The way I see it, if my kid was graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, I'd be so deliriously happy and proud I wouldn't care what kind of a commencement address he gave. Shoot, he could get up there and sing Old McDonald Had a Farm -- he's valedictorian, woo-hoo! That's my boy! But I have to admit, the speech Orestimba High School valedictorian Saul Tello, Jr. gave at his graduation does kind of tug at the maternal heart strings.
It wasn't the content of the speech so much as the way he chose to deliver it: In Spanish, to honor his Spanish-speaking parents. Awww.
Of course, not everybody in the audience understood Spanish, which led to a bit of a problem.
More from The Stir: 'You Are Not Special' Graduation Speech Is One Every Kid Needs to Hear (VIDEO)
Now, on the one hand, I get why non-Spanish-speaking audience members were upset -- it would kind of stink to not understand a word of the speech at your kid's graduation. But here's the thing: Originally, Saul Tello wanted to give the speech in both English and Spanish, but his principal, Jessie Ceja, told him there wouldn't be enough time. So Tello chose Spanish, for his parents' sake.
As a mom, I find that incredibly sweet. Plus, bear in mind that the population of California is 38% Latino. I'm sure his gesture was widely appreciated.
Apparently the school is planning to include inserts printed with both Spanish and English versions of the speech in future graduation programs, which seems like an excellent solution to me. Good luck, Saul!
Do you think giving his commencement address in Spanish was the right thing for this valedictorian to do?
Image via Dave Herholz/Flickr
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Comments 80
It did not say his parents did not understand English. It said he gave the speech in Spanish to honor his parents, for whom Spanish is their first language.
I'm torn. On the other hand, I admire that the kid wanted to pay tribute to his Spanish-speaking parents. On the other hand, while the US has no official language, it would be ridiculous to ignore the fact that English is the widely-accepted and most widely used language throughout. I always felt that the point of speaking at graduation was to address your graduating class, so to alienate a good portion of them (I'm not sure of the percentages of who speaks what) kinda sucks for those who didn't understand. Maybe he could have cut the speech in half and done it twice - once in Spanish and once in English? That being said, you are right. He can do whatever he wants up there - he worked for it, but criticisms are fair, too.
Cee - Before you go around calling people xenophobic you might want to look in the mirror and consider your imperfections. Going off on a racist rant about white people who are too lazy to learn a second language and calling them xenophobes makes you look just a tad foolish. Apart from anything else you have no idea what languages people speak. I know someone who, at last count, spoke nine languages fluently and Spanish is not among them. I'm not especially fluent but I can get by in French and I know enough German to read text plus I'm fluent in English and Scots dialect which are my native languages.