higher education and the dreams of women, who represent 67% of its graduates. A space that’s proud of its immigrant population. Hostos leaders lead by example like Professor Alida Camacho who has dedicated decades of her life to the issue of domestic violence.
I invite you to look around and ask yourself this things… As you do that, Remember how Hostos is producing well-rounded graduates, 39% of students graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts; 10% in Criminal Justice; 9 in Business Management; 8 in Early Childhood Education; 5 in Nursing; 4 in Community Health. This college clearly supports the higher education and the dreams of women, who represent 67% of its graduates. A space that’s proud of its immigrant population. Hostos leaders lead by example like Professor Alida Camacho who has dedicated decades of her life to the issue of domestic violence.
I look around and I see you, see her and all the inspiring leaders that are here today and I remember the words of hostos when he said: “the only way to be useful to ideas and people is TO RAISE our (human kind) to the discussion of their duty…" OUR DUTY,
Our Duty to be citizens of GOOD! To be kind and generous when there are brothers and sisters in need… are you ready to jump into action!!!???
Are you ready to get lost in life!!???
Today I can tell you one simple thing about the path…
“The taste of this world WILL always be incomplete if you just take one bite”... so Please, Don’t allow the first bite you take in life to be all that satisfies you the minute you get back out there into the “real world”.
Make peace with NOT being satisfied, and take action…
“El que tenga talento no tiene perdón si no sabe que hacer con el”
if you have a talent you must find a way to do something with IT, or you won’t be forgiven at the end of the journey if you did nothing with your talents. Take action... Dare, try, and be ok with failing…
We are often guided to “perfection” but what is that?…. We often renounce to who we are, to become the “standard” someone else wants us to be… our parents, our teachers, but who are you really? Do you know?… TAKE THE TIME to know who you are, what you want, now that you are opening a new path GET TO KNOW THYSELF!
That’s why EUGENIO MARIA DE HOSTOS is the perfect role model for us. A man that can guide us all into living a life of values.... A MAN WHO EXEMPLIFIES TAKING ACTION! A model that YOU will forever have present every time you say I GRADUATED FROM HOSTOS COLLEGE IN THE BRONX!!!!
Here, today YOU prove, that WHATEVER you want, believe or fight for is actually POSSIBLE…
I have a 3 year old son and when WE tell him… Life is about balance he gets up on one foot and balances his little body…. Its funny, but what I see is a 3 year old kid who gets up and takes action. Who “stands up and makes it happen”.
Every moment of life defines your path…
The goals of tomorrow would NEVER happen if we don’t take ACTION today!.
If you are thinking about how tomorrow will be? Ask yourself How are YOU taking action TODAY?… is that simple...
The efforts your family members made, the friendships you created, the loves you discovered, the moments you study hard or thought you did not pass an exam, a class, a year all of it was worth it!
Here you are, as evidence of WHAT’S POSSIBLE!!!!!! Evidence that every action has a re-action and today that is that YOU have become a professional!!!!!!!!'
Prepare to speak, to be, to act and commit to your truth…
"It is a crime not to be a useful man.
Can we please HAVE AMBITION FOR VIRTUES AND VALUES?...
Not to publish them in books but to have them present in our actions?”
Let us "put the forces of our soul into all the acts WE DO in life."
We are enough and YES, we are unstoppable!!
LET’S DARE TO embrace failure and conflict when needed then, Find resolution…
Life is a wonderful paradox ... (to be, or not to be) ... to give or not to give ... to accept or not to accept.
You are enough and unstoppable!!
GO OUT THERE AND Dance...
Let your heart speak Through your actions..
Make mistakes… Climb Higher, Cross Borders, DARE TO GO BEYOND!
The journey to success is a long long path, and only the persistent and disciplined will get to the final goal…
YOU ARE our future LEADERS!
WE CELEBRATE YOU TODAY! A new generation of professionals whose contributions I look forward to seeing inspire our society, THE SOUTH BRONX, and the world.
Thank you for having me today and Congratulations to ALL of you
- By Luis Salgado, Commencement speaker 2018
Celebrating Hostos Community College 50th Anniversary!
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