Dream Summer 2011

It was an honer to be part of the first Dream Summer. I had an amazing experience, working 10 weeks on a camapign that connected the labor movement to the immigrants rights movement. I took a lot more away than I ever expected, and I'm looking forward to possibly doing it again next year.


C/S

My Life on Video

One of my life's dreams has always been to be on the "Real World." That dumb MTV reality show that puts the most dramatic, emotionally unstable, horny, binge drinking people on tv for everyone to watch them crash and burn.  American can't help but to rubber neck when they pass by a horrible accident. I would totally be a perfect fit for that show, except all my crazy swearing and yelling would be in Spanish and thus, subtitled. I don't think the real world is taking in undocumented folks, yet, so the next best thing I have to get that kind attention is this here blog, but things have taken a turn for the better I tell ya what.

10 Weeks

It's not the destination, but the journey getting there that makes the venture worth while. The trials and tribulations that one is presented with, being placed outside comfort zones and the people one shares these experiences with are what made this internship an amazing experience for me. More than anything for me, I took away as much as I could from this experience. I had skills to start off with, but doing the work I did this summer, collaborating with fellow interns and even just traveling outside of california made it all a memorable summer.

Never in my life have I had the opportunity to do the kind of work I did, with the help and resources of those who have been doing this kind of work for years. Sharing their experiences, tribulations and philosophies that culminated into the people they are today, sharing it with those who are starting on the same path they started out on, long ago. But unlike me, they didn't have someone guiding them, they just got thrown into the pool and they had to learn to swim on the spot.

Now, there's this transition of kinda not knowing what to do next, you know ? When you go from one place to another and finding that in-between space to make sure you don't lose the momentum you just garnered and taking it somewhere else to continue making things happens. This means adding and refining my resume to make sure that I properly reflect the work that I accomplished this summer. And work I did.

The Hedgehogs Dilema

Once, there was a hedgehog who wanted nothing more than to be close to
other hedgehogs. Tried as hard as he did, he could never get close
enough to them. He was afraid of hurting them and in turn, getting
hurt himself because of their quills. No matter how hard he tried, he
never found a way of getting closer to other hedgehogs without someone
getting hurt. So he spent the rest of his life alone, never being able
to get closer to another hedgehog.

~ con safos ~

Flowers

For lack of imagination, I find myself constantly thinking of things.
Like anyone else, questions of life, the past, present, and future
come up. What the day, week or month will bring. Sometimes even trying
to figure out everyday things, like how to pull out a wedgy in public
without it being noticable.

But I also find myself thinking of undocumented theory. Analyzing
situations, events and issues in the movement, our life styles and
what any of that means. Everything from mixed status relationships to
working dynamics with people I could give two shits about. It's all
stuff that is always bouncing around in ma' head.

But once in a while, I stop to smell the roses. I admire the everyday
asthetics and ignore everything else going on, even if it's just for a
minute. I do this on bike and train rides a lot. To ignore the worlds
suffering for a brief moment. To ignore my own suffrage as well. But
even then, when my thoughs turn to happyness, reality sinks in again.
Time to deal with the world again.

~ con safos ~

¿ How would your life be different if you had papers ?

That's a loaded question that floats around, like a bee flying from
one flower to the next. I was asked that again today in a friendly
interview and I had to think about the answer this time around. It's
such a rhetorically, fluid question that it has no answer. Much like
the ocean water that turns into a gas, forms clouds, travels across
the world, falls down as snow, melts into a river stream, is consumed
by a bear, is released as urine on a tree and evaporates once again,
it's constantly changing.

My answer this time around was that I would be the complete opposite
of who I am. In my life, lack of access to resources, opportunities
and quality guided my life style. Over the years, not being able to
drive and get a licence turned from not being able to do it, to not
wanting to drive because I want to reduce pollution in the enviroment
& ride my bike not because I have to, but because I chose to.

It's safe to say that I wouldn't be the same person I am today if my
legal status wasn't an issue. I would have graduated from high school,
found myself a steady 9-5 job to sustain me, have a girlfriend and go
on about my life like that. Rinse, lather and repeat. Buying and
amassing useless andsuperfiloud material possesions that would never
make me content.

But that wasn't the hand I was dealt. My life up to this point and
everything that has lead up to it cannot be changed for better or
worse. What happened, happened and it lead to me being who I am.
There's always questions of if's and buts, but I don't think that way
anymore. I use to think what it would be like to have mutan powers
like the x-men, but that reality is more tangible than the one I'm
currently living. Papers or no papers.

~ con safos ~