Ricardo Padron: Out Wahooing the Wahoos, and finding your place at UVa

Ricardo Padron | he/him | CLAS ‘89

B.A. in Political & Social Thought

Associate Professor of Spanish at UVA

Growing up in Northern Virginia Ricardo Padron always knew he was college-bound, but had never given much thought as to where he might go to college. During his time in high school, he got great grades that allowed him to be accepted to a plethora of schools, including Ivy League schools. Padron’s father had a very different conception of what a college education would look like for his sons— he wanted them to attend schools in the D.C area and travel to university, just as he had done in Havana, Cuba. Several factors went into Padron’s matriculation at the University of Virginia in 1985, including financial constraints, the academic appeal of being an Echols Scholar, and his wish to attend a large state school. His father liked the idea of UVA because it did not seem like it was an elitist place like the Ivy League schools where Padron had been accepted . When Padron arrived on Grounds in the fall semester, he had a chip on his shoulder and believed that UVA was too big of a party school for him.

“I saw myself as a very academically oriented person—I was really worried about UVA’s party school reputation. The 80’s was a time where UVA was still making the lists. Different publications would rank top party schools of the US, sometimes it would even make #1. One time UVA wasn't even on the list, and at the end they said that UVA was in a category of its own. That is why Echols was important to me— because it put me in a community of academically inclined people.”

As the weeks went by, Padron quickly realized that he and his family had deep misconceptions about the University. Underneath the facade of the party school, students were working diligently and UVA proved to be a much whiter, richer, and more elitist , space than he had anticipated.

Padron described the overall campus climate of the student body as one that was either deeply conservative or apolitical.  He remembers that if you weren't conservative, the campus climate forced you to sharpen your political opinions because you were constantly defending them. In contrast to the frequent political activism of the 1970s, the only instance of a political issue being prominent on campus that he remembers was  students building a shanty on the Lawn in order to protest the aparthied in South Africa.  However, the majority of students who made remarks about the demonstration simply complained that the structures were killing the grass on the Lawn. 

Despite the pervading culture that was so overwhelmingly different to Padron’s upbringing, he was able to find his niche and people like him at UVA, and dove deeply into University life. He joined organizations such as the University Guide Service and Housing and Residence Life, wrote  for Oculus magazine, and founded a book exchange program, among many other activities. Within these organizations, Padron was able to hold a balance of academics and participate in the party culture life that he was once skeptical of. Some of his favorite memories include being challenged and treated as an equal by Prof. George Mentore in his Political Anthropology class and the quiet moments hanging out with friends, whom Padron still keeps up with to this day.

Padron’s friends, mentioned in the previous audio, in the back of a truck as a party was winding down.

Padron and friends during a Raven Society Banquet

Padron spent his four undergraduate years attempting to pass as culturally white as much as possible, and he became very saturated with UVA culture. This ability came from Padron’s white skin, but was also partly due to the lack of student and institutional support systems for the Latinx community. UVA felt like such a white space that he felt as if he could not be his true self— and if he was, he was subjected to a battery of microaggressions.He regrets not starting up a Latinx club between him and his friends, but imagining something outside of the Black and white binary that was pervasive at UVA was unheard of.

“There were no venues, no clubs, no associations. The University thought exclusively in terms of Black and white. I identified as Hispanic down on the forms... I went to the first week of events that schools hosted for minority students and everyone there was African American.”

When Padron graduated from UVA in 1989, he dreamed of becoming a professor and living in a Lawn Pavilion. After completing his PhD in romance languages at Harvard University, Padron and his wife wanted to live in a big city but he instead got a tenure track offer in Charlottesville. Coming back in the 2000s, Padron felt like while the professors had remained the same as when he was an undergraduate, the student body had changed significantly both in composition and politics. He was especially pleased with the shift in culture in regards to academics and life outside of the classroom—students no longer attempted to hide their academic side. 

The growth in the Latinx community and the plethora of organizations now available to students has warmed Padron’s heart. He was even a member on the search committee to hire Pablo Davis, the first Dean of Latino/Hispanic students. While much has changed, Padron does get a bit exhausted as a minority faculty member who is  constantly called upon by the administration to deal with racially insensitive incidents, such as having to testify for the defacing of Beta bridge by Delta Epsilon during Hispanic Heritage month. 

“You pay a tax in terms of having to do more than your fair share for the community. Any committee that gets created has to have diverse representation, which means you are disproportionately tapping on anyone who identifies as a minority. It's exhausting paying this minority tax. You get listened to when it's convenient to the University and you don't get really listened to when its not”

However, Padron holds out hope for President Jim Ryan who, with the guidance of years of student activism, helped achieve the opening of student spaces such as the Latinx Student Center. Padron was filled with emotion during his first time in space, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, as he spoke to the 2020 cohort of the Latinx Leadership Institute. 

Prof. Padron speaking to the Latinx Leadership Institute 2020 cohort in the Latinx Student Center

Having spent 20+ years at UVA, Padron feels like he knows this institution the best, and is familiar with all its bumps and smooth edges. Above all else, it is a place where one can find deep community. This is not only reflected through anecdotes, but UVA’s  high national ranking as a school where students feel like they belong. His advice to all Latinx students is to find their community and to keep working towards closing the shortcomings they find in their experiences at UVA, even if they personally do not see the results of their efforts.

Padron and friend on a snowy day.