Acclaimed writer Carribean Fragoza to speak at UCLA Humanities commencement
Jose Mandojana
Fragoza, a 2003 graduate of UCLA, received widespread praise for her debut short story collection, “Eat the Mouth That Feeds You.”
| April 14, 2025
Award-winning author, journalist, editor, artist and teacher Carribean Fragoza will be the keynote speaker for the 2025 UCLA Humanities Division commencement ceremony on June 14. The ceremony will be held in historic Royce Hall at 1 p.m.
Fragoza, who was raised in South El Monte, California, graduated from UCLA in 2003 with degrees in comparative literature and Chicana and Chicano studies. She is currently a member of the creative writing faculty at California Institute of the Arts.
“I am honored to return to UCLA, where I experienced the four most formative years of my life,” Fragoza said. “It is a joy to celebrate with this generation of students and their loved ones as they continue their journey of growth to shape the world with courage and care for all living beings.”
Fragoza’s debut short story collection, “Eat the Mouth That Feeds You,” published in 2021, was widely praised. The New York Times called it “a rare and significant achievement from a forceful new voice in American literature,” and the author Héctor Tobar named it one of 20 essential Los Angeles books — alongside works by Anna Deavere Smith, Joan Didion, Raymond Chandler and Jack Kerouac.
The collection was a finalist for the PEN America literary award in 2022; the following year, Fragoza was one of 10 winners of the prestigious Whiting Award for emerging writers.
Included in “Eat the Mouth That Feeds You” was one story, “Tortillas Burning,” that Fragoza began writing when she was a UCLA undergraduate.
Fragoza’s work is notable in part for how it amplifies historically underrepresented voices. “I look for untold stories from communities of color, particularly stories of women and girls, and find a new way of looking at the world through these stories,” she said in a 2021 interview with UCLA Magazine. “I try to look at mundane, ordinary life and find its frightening and beautiful qualities that speak to the complexity of relationships in families and communities.”
“Through her path from the Humanities Division into her multifaceted career, Carribean Fragoza has embodied our belief that storytelling, in all its forms, is a fundamental part of the human experience,” said Alexandra Minna Stern, dean of the Humanities Division. “We hope that our graduates are inspired by her example, not only as a writer, but as someone who has done so much to build community through the arts, and we believe her talk will be a call to action for our scholars who are passionate about elevating previously marginalized voices.”
Her newest collection of essays, “Writing Home: New Terrains of California,” was published in 2024 by Angel City Press. A collection of essays that she co-edited, “East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte,” was published in 2020 by Rutgers University Press and praised by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the 10 best California books” of that year.
In addition to her writing, Fragoza co-founded — with her husband, Romeo Guzman — the South El Monte Arts Posse, a collective whose membership comprises artists, writers, urban planners, educators, scholars, farmers, ecologists, swap meet vendors and youth. Fragoza and Guzman met when they were both students at UCLA.
Fragoza earned an M.F.A. in critical studies and creative writing at California Institute of the Arts. Her writing has been published by Harper’s Bazaar, the New York Times, Zyzzyva, Alta, BOMB, Huizache, KCET, the Los Angeles Review of Books, ArtNews, and Aperture Magazine; and she is the prose editor at Huizache magazine and the creative nonfiction and poetry editor at Boom California, a journal of the UC Press.
Graduating students: Visit the Humanities Commencement page for all of the information you need about event dates, times, logistics and deadlines!