Undocumented Longhorns

Today I woke up to a call from a friend wanting to know if I had heard about the event created by the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT). I answered that I had not heard about their event and she told me to go log in to Facebook where she shared a link on my wall. As I opened the link, the first thing I saw was the following image.

 

As an undocumented student that has faced discrimination in the past and has been called many derogatory names such as "wetback."  I decided to stop being in some ways a victim and stand up and fight back. It took me many years to be able to admit to people that I am and undocumented student. And it wasn't until my freshman year in college that I admitted this fact about me to other people than my two best friends since middle school. Let alone being able to wear clothing or anything else that would let other people know I am undocumented. Today I serve as one of the officers in a student led organization, University Leadership Initiative (ULI), which does outreach to U.S. Officials from the local to national level about an immigration reform. I am proud to say I am undocumented and unafraid.

 

Going back to YCT's event, this is what their event description states: 

YCT will be having a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" event this upcoming Wednesday. The details of the game goes as follows:

There will be several people walking around the UT campus with the label "illegal immigrant" on their clothing. Any UT student who catches one of these "illegal immigrants" and brings them back to our table will receive a $25 gift card.

The purpose of this event is to spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration, and how it affects our everyday lives.

https://www.facebook.com/events/570575573015284/570824089657099/?notif_t=like

 

Yes, this made the blood in my body boil because I felt threatened by their event. I felt that I and the rest of the 400+ undocumented Longhorns would not be safe in OUR campus this Wednesday. This event is very racist and it target minorities. How does and "illegal" immigrant look like? This event gained a lot of negative publicity not only for the organization but for the event host, Lorenzo Garcia.

Just to set the record straight, no person is illegal. Only objects and actions are illegal. If you need to refer to a persons immigration status, it should be stated as undocumented.

ULI hosted a conversation and planning meeting about the event created by YCT. The amount of people who attended this meeting was incredible. We all had the same goal to counter act this event and shut it down.

ULI advocates for HR 15, a house bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship to the 11 Million undocumented immigrants in this country. This Wednesday we will be having an action in the area around the steps of the tower in which people will wear an white t-shirt in which they will write "undocumented." It does not matter if you are undocumented or not, we want to show everyone that you can not make a distinction between a person who is undocumented and someone who is not. Our action will take place from 12pm-2pm. Join ULI and other organizations in an effort to shut down the racist event put on by YCT.

What can you do:
1) report this event to campus climate: http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/campus-culture/campus-climate-response-team/

2) wear a white t-shirt this Wednesday that says "undocumented" and if you can attend the action in front of the tower steps. https://www.facebook.com/events/636297229745845/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

3) Make a Social Media post asking UT Authorities to shut down this racist event and remember to use the following hash tags: #United4Families #11MillionDreams #ULI 

Gentrification in Austin, Texas

As we road through the streets of Austin this past week, we saw lots of Gentrification happening in the Holly neighborhood.  Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to visit Marlo Heights, and Mueller Development. However, as part of the Project team, I did benefit tremendously from the trip to the Holly neighborhood. I was surprised by sections, where there were many old residences and out of no where, there was this new big house. The gentrification was very noticeable in this neighborhood, and it was incredible how this community is slowly changing. 

When comparing the gentrification from the US and and other countries such as Africa, although there is still a change occurring in the community, there is a huge difference in the gentrification occurring. Through the images, one could see the need for health care in Africa, and the beat up building and poor life style of the population. 

As far as the projects for Holly and E. Cesar Chavez, I believe the work The Project is going to implement to create beatification is going to help the residents of this area to create self sustainable projects. This would allow the residents to have a better self steam for residents to keep up with their neighborhood and prevent the rapid pace of gentrification.

The Holly Neighborhood.

Gentrification is the change in a community who goes from being a low income community to be a higher income community. This mostly because the cost of the properties in the neighborhood are low cost and businesses who are looking for low cost land come in and buy this properties, raising the cost of leaving and forcing in many instances families to move out of their community.

The article by Flag wars, does a great job in my opinion showing how gentrification affects the community and the residents who in many cases have been living in their residences for several generations.

The article, "The Empty Stairs: The Lost History of East Austin" Shows the a personal story and side to the effects of gentrification. Reading this article I could feel as if I was standing in the old East 11th and 12th streets of Austin. Today, I was driving through those exact streets and I could not feel but sad as to how the reach history of this neighborhood has been almost lost. I wish that there could be something I could do to help to stop all this from happening like at this moment.

About Me:

About me:

My name is Javier Polo, I am a fourth year applied mathematics student and hope to one day become a high school mathematics teacher. When I was 11 years old when I came to the United States and started school. I always new I was different from the rest of the kids in class with me because I was undocumented. I never realized what this really meant. It wasn't until I was in high school that I became aware that being undocumented meant that I could not apply to scholarships, obtain federal financial aid, get a drivers license and that at any moment I could get deported to Mexico and my life would change completely in a blink of an eye. 

Being here at UT has helped me develop into a leader, however, this was not something that I was able to do alone. At first I did not have a support system of any kind here at UT, and my first two years were extremely rough. However, my junior year I became a brother of Omega Delta Phi, a brotherhood that has helped me in my times of need and has helped shape me into the leader I am today.  

I currently serve as the Volunteer Management Vice-Chair (VM for short) for Project 2014, which means that I am in charge of helping recruit Team Leads for the day of project and assist in their trainings. One important aspect of The Project is to know about the community we are helping and how to successfully assist them in bettering their community.  

Aside from serving on The Project Executive Board, I also serve as the President of the Latino Pan-Hellenic Council (LPHC). The purpose of the Latino Pan-Hellenic Council is to act as a governing body, which serves to unify the Latino/a Fraternal Organizations. In addition to increase awareness, increase interest in and strengthen Latino/a community on campus.

I also serve as the Campus Relations Officer for University Leadership Initiative (ULI). The University Leadership Initiative (ULI) harnesses the talents, abilities and determination of youth – particularly college students – to affect long-term change in a proactive manner. Specifically, ULI conducts outreach at local, state, and national levels to address the dilemma faced by young people who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children, but who have since grow up in the United States, have stayed out of trouble, and wish to continue their education on to college.