Sweetwater Union High School District held a graduation ceremony in Tijuana for the first time this year so students could celebrate with family members who can’t cross the border.
Two hundred students from the 15 high schools in the district participated in the ceremony, held at Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior (CETYS), a university.
“It really allows us to turn the narrative of the border into something positive,” said Superintendent Moisés Aguirre. “It's a place of coming together, not a place of conflict.”
Some universities have done the same in recent years, including San Diego State University and Southwestern College.
The high school district looked to those ceremonies as examples. They surveyed students and parents to see if they were interested.
For Ruth Jimenez, it was a pleasant surprise. Her son graduated from Southwest High School. Her mom can’t cross the border. In Tijuana, the three of them could celebrate together.
“It means a lot,” Jimenez said. “She’s been with us and my kids, she’s been with them since they were little. So she’s a second mom to them.”
School board member Rudy Lopez said it’s a challenge that comes up for families frequently.
“Our binational families are very cohesive units,” he said. “It’s always been something that’s part of the discussion, that sometimes there’s a parent or grandparent, sometimes a sibling that just was unable to cross the border. There’s always somebody missing out.”
Jaime Rojo Marín’s daughter crossed the border every morning to go to Chula Vista High School.
“I’m completely happy and proud of my daughter,” he said in Spanish. “She’s a very dedicated person.”
His daughter, Sade Rojo Ramirez, spoke at the ceremony.
"Class of 2026, we're here because of people who bet on us before we bet on ourselves," she told her classmates in Spanish. “Families that made the major decision to send their children, their grandchildren, their nieces and nephews, to study on the other side of the border, without certainty about the result, without guarantees of making it to the end, only with faith in a better future.”
High school wasn’t without its challenges, she said. She was learning English. She’d wake up before dawn to cross the border.
“It was a sacrifice,” she said in an interview. “It’s like two hours to cross every day.”
But, she said in her speech, there were victories, like when she understood an entire class taught in English or earned a spot on her school’s honor roll.
“The first thing I did was share it with my parents,” she said in Spanish. “In this moment, I understood that it wasn’t just me who was progressing. I was also lifting them up.”
At the end of the ceremony, the students moved the tassels on their caps from the right to the left.
District leaders hope this is the start of an annual tradition that brings students and their families together.
