Los Fresnos News

Graduation 2017

170530-Graduates

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Commencement 2017 will be remembered as the event whose crowd rivaled those of Los Fresnos Falcon football playoff games a decade ago.

More than 9,000 people overflowed the bleachers at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium to watch 737 Los Fresnos High School graduates walk across the stage for their diplomas on May 27.

The graduating class was the highest ever for LFHS.

The 2012 Commencement ceremony was the last one where the stage faced the home-side bleachers of the stadium for a crowd that exceeded the bleacher capacity of 5,000 on that side.

With the stage now in the end zone so that families can seat on both sides of the stadium, the bleachers filled to the brim. About 1,000 more people lined the fence that encircles the south side of the stadium.

The top 10 academic students had speaking parts in the ceremony.

Valedictorian Daisy Paredes and salutatorian Samantha Padilla received special recognition as the highest-ranking students.

The recessional was highlighted by the playing and singing of the song “Los Golondrinas” (The Swallows) by the LFHS Mariachi Halcón that drew the loudest applauses of the evening.

The song, appropriate for the culturally rich area of the border, is symbolic in the story of a departing swallow who leaves the nest not knowing where it will land. However, the swallow always knows that it has a home to return to if it chooses.

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