This year’s theme, La Lucha, Libre, is a direct response to the past year and a half the Latino community has lived through under the current “intimidating” and “discriminatory” administration and political landscape, MSU CRU treasurer Miguel Mendoza said.

“Latinos are your future doctors, lawyers, business owners and more,” Mendoza said. “To continue fighting through today’s pressure is to liberate our community for generations to come.”

Latinos make up about 7% of MSU’s student body, and 22% of those in Michigan hold an associate degree or higher, compared with 44% of their white peers, according to Excelencia in Education.

“Everyone in this auditorium has completed the first step in changing the Latino narrative, and that is by educating yourself,”  MSU CRU co-president Jessica Cornejo said. “With going into spaces that are predominantly white, you’re resisting and showing that no matter the stereotypes that are put onto us, we will always defy them.”

Black rights activists coined the phrases “Black is beautiful” and “Black power,” inspiring the Chicano Movement's adoption of “brown pride” during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, according to associate professor of history Delia Fernández-Jones.

Many have tried to assimilate by severing ties to their brown pride by distancing themselves from their culture, name, looks and history, but it's rarely successful, Fernández-Jones said. Being able to celebrate her brown pride in graduate school helped Fernández-Jones overcome her imposter syndrome and granted her more opportunities. 

Brown pride is an all-encompassing sentiment that extends to every member of the Latino community, regardless of skin color. 

“If you’ve been on the margins in any way, you have this, this need, this key to your survival and our collective survival. It comes from that unconditional love for yourself and for your community,” Fernández-Jones said. “We’re not a monolith. It’s gonna look different for all of us.”

Chicano and Latino studies librarian Andrea Salazar McMillan was awarded a plaque for her contributions and advocacy in protecting campus spaces and for spearheading the Cesar Chavez Collection Renaming Committee. QR code surveys were displayed on a table outside the auditorium where attendees could submit name ideas.

“The work of advocacy never really ends,” McMillan said. “I will continue to advocate for our community and the resources we need to continue being successful.”

Serrano encouraged audience members to stand with student leaders and vote during the upcoming midterm elections.

“Believe in yourself and keep fighting for yourself with no fear of how you’ll get there,” he said. “Be confident in your identity because as the fastest growing minority group in the United States, the future of this country is undoubtedly Latino, and we are only the beginning of it.”