The Next Generation: Children of Immigrants Alejandra Alvarez, Jesus Hernandez, Ruben Aguilar

What We Did Interviews Familiarity with their parents’ immigration story Impact of these stories on their understanding of immigration Impact of these stories on their own lives. Jesus

Gustavo Alvarez Whittier College (‘19) [San Francisco, CA] Major: Spanish & Social Work Legality of citizenship “came illegally vs came legally” Reagan administration Protection from the government Bare life “It is very apparent how human life is not valued… The US government doesn’t value non-American lives… all those people don’t matter to anyone…” Ruben Gustavo is a freshman at Whittier College. During his interview, he mentioned that he knew a lot about his parents immigration stories. Something we noticed during his interview is that he often times used the terms “legal” and “illegal” Although he never used the terms to refer to a person’s identity, for example, he never said “illegal immigrants” he would say that the process of them coming to the US was “illegal” When Alejandra asked him what he meant by “illegal vs legal” he said that “legal” means coming to the US with the ‘correct documents” Furthermore, he noted that when someone comes “legally” that they are protected by the government and do not face as many barriers as those who do not come with the proper documents. When asking how his consciousness of his parent’s immigration experiences has changed now that he is older he says something very similar to what we read about “bare life”: he says “it is very apparent how human life is not valued” By this he acknowledges how there are groups within the US that the US doesn’t value, but expands on the idea that the US doesn’t care about immigrants. He notes, “all those people don’t matter to anyone but they should” He backs up his claim by calling out that the people creating policies that only make it more difficult to cross the border, or how he puts it, “The US government makes it so that those people die on the way here…” **If anyone has any questions about my parent’s immigration story: My mom came to the US when she was a baby and didn’t receive citizenship until she was 18 My dad came to the US multiple times, the first time through a student visa but then overstaying it. The next few times he came by crossing the desert.

Zitlaly Marin Occidental College (‘16) [Pomona, CA] Major: Sociology Parent’s Immigration Story: knows how they crossed over/ first couple of years were understanding the culture/environmental difficulties understands process of naturalization Parent’s wanted children to have better access to jobs, education and careers Community was made up of immigrants who looked like her as a result didn’t impact her upbringing s Ruben I think that this touches a couple of the ideas we talked about in class. Primarily we see that her parent’s reasons for immigration are ones we have heard one hoping for a better life, education, and access to jobs I also think this wasn’t necessarily one of the things addressed but when the speaker came to discuss transnational families mentioned that she continued to attempt to be a resource for others in her position so I think this idea of helping your community remains in play only used the term undocumented

Sergio Diaz Haverford College (‘17) [Pomona, CA] Major: Political Science Parent’s Immigration Story: Opportunity Migrant Networks “There has to be someone that picks up that torch, that helps them… and makes sure that the policies that are created is geared specifically to help them out. It has to be somebody that really understands the issues that people are going through, and that’s what I want to do.” Jesus

Take-Away Is there anything that you would like to tell your parents? Is there something else you would want to know about their stories?” “For me, what I want to tell them is not going to be in words, it’s going to be in actions and eventually what my life becomes. You can’t put words to this. I don’t know what else I would want to know about their story. I do want to know how it finishes. I know it’s up to me to really fill the end of the story.”