Her voice often cracking with emotion, the mayor of San Juan, P.R., used her BU Baccalaureate address Sunday at Marsh Chapel to take attendees to the ghostly streets of her devastated island, while urging them to raise their voices against injustices.<\/p>\n
Carmen Yul\u00edn Cruz Soto<\/a> (CAS\u201984, Hon.\u201918) recounted her role as global troubadour for her island after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last September. She publicly condemned the slow pace of federal help, a criticism recovery leaders themselves echoed<\/a>, and President Trump responded by denouncing her.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no cars\u201d immediately after the storm, Cruz said from the Marsh pulpit, \u201cno people in the street, no dogs barking, and no music playing.\u2026Just a deafening silence.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruz told of spending a night with 685 homeless people in Puerto Rico\u2019s largest emergency shelter. Without naming Trump or island officials who neglected serious review of emergency response plan updates<\/a>, she said that \u201crather than leadership at the highest places, we faced a general lack of urgency and a dismissive attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cThose charged with coming to our aid failed us,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were dying, and they were killing us with bureaucracy.\u201d Her pleas for help, however, galvanized others globally, including the Puerto Rican diaspora. \u201cBoy, did they listen,\u201d she added, coming forth with aid.<\/p>\n Cruz exhorted her listeners to raise their voices against other injustices in the headlines. Acknowledging in the audience Sunday\u2019s Commencement speaker, US Representative John Lewis<\/a> (Hon.\u201918) (D-Ga.), a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, she said, \u201cYou may not accomplish everything you set out to do, but I guarantee you, as Congressman Lewis knows all too well, you will never fail.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you believe that children everywhere have the right to schools without gun violence,\u201d she said, just two days after yet another school shooting by a student who killed 10 in Santa Fe, Tex.<\/a>, \u201cyou must demand that sensible gun control laws are enacted.\u201d<\/p>\n On immigration, Cruz urged activism \u201cif you believe in keeping families together rather than tearing them apart.\u201d (The Trump administration has separated hundreds of children from migrant families<\/a> entering the country.) In this #MeToo era, she also denounced the fact that many women are \u201cforced and harassed to endure unwelcome advances.\u201d<\/p>\n Laura Torres (ENG\u201918), her mortarboard decorated as the flag of Puerto Rico, with Cruz.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cruz\u2019s Baccalaureate talk before a packed Marsh Chapel audience earned a standing ovation and came just two weeks before the start of this year\u2019s hurricane season, with Puerto Rico\u2019s government vowing it won\u2019t be caught flat-footed again with its emergency planning. At least 150,000 residents still await the return of electricity service and insurance payments <\/a>for their destroyed homes.<\/p>\n The Rev. Robert A. Hill, Marsh Chapel dean, introduced Cruz as \u201can advocate for immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the deaf community, children\u2026and those that struggle with gender-based violence.\u201d<\/p>\n In a prayer of optimism similar to Cruz\u2019s address, Brother Lawrence Whitney (STH\u201909,\u201918), University chaplain for community life, quoted a famous line from Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS\u201955, Hon.\u201959): \u201cThe moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruz\u2019s speech was part of the chapel\u2019s regular Sunday service and was accompanied by scripture readings that reflected the occasion: graduates about to take leave of their alma mater.<\/p>\n Jean Morrison, University provost, read Ecclesiastes\u2019 famous reminder that such transitions are part of the cycle of life: \u201cTo every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven\u2026a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Robert A. Brown, BU president, reading from St. Paul\u2019s Letter to the Romans, offered departing Terriers the apostle\u2019s exhortation to exceed others\u2019 expectations: \u201cDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God\u2014what is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n At BU\u2019s 145th Commencement at Nickerson Field on Sunday afternoon, Cruz, one of five honorary degree recipients, received a Doctor of Laws.<\/p>\n Find more information about Commencement here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Author, Rich Barlow can be reached at barlowr@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Mayor](\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/files\/2018\/05\/carmen-yulin-cruz-and-student-18-1402-CMCTBACCA-631.jpg\")
<\/p>\nVideo of Mayor of San Juan Carmen Yul\u00edn Cruz Soto (CAS\u201984, Hon.\u201918): 2018 Baccalaureate Address<\/a><\/h2>\n