KIKE'S OGDEN ARENA UTRGV M.A.- DEGREE COMMENCEMENT

(Ed.'s Note: It was almost wall-to-wall families and friends at Edinburg's Bert Ogden Arena when commencement exercises for graduates of the UTRGV Edinburg campus were held Saturday. Allow me to gloat. Among the graduates was my son Jose Enrique "Kike" Montoya who earned his Master's of the Arts in History, a degree he acquired while simultaneously working as a teacher in McAllen. 

When his turn came to receive his degree, his collage of family photos and major came up on the giant screens. He used his late mother's favorite motto for his message to the world: "En todo, paciencia y fe." [In everything, patience and faith.]

In the top photo taken outside the arena after the ceremony, he is flanked on his right by his sister Marisol, now also a junior at UTRV, and yours truly on his left. The memory of his mother, a Salvadoran refugee who got here during the war-fueled migration surge of the 1990s armed only with hope and ambition and a six-grade education, is represented by the colors and emblem of El Salvador, and his Mexican culture on my side by the emblem of the eagle and the serpent on the Mexican colors.

And on Saturday, the son of a Salvadoran refugee and a Mexican-American migrant farmworker walked to the stage to pick up his graduate degree while on the screen a picture of his mother holding him when he was a baby looked down from the ceiling. 

He has been offered employment as an AP History high school teacher at the McAllen ISD upon graduation. He accumulated a 3.9 GPA. With any luck, his middle brother and his sister will be college graduates in another year, too.

It's a labor of love. Until then, my work's not done. I am so proud of all of them, as, I am sure, their mother would be, too. Performing well is the best revenge. Congratulations son! Go forth and prosper.)