Suffolk Student Creates Nation’s First Spanish-Language Debate Tournament

Heading into his final tournament this February, David Rivera, Class of 2026, prepared to give his all. A seasoned and tenacious debater, Rivera has been competing in, and winning, tournaments since high school. But this time at least part of him hoped his opponents would succeed. 

Rivera was set to square off against two students he’d mentored, first when he served as their Boston Debate League coach at Brighton High School, and later when they followed his path to Suffolk University. Now they’d compete as rivals for the second year in a row at Suffolk in the CEDA Northeast Regional Tournament’s Spanish-language policy debate division.  

It would be a full-circle moment competing in a tournament he helped found against students he once coached, says Rivera—one that seemed almost unimaginable during his first weeks on campus.  

Finding his place 

Rivera, a marketing major with minors in graphic design and Spanish for the professions, entered Suffolk bolstered by the success and community he’d found through Debate en Español, Boston Debate League’s Spanish-language division. Without that support his confidence began to falter. 

“As a Latino, immigrant, first-generation, low-income student coming from a diverse high school into a less diverse environment, it was a shock,” explains Rivera, who came to the US from El Salvador as a young teen. “I felt like I had lost the voice that being on the Spanish language debate team had once given me.”

In those first weeks at Suffolk, the welcoming words of Student Government Association then-president Angela EI-Jazzar, BSBA ’23, resonated deeply with Rivera. “She told us that we would find our place at Suffolk University and challenged us to create one if it didn’t already exist.” 

So Rivera embarked on the ambitious task of establishing a Spanish-language collegiate policy debate tournament—a first not just for Suffolk, but also in the US, he says. As a freshman he fell short of his goal. But in his sophomore year he was joined at Suffolk by his former high school debate partner, Marcela De Souza, Class of 2027, who helped him plan logistics, translate case materials, and recruit just enough judges and debaters to run their first tournament.  

It was the first time a Spanish-language division had been included in a Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) tournament since the college debate governing body’s founding in 1971. Now, teams from California to Massachusetts attend in large part due to Rivera’s work, says Suffolk Advertising & Public Relations Professor and debate director Frank Irizarry.  

"David was instrumental in getting our Spanish language policy debate tournament off the ground, and it has been his efforts that have allowed the tournament to grow over the last three years,” says Irizarry. “David's vision and relentless perseverance have been vital in the tournament’s growth and development.” 

Along with De Souza, rising juniors Dayana Ulloa and Gabriel Ponce-Lemus have helped the Spanish-language debate program take root at Suffolk, says Rivera.  

“Suffolk gave me the space to bring Debate En Español to the college level, and use it as a platform where immigrant students, Latino students, and Spanish-speaking students could gather and celebrate their language, their culture, their heritage, and their identity,” says Rivera. 

Rivera has built a diverse network and portfolio during his time at Suffolk, including acting as a translator for Communication, Journalism & Media Professor Jeremy Levine’s documentary The Return, and for law students and their clients in Suffolk Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic. He also participated in the McNair Scholars program, which helps prepare first-gen, low-income college students for doctoral study. Next fall, he’ll begin his graduate studies in social science at UCLA. 

Rivera hopes to return to campus for next year’s tournament as a judge. He knows his former students, now fellow Rams, will continue to grow the community he helped build.  

“It's the third year that we’re doing this, and now I see my former students and former debate partners taking on the responsibilities that I once had to do on my own,” he says. “I feel proud of them and proud of myself.”