Archive - month

Entering Atlanta in Solidarity

As an organizer for the Trail, I will be joining as we walk into Atlanta this Saturday, February 27th.  Atlanta residents and others will be joining them about 1.5 miles south of the city. Nationwide, organizations are joining in by walking in solidarity as part of United We Dream's Week of Action.

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Contradictions

Am I a criminal for loving my family?

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True Reasons

My mother, like so many others in this world went from the countryside to a big city seeking better opportunities. Her desire to better herself led her to work three jobs at a time for pennies, and in horrible conditions. Having to face abuse and poor living conditions, she never found a way to get an education and like so many others got stuck in cycle of perpetual poverty. She saw in us, her children, hope to break the curse of scarcity that had followed her through her whole life. So she gave us her best, even if it meant that she wouldn’t eat until her body couldn’t take it anymore. I am in this country as a result of her reaching her physical limits and needing to send me away to be taken care of by other family members when she simply couldn’t provide for me any longer. She dreamed again, with my departure, that an education in the United States could keep me forever out of poverty.

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Free Spirited Koinonia

Koinonia is currently visited by people all across the world, fascinated and completely captivated by its simplicity based on peace, love and joy.  I was completely intrigued by this community, especially having seen a young white girl, wearing a long purple dress, walk nearby us.  With her radiant smile, she walked barefoot as she beautifully sang a social justice freedom song.  We all felt accepted with open doors from the first minute we walked into the social lunch location, where people were eating together as they usually do.

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Innocent Voices

We got to Albany and we found several children that wanted to walk with us. They ranged from 8-12 years old. All of them were born in the US and yet had to live with the fear of losing their parents. One of the most important parts of a child’s life is their family. The constant threat of losing a parent has traumatized our children to the point that they don’t know how to live in such instability. What we do when the answer lies on the hands of congress people who have not walked with us all this way? What do we do to relay the message of these youth to greater audiences that continue to judge us as less than human because of our immigration status? 

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I am learning to crawl in my new skin

Camilla, GA

In one of her incredible poems, slam poet Andrea Gibson mentions the love of a mother, daring us to think about the joy our mothers felt the first time they said our first name. When I heard the poem, I thought about it for many days, however, I kept thinking about why a woman would love her child –just as my mother has loved me- even though babies spend nearly nine months eating up all of their energy and nutrients from the inside out and they have to deliver it through a process of pain, blood and tears...

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Good-Bye Florida

From Bradfordville, Fl.

Many have traveled through the “Sunshine State” but very little people know how beautiful it really is. From the swamps and creeks to the subtle hills of north Florida, we tried to fully enjoy everything that the scenery could offer. As we prepare to leave our home state to discover a different reality across state lines tomorrow, we acknowledge the beautiful and difficult moments we lived in our state. Needless to say, the Trail of DREAMs did not emerge out of thin air. It came from the hopes, dreams, and everyday struggles of everyday individuals in Florida, and from the need to overcome the different abuses that we are living in our everyday lives. We are the product of a movement of young people screaming on the top of their lungs and not finding a voice or even a refuge in this nation we have grown to recognize as home. It was a personal process that started when I joined Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER) two years ago not knowing how to identify my own oppression or how to engage in my own struggle.

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O.C. Trail of DREAMs Solidarity Walk

In solidarity with Trail of DREAMs in Florida and with United We DREAM, the Orange County Dream Team will collaborate and organize a march and rally here in Orange County. There are undocumented students throughout the nation and Orange County is no exception. This event gives presence and a voice to those undocumented students in our community. These are students that despite their immigration status do not give up but rather fight for their educational and career dreams. Please join us in solidarity and support!!!!!

5 Mile Walk
 
Saturday, February 27, 2010

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Solidarity and Love

California Trail of Dreams: Immigration Reform Now!

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Proud of my little sis

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Wake Up and Remember

“I stayed here because I believed… that despite the fact that I have worked here for 6 years without any overtime wages or vacation, and the fact that I step out of my home every morning with the fear that I may not return… I still believe there is a potential for this country to be better than this: for this country to stand by and uphold its values like a torch –that it may illuminate all the places where our people have been living within the shadows without ever being given an opportunity or a voice."

I do it for those who have touched my life so profoundly along this jouney.

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Resistance

We resist the presence of omnipresent fear, oppression, and silence. 

We will not continue to allow our communities to suffer. 

This is our unspoken creed that is cemented on the firm premise of righteousness.  If I’ve learned anything in my life as a human rights activist so far, it is that fear manifested in the darkness of silence is self-destructive. The individual, the community, and society as a whole submerge in this perpetual cycle of indefinite darkness unless a resistant gleam of light is present to overcome it.  

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Looking into the Blind Spot

Finally, through the discourse, we heard the voice of Maria, a fragile-looking woman who raised her voice to tell us the stories of the many violations in the nearby counties.  Her voice trembled from an array of emotions that varried from desparation and sorrow to anger. She told us about the crimes that have been happening to Mexicans in the area. They have been targeted by criminals from the area that continue to take advantage of them due to their lack of status. A man, Don Francisco, had been one of the many victims in the area. He was attacked outside his house while speaking on the phone with his family back home in Mexico. As she was sharing, I felt my face turning red out of rage. I imagined this man talking to his family about his day when he felt the first punch: a loud scream on the other end of the receiver followed by complete silence. What kind of an impact must that have had on his loved ones, thousands of miles away? He was in a coma for several days from a skull fracture and had to get five brain surgeries. Maria told us how the hospital and local police were waiting for him to come out of his coma in order to deport him.

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