All right. Uh This is Geneva Gill and Sheen Dulce M on five May 5th, 2015
for the undocumented Vo voices Oral History project. Um This is a multi
state project and the risks will vary depending on the interview location.
We have reconized these risks by attributing pseudonyms to all interviews
collected. However, all interviews will be archived in a true original
form, be advised that the any identified information given during the
interview will be available online publicly.
Um And just do I have your verbal consent to that in you? Yes, you do. Ok.
Um So just first, I just wanna learn a little more about like your family
, like where were you born? Um And tell me just a little more about your
family. I was born in Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico. And um what do you want
to know about a family? So, um you said you were born in Murillo? So um do
you like, do you have any memories of your journey to the United States?
Um Do you have brothers, sisters, your parents? Yes, I have uh 44 siblings
, three sisters and one brother. And uh yeah, I have plenty of memories
from my country of origin. I lived there for 15 years
since I was born until I was 15. I went to um OK. Uh One through it always
gets me screwed up because they have another system over there. So I went
to um Prim Maria. How would you say that in English? Elementary school?
Elementary school. So I went to elementary school there. Uh My dad has a
business uh up to this day, he still lives there. My older sister still
lives in Hermosillo. So Mona Mexico, I have another sister that lives in
Douglas, Arizona and the rest of us are here in Phoenix. And then do you
remember like your journey coming to the United States? Um And if you, if
can you describe if you do remember that journey? Well, I have plenty of
family here in the United States. Uh uncles that move to California to
Arizona. And I always remember visiting them. Um I've been very fortunate
to have had a tourist visa. So we will come here um every summer and uh
visit them and go to the theme parks, come shopping. So the United States
wasn't something like really new to me. Um And one day my mom came in and
to my aunt's wedding, what's going to happen in Vegas? So me and my mom
are very close to each other and we would always be together. And that
time she told me that Vegas was in a place for, for Children. So I
couldn't go. And from that moment I knew something was wrong. Um, so later
, a couple of days later, I received a call from her and she was
explaining to me that she needed to stay in the United States to work and
save money and um that she will come back for me. And it was a year I
needed to finish over with junior high Se Naia over there in Mexico. And
she told me that I needed to be a good girl finish school. And I, and she
will come back and, and get me. Um So a year later in 2000, I came to the
United States in the fourth of July. So that was my journey. Um And then,
so you finished junior high over there and obviously you did high school
here in the United States. Can you tell me about your experience here?
Like your high school experience? The first uh couple of months that I was
here in the United States, I switched to three different high schools. I
first went to Jet San Jacinto, which is a small town and I went to their
high school there and um everybody, all the teachers spoke English, so I
couldn't really communicate that much. I had friends there that spoke
Spanish and I also had an um my cousins that helped me get friends here in
high school over there. So it was hard because I couldn't really
understand much. There was only one teacher that spoke Spanish and he was
a math teacher and he was not my teacher. So, um, I have to study really
hard and, uh, sometimes I would turn in homework late because I didn't
really know what they were asking me. So it would take me longer to figure
out what the, what the homework assignment was. Um, I remember that when
they give you the study guide for your test, um I had to memorize them all
because I didn't know exactly what they were asking. So I need, I needed
to memorize every single question and every, every single answer. So, but
that helped me, I think it helped me learn English at a faster pace, uh
pace and uh to make matters worse, they put me on an advanced English
class. It was just a mistake. And uh by the time we figured it out, I was
already moving to Arizona. So um I had um good grades because also I think
it was easier to learn um like do the sciences, like math and chemistry
and physics. It was easier for me to pick it up. Um Then I came to Phoenix
,
I went to Sal Monte High School and in there it was very different because
there was a lot more students that knew both languages. English and
Spanish. So I was able to make more friends and,
and then I went to car hidden high school and most of the teachers there
spoke Spanish and most of the students there spoke Spanish.
Um, and then can, can you tell me if there was anyone, like, during your
high school experience that had like a positive influence, like on your
education or like, made you want to continue on with your education after
high school? Yes. My teachers, um, I had two in particular. I think every
teacher has been very good to me. But the ones that influenced me, the
more were my, uh Freddie Lard and Dr Alan Cameron who had the robotics
team at Car Haven High School. So, um that was back in 2001.
And uh they showed a promo about the robotics competition that happens
nationwide and then they said anybody can join. It doesn't matter if you
don't know or have a special skill. We're starting a uh a robotics team
and everybody's invited. So I thought I met the requirements because I
didn't know anything and I was currently learning their language. So I
joined and um they really helped me to make the right choices at school
because I think that sometimes uh we don't, students or parents don't know
the system or they don't get um all the tricks of what classes to take, to
prepare to go to college. And I think a lot of the classes that I was
taking were not preparing me to go to college. So with their guidance. I
started making changes into my academic classes,
taking math and going into summer school to catch up on my math. And, um,
yeah, they're the ones who told me that I was college material. All right.
And then just with that, like, when did you actually start thinking about
college? And how did you pick a suo, um, over any other school? So I knew
I needed to go to college because that was my mom's top priority. I didn't
know what college to go to and I didn't know what major I wanted to pick.
But being on the robotics team, it really exposed me to science,
technology, engineering and math. And I was able to network with engineers
with CEO S with scientists. And that really motivated me to say, hey, I
want to be an engineer. So that's on my senior year. I decided that I
wanted to be an engineer and I was thinking that probably I had to go back
to Mexico to go to college. But because of Dr Cameron and Freddie Lanard,
they told me, hey, let's go and apply. And there was a recruiter from a SU
that will go to Car Heen. And one day we just sat down and talked um and
it was very a very uncertain moment because I tried to enroll into a SU
online um through the online. Um And uh when I was on the website trying
to register, um I couldn't really get that far. They were asking me for my
name and like the third question was, what's your social security number?
And I knew that there was something
like, I don't want to say wrong, but there was something going on with my
immigration, but I didn't really understand it until that day that you
needed a social to be able to be successful in life. OK. Um And then, so
I'm moving on to like activism and movement. So obviously, first question
is like, what groups are you involved? Are you like currently involved
with? I know you're involved with AAA and then the Cross Hayden um robotic
scheme. But there are there any other organizations you're involved with
or is it just those two that I'm highly involved in, is just the Arizona
Dr Coalition and the Falcon Robotics? Um And I would go and attend other
events from other organizations, but I wouldn't consider myself to be
actively involved. And then within these organizations, like, how do you
participate? And like, what's your role in the organization? Well, when I
was in high school, I, I was doing public relations for, for car hidden
fundraising. And right now I just go as support. Uh go and hang out over
there, talk to the students. Sometimes I volunteered to be a judge on
their robotics competitions on um on the Arizona Dr Coalition, I have
different roles. Um I started being the treasurer, then the policy advisor
, I was the president for like two years and now I'm just a member. Um But
I try to also motivate others so they can take those leadership roles. And
we don't have to re invent the wheel every time because you need to pass
down the knowledge or things that you have learned the hard way. So they
don't make the same, I don't want to say mistake, but the same
that we, we're able to progress and that's, that's my role. And then how
do you place yourself in the movement? Like um activist, like obviously
you're an activist but an ally. Like what do you, how do you place
yourself in the movement? Like what do you feel like your role is within
the movement itself? The undocumented youth movement? Well, I'm a person
that has been affected by our broken immigration system and although my
immigration status is now I was fixed, I'm actually in the process to
apply for citizenship. My immigration status has never defined who I am.
And my experiences as an immigrant have been always um be that driving
force for me to get involved and for me to continue being involved. So I
placed my myself as somebody that has been affected by the broken
immigration system. And people need to know what's going on because I'm
not the only one who has gone through this uh obstacles and there's people
that have gone through worst situations that I have gone through um So
then like, what that is, what kind of events have you been involved with?
Have you been involved with? Like, I know the, there's like the lawsuit
against Jan Jan Brewer with the driver's license or the AC to DC. But have
you been involved with any of these like petitions sit ins like, what kind
of events do you participate in throughout the movement? I participate to
the most exciting to the most boring role or event that you wanna um
consider. I think what I would, I mean, I have done civil disobedience for
the movement. When back in 2010, I decided to get arrested because we
needed to push for the Dream Act. I have um participated in a lawsuit
against Governor Jan Brewer in the state. I did the depositions and uh I
was playing Arizona Dream Coalition was a plaintiff but because I was the
president, I was represented in most of this um activities. I go to
protests. Um I, there's a lot of strategy that has to go through every
time that you're going to do any type of action, whether it's a press
release, uh March. Um Anything that you want to do a press conference,
there has to be some type of strategy and um uh some people would think
that those are the most exciting then the most challenging and bo will be
going door to door motivating people to go out and vote. I have done that
I have done fundraising writing to funders and explaining why this is
important and why do we need those resources to continue, continue to do
the work that we do? And um yeah, that's, I, I consider that I do pretty
much a lot of stuff. Right? And then with that, like, how did you get
involved with the movement? Like, was it, did you meet someone that
influenced you or was it more like your own personal? You just really
wanted to get involved? Because I know you said you've been involved since
2008. So just how did you get involved with any movement itself? So I
think the movement has always been there, right? Like if we talked about
discrimination and everything, like we had civil rights, the Chicano
movement. And there was a, a point in my life where I was about to
graduate. Well, not really, not about to graduate. It was back in 2006
when proposition 300 passed and I was the first anti-immigrant law
targeted to students and students like me that, that needed to pay, they
wanted to take away their scholarships and increase their tuition, almost
tripled it. And um I always thought that I was the only one attending a su
all of my friends that had the same situation as me that were undocumented
, couldn't make it through college. And so the friends I knew in Car
Hayden, they didn't go to college and then the friends that I met at
college couldn't really relate to me because when I would tell them and
say, hey, I have this problem, I'm undocumented. They thought that I was
making a joke. They didn't understand it and we just never talked about it.
So I didn't, I never met somebody like me until proposition 300 passed.
And the funds, the scholarship stardust start. I think that was, I think
that that's what it was called start that scholarship. Um They created
that and then that kind of disappeared and then they created the American
Dream Fund. So when the American Dream Fund scholarship was created, they
called a meeting. And on that meeting, uh when I went, I wasn't really
expecting anything. But when I walked in this room, there's a full, it's
full of students. And even though that we didn't talk about it at that
specific moment, the assumption is that if you were there because you were
undocumented and we passed down a list. Uh It was like a sign up sheet if
you guys want to receive more information and if you guys want to connect
, so then we started talking on blackboard and from blackboard, we thought
was our conversations were going to be read and we wanted more privacy and
we went to Google Groups and that's how the movement started and
specifically in Arizona for me. And um that's how I got involved. I got
involved because they took her away um my scholarships and they increased
my tuition and, and a lot of people decided to get involved at that moment
and create a group. And at the beginning, it was not complicated at all.
And I don't think if I looking back, I don't think any of us really
imagine what that small group of students would have created today. That
is known as the Arizona Dr Co because that group of students was only
talking about how do you file your tax returns? How do you open a bank
account? How do you get a job? Um How do you open your LLC? So you can um
create a business. So it was more of support. Um And uh little by little,
we, we started getting more involved. OK. Um And then do you feel that the
immigration reform, should we focus at the local state or federal level?
There's a famous saying that says all politics is local and um I think we
need change, needs to happen everywhere. And definitely we need like
legislation at the federal level. But if you look at how Congress is
composed, they get elected at the local level. So for me, um we need to
change things in house in order to make a bigger change nationwide. So I
personally prioritize local battles rather than
national, but we definitely need both. Uh And then how do you feel about
the slogan? Undocumented and unafraid? That was like used or is used? Like
what are your feelings towards that slogan? Because at least I experienced
a lot of people during Dream Summer had very different opinions about it.
So like what are your opinions or your feelings towards that slogan? I
think it depends on where you live, right? So if you live in the most anti
immigrant states and you say undocumented and unafraid um for some
indicators, it can mean power. Uh For me, it means a defining moment indi
individually a defining moment for the organization that I have been part
of. Oh, the reason to my coalition since I've been part of it, since,
since its existence. And I think that was a moment of growth for, for me
as an individual and for the organization because we needed to come out
and say we're undocumented and I'm afraid. So that word means power for me
or that saying or that slogan. All right. And then how do you feel about
the term documented? Because I also heard both sides of that, the opinion
about the term do documented.
Um
I think it's just another label. Um And we live in a society where we have
to put labels and, and everything and hashtags for everything. I don't
necessarily have any opinion whether it's bad or good. I just, other than
when I said it, people, some, a lot of people don't know what it means and
uh they get it confused with they think that we're making a grammar or
something. Um, I don't think I really have much opinion about, about it.
All right. And then, um, moving on to, like, with the labels. Like, what
does it mean to you to be American?
What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be American? It
means for me that you don't really give up and that you continue fighting
and that your hard work will pay off. It doesn't mean I think a lot of
people labeled it as, oh, you were born in, this is border or not. Um It's
more than location, it's more than country of birth. And it's i it's a
trait that comes with it. Like if you're an American, you can prevail and
, and uh no matter how hard the obstacles are there that you're still
gonna continue fighting. All right. And then how do you feel about the
term dreamer? Um Because I've also heard both pros and cons about it and
people are like, well, I don't consider myself a dreamer. And then how do
you feel about the term itself? I love it. I personally love the, the term
dreamer. And I think it goes beyond, um I think you can limit a term, but
for me, it goes beyond than just, oh, a dreamer is a person that was
brought to this country before the age of 16 and qualifies for the dream
act. For me. That's not what it means. Um I think for every individual,
for every individual
that exist in the world at one point in their life, they had a dream and
they still have dreams. And is that person that has been told? No, you can
do this. No, you can do that. And that person at the end prevailed and
said, look, well, I'm using what I have and, and showing you what that I
can do. All I sent my mind to, um, that's what it means for me and then
that's all I have the questions. Cool.