WEBVTT

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Thank you so much.

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Thank you to the Poetry
Center for really hosting

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an amazing evening.

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I had the opportunity to dine
with some of our faculty,

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as well as our guest here.

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And it's a real testament,
I think, to really--

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an equity lens in which
they approach their work.

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And you see it to be such
a vibrant commitment, even

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in who they select and pull
into the Poetry Center,

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and for that I am utterly,
completely grateful.

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To see HSI Initiatives
be a reality

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in all places of our
campus community,

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really is what we want to
see the work happen and do.

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So I'm forever grateful for
the Poetry Center, and the role

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that they play in advancing our
efforts to center the concept

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of serving us in practice.

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So once again, my
name is Marla Franco,

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and I serve as the Assistant
Vise Provost for Hispanic

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Serving Institution
Initiatives here

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at the University of Arizona.

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I myself, am a first
generation college graduate.

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I am also the
great-granddaughter

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of farmworkers in the
Central Valley of California.

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That is who I come
from, and that

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also is at the forefront
of how I lead here

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at the University of Arizona.

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The University of Arizona became
a federally designated Hispanic

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Serving Institution in 2018.

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And although the qualifier
for that designation

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rests solely on our
enrollment of at least

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25% Hispanic
students, the U of A

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has taken on an approach that
far exceeds and challenges

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those expectations.

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We seek to bring that
designation to life

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in ways that honor the lived
experiences of our increasingly

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diverse students and
employees, some of which

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likely share in
the vivid realities

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that our guests authors
present in their writing.

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I don't know how it's
possible to have both

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so much to say, and to
be rendered speechless

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by the writings of Marcelo
Hernandez Castillo.

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He is the author of the
award-winning poetry

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collections,
Cenzóntle and Dulce,

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and wrote one of the most
moving and riveting memoirs that

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I've ever read,
Children of the Land.

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I've been carrying
around these books

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for about the past two weeks,
really sifting through them

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every moment that I get.

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Marcelo, your writing is
intricate, vulnerable, vivid,

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and incredibly insightful.

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As a reader, I almost feel
unfit to have been gifted

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the opportunity to be an
insider to your world and that

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of your family's.

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Thank you.

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Without further ado.

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[APPLAUSE]

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