Gomez to speak at May commencement

A personal account about balancing two different cultures was the winning speech by senior Candace Gomez at last night's Wendell Phillips finalists' presentation, held in the Coolidge Room of Ballou Hall.

"Growing up in America, I feel like a tourist [in Trinidad] -- the place where my parents call home," Gomez said. She voiced frustration about how communication with her Trinidadian grandmother is often a challenge, as her noticeable American accent is hard for her grandmother to understand.

"This is globalization. It's about losing touch with your family and your culture. [Is the Unites States] really this alpha and omega?" she asked.

Yet Gomez said that she would not trade her American citizenship, even for all the faults she has found with her country. "I know my story is not unlike others'. Somehow, the red, white, and blue flag does not fit next to my Trinidad flag on my wall," she said.

As the winner of the Wendell Phillips award, Gomez will be the only student to speak at this year's commencement ceremony. Many universities choose their commencement ceremony speakers through grades.

Family was a prevalent theme in the other finalists' speeches. "My parents gave up their jobs in Taiwan to mop floors for my education. My brother continues to live in perpetual fear of himself," senior David Wu said, as he began his speech about his brother's decline into manic depression.

Wu spoke of tolerating pain and sorrow, human suffering, and triumphs. He said his success is defined solely by how much he puts himself out and connects with his community, and that his greatest failure is his inability to see his brother, who remains in Taiwan.

"We are afraid to be real, to be the agitator. I'm afraid to look in the mirror and see my brother's face in the reflection," Wu concluded.

Senior Stacey Ulrich followed with a personal glimpse inside her relationship with her mother, a registered Republican who voted for President Bush and who is indifferent to gay marriage.

"The indifferent people are the ones who upset me," Ulrich said. She expressed her frustration that 37 years ago, interracial marriage was legalized, but gay marriage has yet to be.

"The arguments against [gay marriage] are so weak. Why are so many people against it?" Ulrich asked. She proceeded to explain that if "blacks and whites had their right for interracial marriage taken away, they would be up in arms."

Ulrich credited Tufts with making her an active citizen. "I don't want to wait another 37 years for something that was granted in our Constitution over 200 years ago," she said.

The recent film, "The Last Samurai," stirred anger in senior Chinua Thelwell, who opened his speech by recalling how he stayed in the theater to boo during the credits.

"In true Hollywood fashion, [actor Tom Cruise] learns fluent Japanese and becomes a samurai warrior in one winter," Thelwell said, as he defined what he called "hyper-authenticity" -- or the way in which certain cultures and ethnic groups are inaccurately displayed in the media.

The worst example of hyper-authenticity in the film was the end, he said. "The Emperor, who is seen by the Japanese as a direct descendant of the sun, is lectured by Tom Cruise about the ways of the warrior, or how to be Japanese," he said.

Thelwell concluded his speech by sharing a recent dream he had with the audience, which took place at the Academy Awards ceremony. "Tom Cruise was still in his samurai gear and when his movie did not win, he yelled out to the audience and then turned to commit seppuku [the samurai practice of stabbing one's self in the stomach in the event of a defeat]."

The final speaker of the night was senior Ariana Flores, who chose to speak about her passion for being a so-called "radical" on campus. "I do not like war. I am a feminist. I support socialism," she said. "But what makes an idea radical?"

Flores talked about how current ideals that are taken for granted today were once considered radical, such as racial discrimination, the HIV virus, and women's rights.

She spoke about how she and a small group of students protested during former President George H.W. Bush's speech at Tufts last year. One of the protestors, then-senior Liz Monnin, had a senior alumni award revoked for her behavior at Bush's speech.

Flores questioned why the University invited Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, who was active in the opposition to the Apartheid government in South Africa, to speak at last year's commencement but was unable to embrace Monnin.

"Create your own radicalism, find something and fight for it," Flores said.

Fifty-seven juniors and seniors were nominated for the Wendell Phillips award in November, of which 15 were chosen to accept the nomination and prepare an essay and a voice recording of their speech.

The Committee on Student Life (CSL) narrowed the field down to the final five students and also made the final decision to present the award to Gomez last night.

"All of the five finalists were very strong, we were proud of everyone," CSL Co-Chair Barbara Grossman said.

Two Wendell Phillips awards are presented each year, one to a Tufts student and one to a Harvard student. The award was established in 1896 by the Wendell Phillips Memorial Fund Association, in memory of the renowned Boston-area preacher and orator.