When college students hear the word “Indio,” chances are that images of the yearly summer music festival Coachella come to mind. For Cal State Long Beach senior Ana Roman, hearing the word Indio brings back distinct smells and childhood experiences.
When Roman was nine years old, she was forced to say goodbye to her family, friends and neighborhood in Mexico City. Despite being relatively young, Roman had an inkling that her family was struggling economically.
Jaime Jorge, also a senior at CSULB, immigrated to the U.S. when he was only 40 days old. His assimilation into the states wasn’t as complex as Roman’s, but he also faced obstacles in his path to pursuing higher education.
While Roman and Jorge’s experience of assimilating into the U.S. are radically different, both dreamers always had a desire to pursue higher education and become working professionals.
This past August Roman and Jorge were two of the five Dreamers who were each awarded a $1,000 scholarship by Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto to continue their studies. An event was held in their honor and Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Mexico’s Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora as well as 11 Mexican governors were present.
The Journey Into the United States
Like many others who seek out a better life, the supposed American Dream, Roman’s parents told her they would be visiting family in Long Beach as well as visiting Disneyland.
“In my mind I thought the United States was Disneyland, so I thought I might live next to Mickey Mouse and have fun all day,” Roman said. “It didn’t hit me [that we would be leaving forever] until I had to say bye to everyone in my vecindario and my great grandma told me, ‘If you don’t come back, just know that I will always love you.'”
Her childhood mentality couldn’t yet register the reality or the peril of the situation: illegally crossing the Mexican border for a chance of a better life.
“We got on a plane to Mexicali and I didn’t understand why we couldn’t go directly to Long Beach,” Roman said. “It’s when it hit me that what we were about to do wasn’t very legal. We were being sneaky.”
Roman and her parents where separated due to the coyote’s orders. All the adults would have to run through the desert and hope the migra wouldn’t catch them, while the children were given passports and passed through the state line with IDs.
Despite the fear that crossed through every parent’s mind, Roman’s grandparents had paid three grand for Roman and her mom to get them to the states. Turning back wasn’t an option. When Roman reached American soil, she arrived in Indio and remembers a “desert with very little houses.”
“There’s a very distinct smell in Indio… it’s not a pleasing smell that I have of it, but sometimes I’ll smell it in Long Beach and I think of [my childhood,]” Roman said. “It’s certain things that even 16 years later down the road, I’ll think of that… like I remember the first movie I saw in Indio was ‘Dumb and Dumber’.”
One of the earliest memories Roman has of Long Beach is seeing African Americans and Asians for the first time. It was also different with Mexicans who lived in the area because the culture was partially assimilated to American standards.
It was a vivid culture clash experience.
Realizing What It Means to Be Undocumented
Everyone faces positive and negative experiences throughout their lifetime and difficulties aren’t exclusive to immigrants, however, the obstacles immigrants do face requires a lot more patience and persistence.
Roman and Jorge didn’t realize what it meant to be undocumented until they realized they couldn’t apply for FASFA or that attending a university may be out of the question.
“We were filling out the FASFA [at my high school] and I asked my mom, ‘Where’s my social security? Do you have it?’ She explained to me that I didn’t have one because I wasn’t a U.S. citizen,” Jorge said. “I was confused at first but then I was bummed I couldn’t go to college. It hit me then, ‘what was I going to do after [high school]?'”
Luckily, Jorge’s mom had learned about AB 540, the state law which allows undocumented students to attend college while paying in-state tuition if they attended a California high school for three years, graduated from a high school in California and would fill out an affidavit stating they would apply for U.S. residency as soon as possible.
“I was relieved that I would be able to continue school [at Long Beach City College] with something cheaper than I thought it would be,” Jorge said. “It gave me hope that I could continue my education and be someone [who would be able to] contribute to my community and society.”
Meanwhile, Roman had dreams of attending New York University, but couldn’t mainly because of the lack of financial support, and because her father wanted the family to stay together.
“I had really big plans for myself, but I had to come to the reality that first of all, I didn’t have financial help,” Roman said. “My mom cleans houses, my dad works at a factory and is always afraid they will fire him because of e-verify. Besides my dad is very old school. He said, ‘We came here as a unit, and we’re staying as a unit.'”
Both Jorge and Roman knew their journey through college would be difficult as undocumented students, but they were brought to the States for a better life, and they knew they had to continue their education by any means necessary.
“We came here to succeed and to make something of ourselves,” Roman said. “That’s our only option–you can fail, but you always have to keep trying. Not going to college wasn’t ever an option.”
Being A National Scholarship Recipient
Before Roman and Jorge were nominated for national scholarships, the two dreamers were able to return to Mexico due to the help of Chicano and Latino Studies professor Armando Vasquez-Ramos, who held a study abroad trip this past spring.
“They represent the first two students to be able to return to [their native country] because of [the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], which was just recently passed,” Vasquez-Ramos said. “I wrote a two-page letter explaining they were part of a class that required travel study and that they were all-around good standing students.”
Both students applied for their deferral four months in advance, and were told by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Santa Ana that they would receive notification well in advance.
After being consistently dismissed at the office without any proper answer, Vasquez-Ramos advised Roman and Jorge to demand to speak to a supervisor.
“They got shut out, so I called my congressman Alan Lowenthal, who used to be my professor at CSULB, and he told me to not worry about it,” Vasquez-Ramos said. “He interceded for them and saw the representatives fill out the paperwork. Lo and behold they got the paperwork literally 24 hours before they had to catch a plane.”
After the study abroad trip, Vasquez-Ramos received a phone call from the Mexican Consulate and was asked to nominate one student for a national scholarship award. Vasquez-Ramos, who has worked with the consulate before, convinced the deputy to allow him to nominate two students.
“I had already introduced Jaime and Ana to the council general [of the consulate] and he was blown away when he found out they were both AB 540 students,” Vasquez-Ramos said. “I explained to the deputy that the counsel general knew both students and that they were exemplary. He eventually agreed to include both of them.”
When Vasquez-Ramos told Ramos and Jorge to leave their schedules open Monday for the award assembly, both were surprised and weren’t sure how to react.
“I honestly didn’t feel excited or anything because I don’t know much about Mexico’s president,” Jorge said. “If it was Obama it may have been different, but later when I realized how big the event would be I was grateful that I was able to get the scholarship and that my professor nominated me.”
With Cal State Long Beach being the first CSU to successfully help Dreamers apply for DACA, Vasquez-Ramos has received various calls from study abroad coordinators throughout the Cal State University system to help other Dreamers have a chance at studying abroad.
Life After Earning A Bachelor’s Degree
After working at numerous fast food jobs, facing racial prejudice by peers and adults, and starting up a support group for other Dreamers at CSULB, Roman and Jorge will both graduate with their bachelor’s degrees at the end of this fall semester.
Roman will graduate with a degree in Psychology and Chicano Latino Studies while Jorge will graduate with a degree in Spanish. Both plan to continue their higher education and pursue their Ph.D.’s.
“I’m applying to grad school and one of the things I plan to do is go into ethnic studies and continue to research,” Roman said. “Hopefully I can become a professor and do something outside of academia. I want to research these topics that are very important not only to the U.S. but across the globe.”
Jorge plans to pursue a career as a Spanish-English interpreter in the medical field. Despite all the obstacles, he’s grateful for his life and experiences.
“Being undocumented is something I’m really grateful because it shows that throughout all the struggle it actually made me stronger and the person I am now,” Jorge said. “In high school I had doubts of going back to Mexico and starting a new life, but Cal State Long Beach and God changed my life. I don’t have anger, I’m grateful and honored to be a person that has a scholarship and that can go for their BA, Ph.D. and master’s.”