On the evening of June 18, the Tiger and I headed toward
Downtown Santa Ana to shadow S.A. Register news reporter Ron Gonzales to a
public safety meeting where the issue of whether the city would retain its
contract with Immigration and Costoms Enforcement (ICE) Department detainees which
bring revenue to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, was being discussed.
A
number of community members, including student activist Carlos Perea protested
the city’s contract with ICE and attended the meeting en masse to complaint to
the city council about the situation.
A few
days later I met with Perea and his friend Alex Nava Teodoro. They are both
advocates for immigrant youth, the former has been in the U.S. since the age of
14, but has not had an easy road to his current status as a college student and
as an advocate in his community. While in high school Perea learned English in
one year, determined to help other students struggling with issues of family separation.
While there, Perea also took command of a club focusing on undocumented
students, working with LGBTQ and other under-represented groups. He recently
organized the first youth conference in the city and along with Teodoro.
Q. Carlos, you are the
winner of the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund, what does that honor mean to you
personally?
Carlos: The scholarship supports students who are advocating
for social change that work in the community and have an academic background. I
was not expecting to get it because I’m a community college student. They
usually give those types of grants to four year students. One of the things is
that since I was in High School I was involved with my community and one of the
reasons why I didn’t apply to a four year school straight out is I wanted to
stay here. Obviously a community college is cheaper, but I had taken into
consideration that the California Dream Act would take effect (in 2012) I have
to pay out of my own pocket. I applied to the scholarship and I got it. It
allowed me to keep on paying for school and also allowed me to keep on doing
the work I do for my community. I feel it’s recognizing the work we do as
immigrants, especially in this area.
Q. The City of Santa
Ana has been asked to cancel the ICE contract by concerned community members.
Why is this such an important issue to the community at this time?
Alexis: It’s Important because amidst a national immigration
reform and amidst the 2 million deportations that have happened during the
Obama administration, amidst many deaths in the border, this impacts a lot of
immigrants in Santa Ana. The city can send a really strong message inside one
of the most Conservative counties and urge Obama to stop deportations by
cancelling this contract. It would be sending the message that as a concerned
community, it is not going to work with ICE who have had so many lawsuits filed
against them for violating the human rights of undocumented immigrants.
Q. Carlos, When you
were in High School you made it a point to work with other groups like LGBTQ,
where did you get your passing for organizing and activism?
Carlos: I think it really started as a freshman. One of the
first things I saw even within our own community was some type of looking down
at our own people because you couldn’t speak the language, you were not
assimilated into the culture. Even within teachers, you see they have a
perception/bias towards immigration. You notice there’s a hostile environment,
especially when you come to a conservative county. Even if you don’t know the
context or the culture of Orange County, you come here and you perceive
it. I learned English in one year and
was able to jump into regular classes and then take A.P. classes and catch up
with the regular American students. It was during my summer to Junior year that
I started to see the gap. I was one of the few, maybe one of two or three
people, who was able to get ahead, the rest were held back because they didn’t
know the language or did not have enough skills. I wanted to create something
different. I wanted to help my friends to think about college. They were
thinking about ‘I want to work because my parents are struggling,’ they were
not provided that college information as much as the other students. You could
see the inequality right there.
Q. What is the most
pressing single issue facing the youth of Santa Ana today?
We have done surveys and we have done a lot of work on this.
No. 1 is immigration because whether or not you are undocumented, we come from
mixed status families. No. 2 is police issues. A big portion of the city’s
budget is going to the Police Department. We tried to redefine what does public
safety mean. Do we need that much money for the Police? You don’t have that
much going into social services, libraries are being closed, and education. It
could be argued not enough money has been allocated for education.
Q. Who are your role
models, who were your role models growing up and why?
Carlos: I would say my mom. She came to the U.S. when I was
eight years old to look for a better future. Just the fact of her leaving her
only child to look for a better place, it was hard on me, but it was harder on
her and now she’s married and we have a family; but I know she struggled a lot.
She worked in the textile industry. My family are my role models, they are
hard-working people and they don’t do harm to the community, just the fact that
they are being seen as criminals, you can do whatever to me, but don’t
dehumanize my relatives and my family.
