Celebrating DALA's 30th Anniversary
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In 1993, a De Anza student asked her club adviser, Olivia Patlan, why the college didn’t recognize the success of its Latinx students. The answer was simply that there was no institutional mechanism for this acknowledgment.
That question prompted a small group of Latinx faculty and staff members to respond by organizing support and creating a recognition ceremony that
has evolved into an annual community celebration and testimonial to Latinx student success.
In the early years, organizers hosted the event on their own, with no money for materials or scholarships. Committee members would spend Saturdays selling sodas and snacks at the De Anza Flea Market, to raise funds so graduates and their families could share a meal on this special day. For many families, it was the first time they ever set foot on a college campus. A majority of graduates were first-generation college students, blazing a trail for others that followed.
Over three decades, the organizing committee has evolved into the De Anza Latinx Association (DALA) and the annual celebration has grown to include official sponsorships and the awarding of scholarships from the Amigos De Educación Las Américas (ADELA) Scholarship fund.
Founding organizers for the Latinx Grad event included Sofia Abad, Alicia Cortez, Araceli Kaliangara, Virginia Marquez, Vicky Moreno, Olivia Patlan, Carmen Pereida, George Robles, Lupe Robles-Sane, Jose Luis Rueda, Sylvia Rueda, Roxana Rugliancich, Selda Sigala-Aguilar and Lillian Zamora.
Today, we celebrate the work of those founders, and of the event organizers who have taken up this work since those early years. Most importantly, we celebrate our students, who have worked so hard to achieve their college goals.
One Student's Story
Dancing at 2000 Latinx Grad
Celebrating at 2009 Latinx Grad
MESA Counselor in 2024
“As a kid, I grew up being a performer for the Latinx Grad. My mom, Sylvia Rueda, was one of the founding members of the ceremony. Given the small budget that was all (and still is) self-raised by committee members, my mom would recruit my friends and me to dance as part of the program. The committee would pay us with gift coupons for free burgers at In-N-Out.
“I remember my mom working long days in preparation for the ceremony. She would gather cultural items we had at home, to use for ceremony decorations. I remember her reminiscing about the event, all the student success stories, and all the hard work it took to put together the ceremony.”
– Melissa Maturino, De Anza Class of 2009, now MESA counselor and Latinx Grad Committee member