OUI Banquet Brings Award-Winning Author to Campus, Raises Funds Katherine MacPhail, Editor-in-Chief May 10, 2019
![Obies for Undocumented Inclusion held their second annual banquet in the Root Room last Saturday. The night was titled “Voices from the Borderlands” and featured a keynote presentation from award-winning writer Reyna Grande, who wrote the bestselling memoir The Distance Between Us, in which she wrote about her life and her undocumented immigration to the U.S. from Mexico. The event also featured performances from Conservatory junior Adriana Vergara and College senior Daniel Gonzales, who performed songs relating to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the importance of family. Puerto Rican restaurant Caribe, which recently opened in Oberlin, catered the night. The menu included empanadas, arroz con gandules, and flan. “Voices from the Borderlands” raised money for the Undocumented Student Scholarship fund.
“[My favorite part was] seeing so many people show up for the event,” College senior and event organizer Jesus Martinez wrote in an email to the Review. “I feel like many times when we talk about immigration and undocumented people, we think of them only during a time of crisis or when they are on national news.”](https://oberlinreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/OUIBanquet_DulceCedillo_WEB-675x900.jpg)