The Office of University Diversity & Inclusion (OUDI) hosted its second ¡Adelante! Hispanic-Serving Institution Symposium on Oct. 30, which included a keynote from author Javier Zamora and a pivotal announcement regarding enrollment growth among Hispanic/Latino students.
For the first time in university history, 25% of Cal Poly students identify as Latinx/e, with the incoming undergraduate class consisting of roughly 29%.
Reaching this milestone is crucial to becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Cal Poly must maintain at least 25% Hispanic enrollment within the undergraduate population to become an HSI, which will provide funding opportunities to support and enrich the college experience for Hispanic students.
“I’m really proud to be at Cal Poly in this moment,” said OUDI Vice President Dr. Beya Makekau. “I’m proud of the work that we’ve done and I’m excited for what’s ahead and to keep our foot on the gas.”
The HSI Symposium was an all-day event that featured a panel discussion, a lunch buffet, keynote speaker Zamora and more. The symposium’s mission is to provide diverse experiences that reflect the cultural and intellectual richness of the Latinx/e community, according to OUDI’s website.
“That’s really where the HSI Symposium was born; to be a full day of what it should and what it can look like for Cal Poly to be a Hispanic Serving Institution,” Makekau said. “To really ground that and celebrating and honoring the beauty of our culture and our identities and our experiences.”
Author of “Solito,” Zamora, spoke with Cal Poly students and San Luis Obispo community members about his struggle with identity as he migrated from El Salvador to the United States as a child.
Zamora expressed that his deep fear of being deported produced lingering silence and shame that followed him through college.
“For a lot of us immigrants, the first coping mechanism of the way that we know how to navigate this world of citizenship and whiteness is to hide in assembly,” Zamora said.
Zamora explained that he avoided speaking Spanish in public for years, as living somewhere xenophobic and racist toward brown and Black people profoundly impacted his mindset.
The author and activist said he felt a lot of guilt upon recognizing how the pressure to assimilate had overtaken his life, explaining that self-forgiveness is a significant part of the migration journey.
“It was only a tool that my teenage brain — my 7th-grade brain — had to keep people from asking me ‘So where are you truly from?’ or ‘How did you get here?’,” Zamora said. “When you don’t have papers you definitely don’t want people asking you those things.”
Zamora dove into the meaning of the “Solito” book cover, which depicts a child wearing a backpack. This image highlights the weight of immigration trauma that Zamora carries with him wherever he goes, resembling the nine-year-old boy who immigrated alone.
“I felt like I was carrying around a two-ton backpack from the moment I got here in 1999 up until I started my sessions with my current therapist in 2019,” Zamora said.
He said he later realized the “backpack” didn’t have to be so heavy and that he could no longer cope with assimilation and academic success.
“To describe metaphorically and literally the backpack that I had been wearing…I think you must describe it and see it for what it is before you can take it off,” Zamora said. “Now I live a much freer, much truer, more honest life.”
Sophomore history and ethnic studies major Edwin Villalobos said it was refreshing to hear someone like Zamora speak on campus. He also said he thought it was great that organizations like OUDI provide spaces for students who feel alienated on campus and that Cal Poly is pushing to become an HSI.
“I think it would be a lovely change for not only this town but also for the school because we are seen as a powerhouse school,” Villalobos said. “How great would it be for the powerhouse of the CSU system to be an HSI? That would be pretty cool.”
Cal Poly has seen an 87% growth in Hispanic/Latino students over the last decade, and events like ¡Adelante! (forward) embody the efforts put in place by the community and university.
