DREAMers

Written By Laura Bohorquez

Loyola University Chicago

Growing up in Brewster, a small rural agricultural town in central Washington State has been an immense life lesson and a true blessing; it taught me the power of organizing and the power that came with being in solidarity with community. Furthermore, it taught me early on how it felt and what it meant to hold multiple marginalized identities (Mexican, woman, lower working class, DREAMer) while living in a White-heterosexual dominated society.  Moreover, and most importantly growing up in a town that lacked basic human resources and access to a good education allowed me to explore how my marginalized identities as well as the privileges that I hold from my other identities (educated, bilingual, catholic, heterosexual, able-bodied) all intersected and fostered my resiliency and helped me find the voice that I needed to empower myself and others.   

Growing up I have learned that struggle is inevitable and thus I constantly remind myself that I come from a place of resiliency and empowerment, which is my family. Additionally, I continuously remind myself that I come from education and from the ideology that in order to keep succeeding, I have to always bring my community with me.  With this said, early last spring semester I decided that I wanted to practice my ideology by contributing to Loyola University Chicago’s (LUC) Jesuit mission of social justice and practice being a person for others.  I decided that I wanted to do this by following my passion on immigration and education and what better way than by advocating for undocumented students.

With the support of my director Sadika Sulaiman-Hara and the contributions of my colleague Maria Guzman the first safe space & ally training for undocumented students at Loyola was created. Since the beginning, my vision for this project included and emphasis on education and the deconstructing of the negative profile that the media has given immigrants. Furthermore, I wanted to give the Loyola community the opportunity to learn about the issues faced by undocumented students from DREAMers themselves. I wanted people to have the opportunity to reflect on their journeys and be able to connect and experience parallel empathy with undocumented students.  Moreover, I wanted all participants to leave the training feeling empowered and confident and understanding that either as a DREAMer or an ally, we all play an important role as social justice change agents.  My overall goal was to bring awareness to Loyola’s campus about the barriers DREAMers face so that we could create a more welcoming campus for all students because initially our purpose in an institution of higher education is to support and foster the education of all students.

On September 27th and October 4th my colleague and I made my vision a reality.  We educated about 50 staff, faculty, and graduate students about terminology, the history of the various legislations affecting DREAMers such as the DREAM Act and current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals memorandum, we talked about the undocumented student movement, the role that Loyola had played in advocating for DREAMers and we gave DREAMers the opportunity to share their experiences. At the end of the training we provided our attendees with various tangible resources, such as a counselors guide, academic research, names to community organizations as well as guided them through the DREAMer website that I created under the Department of Student Diversity & Multicultural Affairs at LUC. My colleague Maria and I also mentioned that we too were willing to support them in their ally journey.  

Due to the training, I have been encountered by allies who want to learn more and others who offer to assist me in making Loyola a more welcoming space for DREAMers.  My first lesson learned is that once we provide people with a common language, the basic issues faced by DREAMers, the opportunity to reflect on their journey, and resources; people are more willing to openly talk about their role as an ally.  My second lesson learned is that I had the privilege to create, follow my passion, and share my knowledge with others, something that many graduate students only hope for.  My experience has been transformational and grounding, it has reinforced my ideology that anything is possible; it’s just a matter of educating one another, recognizing our privileged and marginalized identities, and always remembering to bring our communities along.