Sunday, July 27, 2014

Meet Carolina Valdivia

In September of 2013, I did a brief search on "undocumented bloggers" curious about what other people were writing on the topic. I found the blog below and also reached out to the writer on Facebook. She was kind (welcoming me into our undocumented community) and said she was there for me. She was true to her word as I have begun this writing journey. She also encouraged me to hit the "publish" button on this blogger interface. I have been in touch with her for almost a year now. I wanted to share her most recent blog post below. I feel such a sense of reverence and  pride in all her activities as an activist, researcher and educator. Please check her out!

“My Un(DACA)mented Life: Experiences of Undocumented Immigrant Young Adults Growing Up and Resisting Through Activism"

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Meet Ju Hong

I am sharing a blog post from an activist rock star, Mr. Ju Hong. When the typhoon Haiyan (known as Yolanda in the Philippines) destroyed South East Asia, particularly the Philippines on November 8, 2013, I had local news on my Facebook feed for storm relief updates. I wanted to know what the Philippine government, as well as other governments, was doing to help.  Later that month President Obama held a news conference in San Francisco’s Chinatown on immigration reform. Undocumented youth were invited on stage with him while he spoke. During the speech he got "heckled". 

I didn't see too much coverage on this in the US (most likely because my news is limited to NPR during the morning commute and the treadmill at the YMCA in the evenings) but news on the other side of the world was buzzing, particularly ABS-CBN news (a Philippine network) about a DREAMer that dared to speak out against the most powerful man in the world. Undocumented activists, DREAMERs and allies were afire with support and pride for this courageous and outspoken individual. The amazing thing about our nation and it’s Leader is that Mr. Hong was allowed to stay as Secret Service agents sought to remove him.