Cross-posted from DreamActivist.org
Guest post by Professor Kent Wong. Speech delivered at commemoration event in southern California. Enjoy.
One Year Commemoration for Tam and Cinthya
May 15, 2011
One year ago today, we lost two extraordinary young women. Tam and Cinthya were to each of us gathered today our daughters, sisters, friends, students, scholars, activists, leaders, and Dreamers. Tam and Cinthya were also best friends, kindred spirits, and soul mates. We will always remember them as “Tam and Cinthya,” inextricably linked forever. And in their short lives, they touched thousands of people, and their legacy will influence millions of people throughout the country.
How did it come to pass that these two extraordinary women became best of friends? One was Vietnamese, born in Germany, brought to this country at the age of 6 and raised in Orange County. One was born in Mexico, brought to this country at the age of 14, and raised in East Los Angeles. Both ended up at UCLA as part of a new generation of exceptional undocumented immigrant students. Both were victims of a broken immigration system that punished them for something over which they had absolutely no control, where they were born. But Tam and Cinthya refused to be victims. They were fearless, and led their lives with had courage and determination.
I only learned to appreciate the source of Tam and Cinthya’s strength after spending time with their families. Tam and Cinthya often spoke of their mothers, who are in their own right courageous and amazing women, and their mothers played a crucial role in raising them to be strong and compassionate individuals. I see so much of Tam in her mother, and I see so much of Cinthya in her mother. And I am so honored that both families are with us here today.
Tam and Cinthya were both the first born in their families, and they both played an important role in nurturing and supporting their siblings. From an early age, they were challenged to take on many responsibilities to look after their families, and caring for others became a way of life.
Cinthya was a founder of IDEAS, the UCLA undocumented student organization that has emerged as one of the most important forces in the country to mobilize for the rights of immigrant youth. She built a family and a community at IDEAS, and was one of the very first in the country to truly embody the slogan, “Undocumented and Unafraid.” For Cinthya knew that she had nothing to be ashamed of, and that it is the leaders of the U.S. government who should be ashamed for lacking the political resolve to fix the crisis facing our immigrant youth.
Tam was not only a brilliant student, but a talented film maker, whose documentaries captured the stories of undocumented students and put a human face on the debate around immigrant rights. After graduating from UCLA, she served as an intern right here at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center for one year, a period when she and Susan Melgarejo for the first time had the opportunity to organize full time, and both developed into amazing leaders. For many years, their lives involved going to school full time, working in the underground economy, and organizing in their precious few hours of free time. But for the first time, their days were spent with us bringing to focus the power of immigrant student leaders who could change their own lives and define their own destinies.
During that year, Tam courageously testified before Congress on the Dream Act in 2007. A few days later, her parents and brother were picked up by immigration authorities and taken into detention. Tam herself went into hiding, because she was afraid that they were after her. But Tam built a national campaign to free her family, and she succeeded in securing their release.
Cinthya and Tam were also both pioneers in their decision to go to graduate school. Cinthya attended the Columbia University School of Public Health, and Tam entered a PhD program in American Civilization at Brown University. It was unheard of for undocumented students to go to graduate school, let alone prestigious Ivy League colleges. But Cinthya and Tam were fearless, and without friends or family, they built a new life and a new community in New York and Rhode Island. And fortunately, they always had each other.
In February of last year, I invited Tam to New York to speak at a Ford Foundation conference on higher education, where she presented her films and was one of the most compelling speakers at the conference. Afterwards, Tam and I got together with Cinthya. We met her professors, her classmates, and saw how she had made New York her city. The three of us went out to Cinthya’s favorite rib joint, and these two young women demolished everything in sight: pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken, potatoes, coleslaw, and corn bread. There were no leftovers. They were having such a good time, and enjoying life to the fullest. They were talking about summer plans, new adventures, new places to explore and people to meet. And I thought back then how lucky they were to have each other: lifelong friends who truly understood one another, who would do anything for each other and were always there to back each other up.
Although the loss of Cinthya and Tam is still very fresh, and still very painful, we gather today to celebrate their lives, and to celebrate their lasting legacy.
We celebrate the organization Cinthya and Tam helped to launch, IDEAS, that is still at the forefront of the immigrant youth movement, and has inspired dozens of other similar student organizations across the country.
We celebrate the formation of Graduates Reaching a Dream Deferred, GRADD, which is carrying on the tradition led by Cinthya and Tam to encourage and support undocumented students entering graduate school.
We celebrate the art exhibit at the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum put together by Tim Jieh and Steve Wong that had a special room honoring the memory of Tam and Cinthya. We celebrate the play on Tam’s life presented by the Vietnamese Student Union and attended by 1400 people in January 2011.
We celebrate the launch of Dream Summer, which will provide immigrant students throughout the country internship opportunities like the one Tam helped to set up right here at the Labor Center.
We celebrate the passage of the California Dream Act which both Cinthya and Tam actively supported, which we hope will be signed into law this summer.
We celebrate our new publication, “Undocumented and Unafraid: Tam Tran, Cinthya Felix, and the Immigrant Youth Movement” which will be published this summer and will let people throughout the country know about Tam and Cinthya’s life and legacy.
I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to have known Tam and Cinthya, to have them as my students, but also as my friends. And I will carry both of them in my heart as we continue to finish the work that they left behind, and as we continue to build a community and society that nurtures and supports humanity, compassion, and love that Tam and Cinthya embodied throughout their lives.
Tam and Cynthia
