movement » New York State Youth Leadership Council

Tag Archive: movement

Pensamientos of a Human categorizada as an Undocumented Humana

Aveces parece imposible. Sometimes it seems impossible. Yes this dream seems unreachable. Muy distante, inalcanzable. Fuera de mis limites. Out of my hands, powerless. But who am I to speak with such negativity? I’ve only been an active participant in this movement for only a year. Pero he vivido en este estado como indocumentada desde el primer segundo que ese avión, el 1 de Junio, aterrizo en el JFK. 10 years considered, defined, described, identificada, conozida, as undocumented, y para el gobierno estadudinense soy un ovni. Y sometimes to me this dream, aspiration, of being considered una ciudadana of the United States of America, parece eso, imposible.

Why am I being flooded con estos pensamientos tan negavitos? I don’t know. Creo que it’s the false promises from different people who we are suppose to confiar en. I guess que es leer los articulos of outstanding students graduating this year that are paperless, con suenos, con anhelos pero paperless. Paperless? No tienen papeles? Si, no tienen un pasarpote, una green card, a citizenship certificate that states that they are ciudadanos of this country. Me entristezio leer el articulo of an Arizona student who is graduating as valedictorian of her class en la Universidad de Arizona, and who will not be able to progress her career porque es indocumentada, paperless, undocumented. Pero she is not the only one, she is parte de miles de estudiantes indocumentados, dreamers, who are graduating this year and the following years with no certainty of making use of their diplomas,  almenos que halla un cambio en las leyes migratorias, soon, muy, muy pronto.

I try to not get discourage, trato de manterner el animo, el positivismo, la confianza, and the belief that things no matter what van a cambiar. I fool my mind, well, I don’t really fool it, solo le doi palabras de aliento, of optimism and palabras de amor. <Si se puede!> I tell my mind. “We’ll be pledging alliance to the flag of the United States el dia que nos volvamos citizens!” Le digo otra vez. Esto es solo un dream, si claro un dream, largo, stressful, hermoso, dividido,inmenso, wonderful, painful, amoroso, foolish, humano, joven, old, unido, revolutionary, liberal y libre, con opresión y llanto.

Este movimiento es tuyo and mine. We make it, we united it, we love it y el nos ama. Pero y ellos? Those who seem to be contra nosotros, que creen ellos? Que sienten cuando nos ven siendo arrestados? When they deport us, no se les desahace el corazón? Rabia me da. “We need to secure our borders before we can pass alguna reforma migratoria.” Predican esto. Pero que fronteras? Que borders? Las que nos dividen a nosotros? O asegurar la frontera que existe internamente entre ellos y nosotros para que nunca los alcanzemos a ellos? De que frontera en verdad hablan ellos?

I remain positive y optimista por la gente que he conocido, por los que he visto que han dado todo for this movement. They motívate me para no salir corriendo como una cobarde, como muchos que están en el poder deverian de hacer de la vergüenza que dan o mejor asumir sus errores y responsabilidades. Pero yo no soy cobarde, mi madre no me hizo asi, no me crio con vergüenza pero si con los pantalones de asumir mis actos y mis errores, no me crio con miedo pero si con la fortaleza to fight and contribute to make a change, no me crio con debilidad pero si con la valentía de admitir mis emociones y mis fracasos. Yeah, that’s right she constructed me far from perfection, pero que felicidad me da that she didn’t raise me even close to perfection. Porque para estar en este movimiento y la lucha for justice, igualdad, democracy, libertad, por la lucha de nosotros y futuras generaciones, no podemos ser perfectos, si no lo que somos, humans.

Soy una inmigrante indocumentada por culpa de nadie, mas que por las leyes que se han escrito para matar una condición humana; el movimiento. I am American y Colombiana, pero here in the United States  I feel I’m from everywhere. Soy de donde tu eres y de donde sopla el viento. I’m a dreamer, with dreams, big dreams, y CREEME QUE ELLOS SI SE VAN HACER REALIDAD, even when I may seem hopeless and I question everything around me. For Colombia, por los Estado Unidos, por el universo entero, que esto va a pasar, ya sea por el D.R.E.A.M. Act o una Reforma Migratoria Comprensiva, or through another solution, que tu, yo, y todos que estamos en esta condición inhumana, seremos ciudadanos del mundo entero.

Libre seremos con o sin papeles. Free at last, we shall be.
-Meli


What this country really looks like

The Dream Lives On!

Dear Dreamers and Allies,

Thanks to you, tens of thousands of calls were made, outnumbering anti-Dream calls by a 10-1 margin in many parts of the country (including North Dakota). Thanks to you, Democratic Leadership has made passing the Dream Act a top priority of this Congress. Thanks to you, Dreamers all over the country are able to proudly call themselves undocumented and unafraid. Thanks to you, the voices of immigrants are finally at the forefront of the immigration debate. Thanks to you, we are poised for a win.

Many of us watched the events of this week with baited breath, hoping that our time had finally come. The Department of Defense Reauthorization bill failed to make cloture on Tuesday. With this vote, Congress decided to avoid discussing the defense bill, which would’ve had amendments attached to it later, including the Dream Act. Thus, this was only one avenue for a vote on Dream and we have yet to have a vote on the Dream Act itself. In fact, on Wednesday, Senator Durbin, the lead sponsor of the Dream Act, announced that he is reintroducing it this week and that it will finally be placed on the Senate calendar. This is a huge win. The Dream Act is now on the agenda. This means that the Dream Act will be voted on before the end of the year. And it is due to the work you did- be it walking hundreds of miles, fasting for days, making hundreds of calls, educating your community, risking your lives in acts of civil disobedience, or yelling out loud that you are undocumented and unafraid.

So friends, this week is a victory for us. But it is not the ultimate victory. We have a lot of work left to do. In order to win, we will each need to recommit to this movement and do everything we did this week times ten. But we know we can do it. Some doubt us, some say it will take a miracle. But we have been doubted before. Some doubted that we could graduate from high school, some doubted that we could go to college, some doubted that we would still be here now, but here we are, in college, leaders in our community, and at the forefront of the immigrant rights movement.

So we know that no matter what they say, we have what it takes and we can do this. We now know our true power, so let’s get this done!

In Solidarity,

The New York State Youth Leadership Council

On Hate and Fear

It is pretty clear that racism exists, and no matter what scientific knowledge says about the existence of race, humans keep dividing themselves on accounts of it. Our movement is fighting this trend of society with our own intellectual artillery and unsurpassed bravery. However, now I ask you my comrades in battle, are you really brave? There is none among you, I suspect, that thinks otherwise. In fact, you may think that the only reason why you are involved in this social outcry is because you are brave. Nevertheless, cowards go into battle, not because they don’t feel afraid at their enemy, but because they hate so much the thing they are attacking.

You hate racism, but as a consequence you also hate the racist. And by hating the racist, you are also proving that you are afraid of it because we tend to ignore the things for which we feel brave about, but we either attack or avoid the things that we fear. Out of fear comes hate. We cannot hate things that we feel brave about, and we cannot love the things that make us shiver. Hate, however, does not always lead to violence. You hate racists, but you have decided to carry on this fight without producing harm to the subjects of your hate. However, this cannot continue.

In the same way it is illogical to hurt a person we love, it is illogical to act with courtesy in front of those people we hate. Nevertheless, strange cases like this happen, with horrible consequences for the perpetrators. Lovers full of rage have brutally murdered the very person they loved. Then, they realized what they had done and there was nothing more than emptiness, sadness, desperation, and anguish. Acting peacefully in front of those we hate will eventually pollute us, lead us to madness, despair and our movement will fall due to its own hate. This dilemma leads us to two ways of responding to racism. One is an old way, and though effective, it many times leads to the destruction of the societies in which it was applied. The other is slow, and probably a new concept for our minds used to the old way of acting.

The old way is hate with violence. In this way we will canalize our fear (turned into hate) through the length of our weapons. Glory and power come when this method is applied because those who fight are viewed by the rest as heroes because it is thought they are bravely advancing toward the enemy. However, as noted before, these so called brave heroes are acting out of fear for their enemy and not out of real bravery. This method is effective because it seeks the destruction of the thing subject of our hate. We fight and we destroy it. We then impose our law and our way of thinking. Depending on how even is the struggle, this method can be a very quick way of changing our present condition as well.

The second method is slow and rather than destroying the enemy, we try to convert him to our side. However, many people would say that the method goes against common sense. This method is love and peace. It is not enough with acting peacefully toward the enemies; it is also about loving them. We will never win the peaceful battle against racism if we keep hating racists. In the same way a fire cannot put off a fire, hate cannot overcome hate. It takes its opposite to neutralize what is harmful and it takes truly brave people to volunteer to love their enemy. If we keep fighting, pushing against something, we will never advance. But if instead, we aim toward something and move toward that objective, we will not meet opposition nor enemy. This should not be a movement against racism; it should be movement for a future where justice prevails.

The racist is afraid of the subject of his hate. The racist hate because that is their human response to fear. Evidently, our enemy fears us and that is the reason why we cannot afford to hate them. Hating them would mean fearing them, and a movement cannot base itself out of fear because those who shiver will eventually fall.

» Newer posts