It also supports a segregated graduation by homosexual students as well. MEChA organizes La Raza Graduation, the graduation ceremony on campus for Chicano and Latino students. Now entering into its 25th year, the ceremony was one of the first of its kind on a university campus. It offers a number of benefits for both Hispanic students and their families. There are no ticket restrictions that limit the number of relatives that one may bring to the ceremony, unlike the larger, divisional ceremonies, where each graduate gets four tickets to distribute to his guests.
Every speaker is translated into Spanish, and mariachi and marimba bands play during the ceremony.
Perez also argues that the ceremony focuses not only on cultural entertainment, but social responsibility as well. Finally, Perez says that the Raza graduation makes the ceremony personal. The American Indian Graduation Celebration at UCLA has much the same rationale. Each graduating student receives a ceremonial blanket. Those trying to justify these segregated graduations may refer to the inner selves of the students of color, but their real message is one of pessimism and suspicion regarding the academic community where these students have lived for four or more years.