May 16, 2026
The family of late OU student Diego Dorantes Sanchez was presented with his posthumous Anthropology bachelor’s degree in the DFCAS 2026 commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16. They were accompanied by OU faculty and staff, friends, and the special presence of the Consul of Mexico in Oklahoma, the Honorable Edurne Pineda.
Diego Dorantes Sanchez was an undergraduate student in the department who tragically went missing in May 2025 while snorkeling in Taiwan. OU students, staff, and faculty joined to celebrate his life and mourn his passing with memorials in June 2025 and January 2026. Now, for the commencement ceremony in May 2026, Mrs. Josefina Sánchez, Diego’s mother, and Enrique (Kike) Dorantes, Diego’s brother, traveled to Norman from their home in Hidalgo, Mexico, to receive the posthumous bachelor’s degree in Anthropology presented by OU. Dr. Claire Nicholas, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Assistant Curator at the Sam Noble Museum; Dr. Victor Maqque, Managing Director for LASI, and Affiliate faculty in the department of History; the Honorable Edurne Pineda, Consul of Mexico in Oklahoma; Dr. Rebecca Cruise, Associate Professor in the College of International Studies and Associate Provost for Global Engagement; other faculty and staff; and close friends from the UWC accompanied them during the ceremony and the days they spent in OU.
Diego was an exemplary anthropology student and a much-loved member of the broader campus community. He modeled for others what full engagement in academic and extracurricular student life could look like at this university. One notable project, under the guidance of Dr. Nicholas and Dr. Maqque, was Diego’s Summer 2024 UReCA research on Mexican material culture in the Sam Noble Museum’s Ethnology collection. He combined collections-based research with travel to Mexico to visit cultural sites, museums, libraries, and converse with contemporary artisans. Drawing on these multiple sources and methods of inquiry, Diego wrote and designed a draft of a public-facing educational finding aid that showcases the museum's rich collections from many different Indigenous communities of Mexico. Diego’s passion for raising awareness about Mexican culture and cultural diversity has left a legacy of enduring value to the OU community and beyond.
