The political science major and I.D.E.A.S. president Yadira Sanchez Najera answers questions pertaining to being an undocumented student at San Francisco State University. The 23-year-old is finishing her last semester as an undergraduate. She is originally from Tlaxcala, Mexico, but grew up in Mexico City. The first time she came to the United States, she arrived with a visa. On her second arrival, she had to cross the border that divides Mexico and the United States through other means. She was 16-years-old when she came the second time and has been here since.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN UNDOCUMENTED STUDENT?
“It means a student who lacks of a social security number, of a legal status in the country. I guess that’s the technical part of it. But it also means, a student who has to work twice as hard. If you’re undocumented, you have to prove to everyone that you deserve an opportunity. Being undocumented is another identity. It makes me feel so much more proud of my accomplishments as an individual. It means twice as much that I graduated from high school with honors. I feel proud that I didn’t let my status limit my dreams. I associate it with empowerment.”
ARE YOU A D.R.E.A.M.er.? DO YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS A D.R.E.A.M.er?
“I do and I don’t. I don’t fit into the standard of a dreamer. They’re those who were brought here when they were two or three-years-old, and they’ve been here throughout their lives. They are more Americanized because this is the only country that they’ve known. I came here when I was 16. I experienced a lot of my Mexican culture. I am a dreamer in the sense that I have dreams. It’s U.S. policies that have made Mexico and other third world countries force our families to migrate to this country. It’s a hate-love relationship with the United States. Yes, they have given me many opportunities, but I have fought for those opportunities. Also, it was because of their government and policies that I had to come here. We only accept the good immigrants. That’s why D.R.E.A.M.ers have been able to achieve DACA, because they’re going to college, because they’re good people. But what is happening to our parents is that they are being left out. They’re being attacked as the ones who broke the law. They [D.R.E.A.M.ers] were victims. It was their parent’s fault.”
The first time she came to the United States Yadira was 5-years-old. Her mom decided to go back to Mexico when Yadira was about to turn 12-years-old.
“She felt really lonely and alienated. I was so used to this lifestyle. I was becoming Americanized. I was a cheerleader. I was speaking English. My favorite music was pop artists such as NSYNC and Britney Spears. I didn’t know what my mom was going through. I am privileged to have an education. It’s not so much a privilege because it’s the work that my parents have put to give me an education.”
She moved once again to the United States when she was 16.
“It was a security matter. It was the safest decision for our family to move to the United States. My mom has always said that we are undocumented, that you’re Mexican, that you should be proud of your roots, of everything that embodies you and I thank her for that because otherwise I would felt very marginalized.”
THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE, HAVE YOU BEEN OPEN OR SILENT ABOUT YOUR STATUS?
“I came out in fifth grade. We had to do a biography and present it in front of class. To me it was important for them to know. It was really powerful and inspiring because here were two other classmates who were undocumented and they were crying when I said it. They knew what that meant. I got this really cute note from a guy that said ‘I don’t care if you’re undocumented I really like you.’ As you’re growing up, society gets a little nasty. We start to say, ‘fear the other.’ I start to wonder what others are going to think about me. Are they going to pity me? Should that even matter? When I meet someone, I’m not like ‘Oh hi, I’m Yadira. By the way, I’m undocumented. If I feel comfortable with the person I’ll let them know. It’s like hiding something from my person and I don’t want to do that because I am proud of who I am.”
I’M ASSUMING YOU HAVEN’T BEEN SEALED OFF FROM DEHUMANIZING WORDS AND PHRASES SUCH AS “GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY”, “THEY’RE STEALING OUR JOBS”, “ILLEGAL”, “ALIEN”. HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED THIS ANIMOSITY?
“My first reaction is always anger, and I’m not an angry person. When I was in Texas, we went to, I think it was Kohls and we had just come back from Mexico so my English wasn’t polished. We were trying to pay for our clothes. My mom thought I still knew English. I was trying to explain to this guy that the jeans were 50 percent off and he couldn’t understand me. I understood what he was telling me I just didn’t know how to enunciate or talk. I remember him saying ‘You illegals don’t even know how to speak English. Go back to your country’. And that, I felt like someone slapped me hard. I was so angry but it angered me the fact that I couldn’t say anything back to him.
HAVE THERE BEEN DAYS WHERE YOUR STATUS SEEMED TO TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE?
“I think it’s daunting when I ask myself, ‘When am I ever going to be able fix my status? Am I ever going to get to travel the world and see things, even go back to Mexico to see the family?’ The part that get mes the most is my parents. I’m an educated person, pero mis padres, what is going to happen with them? They’re going to get older and they’re going to continue working in these low-paying jobs where they get treated miserably. One of the requirements is to have arrived to the country before your sixteenth birthday and when I came to the country I was 16. Just because of that little requirement I didn’t qualify.”
Yadira was considering applying for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which authorizes people who arrived as children to the United States and are pursuing an education to legally work and stay in the country. However, considering that she came to the country when she was 16, DACA was out of the question.
ARE THERE POSITIVE THINGS THAT COME OUT OF BEING UNDOCUMENTED?
“There’s a lot of positive things, actually. That you’re a part of a community. When I’m viejita, I’m going to look back like people in the civil rights movement, ‘Oh look we were such badasses. We accomplished all of this.’ The other day we were joking, ‘Isn’t that crazy, how we are undocumented, but when we graduate we are not going to have student loans because we don’t qualify to get student loans.’ So I guess that’s one positive thing about it. It forces us to reach for ways to fund for our education.”
WHAT ARE YOUR DREAMS?
“I have this dream where my parents are going to have a house of their own and my mom is going to open up the restaurant that she wants. I want to start an organization. I want to go to rural areas in Mexico and bring a little school for kids and help indigenous people because they’re being marginalized and alienated from resources because of their culture. I went to a foster home in one of the poorest parts of the city. We had this project and we were asked to donate clothing items. This foster home was in really bad conditions. There were no windows. They had no shoes. They were so happy because we brought them sweaters, but even those didn’t fit them. They were so happy to see people that were there for them.”
While Yadira was attending school in Mexico, she participated in a school project where she was to donate clothing items to a foster home in the rural countryside in Mexico City. Upon visiting the place, she was shocked to see the conditions the foster home operated in. Those images made a lasting mark in her head.
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW?
“I want people to be more conscious. If they’re able to vote to use that vote because we can’t vote. For them to elect the people that are really going to support the community.To become allies of the struggle. To keep pushing not just for immigration reform, but for something bigger.I want the undocumented community to stay strong y, sí se puede.”
almendra 