Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
From being a farmworker in California at a young age after immigrating from Oaxaca, Mexico, to being awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard, Hugo Morales truly represents the “American Dream.”
Earlier this 2023, Morales was enjoying lunch with his family at his home in Fresno, California, when his wife decided to check the mail. She found an envelope from Harvard, a university Morales graduated from in the 70s.
Before opening the letter, the woman joked about Morales being awarded an honorary doctorate, and to their surprise, the college indeed offered Morales this academic degree, which he received in Cambridge.
This year’s recipients were actor Tom Hanks, biochemist Katalin Karikó, historian David Levering Lewis, admiral Michael Glenn Mullen, medical chemist Jennifer A. Doudna, and radio producer Hugo Morales, the first Mexican Indigenous person to receive an honorary doctorate from this educational institution.
Read more: From Mexico to the World: Exploring the Cultural Impact of Nahuatl in American Pop Culture
The Origins of Hugo Morales
When Morales was only nine years old, he moved with his Mixtec family to Northern California and worked in the fields in the Sonoma County area. He attended public schools and graduated from Healdsburg High School in 1968, winning scholarships to Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
With a college degree in hand, Morales returned to California and settled in Fresno, where he co-founded Radio Bilingüe, a radio station producing quality and trusted radio content for the Latino communities in the United States.
Stays True to Himself
Nowadays, Radio Bilingüe is the leading Latino public radio network for Hispanics across the entire country.
“I don’t work to get awards,” Morales said in a Radio Bilingüe article. “I work because it’s important to help others, and I do it gladly, every day.”
Other Harvard honorary doctorate receivers, whom Morales now joins, include 16 United States presidents, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, and South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela, among others.
