They have a dream: a dream of dignity, respect, and protection for all and for this year’s César E. Chávez Social Justice March and Community Gathering — set for Thursday, March 15 — it will be the DREAMers who will be honored.
“Since 2012, we have been working with and encouraging the DREAMers to stand in solidarity,” said CEC Community Gathering Leader Suzanne Hewitt. So this year’s César E. Chávez Social Justice March and Community Gathering will focus on and honor the DREAMers, Hewitt said.
Community members, students and business leaders will kick off the day’s activities with the César E. Chávez Social Justice March at 11 a.m. The march will start at the Cook Library Center, 1100 Grandville Ave. SW and head down the César E. Chávez Way (Grandville Avenue) to the Potter House Chapel, 810 Van Raatle Dr. SW.
At the Potter House Chapel, there will be a community gathering at around 11:30 a.m.
Committee to Honor César E. Chávez Chairperson Lupe Ramos-Montigny
Chávez dedicated his life to workers’ rights, empowerment of the poor and disenfranchised, civil rights, economic justice, environmental justice and peace. He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, later the United Farm Workers union, along with Dolores Huerta. After his death, he became a major historical icon for the Latino community with streets, schools and parks named after him. In the Greater Grand Rapids area, Grandville Avenue was renamed the César E. Chávez Way and there is a Grand Rapids elementary school, César E. Chávez Elementary.
César E. Chávez National Holiday was established by Los Angeles volunteers who organized and led the effort in California. The legal holiday bill was signed into law on August 18, 2000. The holiday is celebrated in California on César E. Chávez’s birthday March 31. This marked the first time that a labor leader or Latino has been honored with a public legal holiday.
For several years, Committee to Honor César E. Chávez has hosted events and social justice activities in remembrance of Chávez and the contributions he made to the Latino community. The committee is chaired by Lupe Ramos-Montigny, who currently sits on the State Board of Education.
All are welcomed to participate in the annual Cesar E. Chavez Social Justice March.
After the gathering, there will be a 2018 César E. Chávez Unity Luncheon at MAYA Mexican Grill and Bar, located in the Rogers Plaza at 1020 28th St. SW. The luncheon is at 1 p.m. and is a fundraiser for a Grand Valley State University scholarship that honors Ramos-Montigny. Tickets are $50 per person or $500 for a table of 10. For more information or tickets, click here.
For more on the 2018 César E. Chávez Social Justice March and Community Gathering, visit the Committee to Honor César E. Chávez’s Facebook page.
Students are afraid to fill out college applications and financial-aid forms. Volunteers fear driving to school. Counselors don’t have clear answers for students whose futures in the U.S. are uncertain, and parents are afraid to seek help from the police. In school districts with a high percentage of Hispanic families, wondering what the next day will bring has become the new normal.
Whether legitimate or a result of misinformation, the stress is manifesting itself in different ways.
“I’ve seen an increase in fear and anxiety since President Trump took office,” said Duane Bacchus, Kent School Services Network community coordinator for Godwin Heights High School.
Students who are Dreamers, among about 700,000 young people nationwide who arrived to the U.S. as children of undocumented parents and are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, wonder if they will be able to go to college or secure financial aid. They feel betrayed by the system, Bacchus said.
“DACA made it worse because people took the risk and put their information out there and look what happened,” Bacchus said. “There’s a lot of frustration, anger, and a sense of ‘you’re not getting me again.’”
In the view of many families, he said, “Your rights and what will be afforded you as an (undocumented) immigrant will be up for grabs every four years, depending who is in power. It’s not doing anything to help anyone gain trust in the system at all.”
Loss of Hope
Nazhly Heredia, KSSN community coordinator at Lee Middle/High School, said she feels a sense of guilt because she and other staff members urged students to enroll in DACA when Obama was in office. Students now wonder if they should have remained in the shadows. “We pushed so hard for those kids to apply,” she said.
Heredia said she’s seen a loss of hope among Dreamers. Many do not remember life outside the U.S. One student told her he just plans to “wait to be sent back.”
“It came out of his mouth so naturally. That is what breaks my heart. I wish I had an answer for them.” Unfortunately, she said, there is no “‘This is what you’ve got to do and this is what you’re going to get.’”
Still, Heredia encourages DACA students to keep working to graduate and go to college. She urges them to stay out of trouble.
Bacchus and Lysette Castillo, a Godwin Heights parent and community liaison, also urge students to focus on education.
“I always tell them education is something that nobody can take away from you,” Castillo said. “There’s hope this time (things) will change and in the meantime you’ve taken the advantage of getting an education. But they are very discouraged.”
A father and his daughter attend a “Know Your Rights” session at Kelloggsville High School
Increases in Calls, Activity
A couple, immigrants from Mexico who wish to remain anonymous, drove from their home in Muskegon on a snowy evening to attend a recent “Know Your Rights” meeting at Kelloggsville High School. The discussion focused on how to react in the event they are approached by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.
The couple was among about a dozen Hispanic parents and community members, from within and outside the district, who attended the session for information on preparing their families for ICE enforcement. The couple was worried about their son, who plans to pursue a business major in college but is vulnerable to deportation if the government does not provide protection for Dreamers.
“My wife is worried all the time,” the father said, stressing that his children are his main concern.
The Immigrant Rights office has seen a noticeable increase in calls and is overwhelmed with requests for speaking arrangements like the Kelloggsville session. The agency offers a hotline where people can consult with an attorney for counsel and, in some cases, representation. “The increase in people calling on behalf of a loved one being detained has been very stark,” Scholten said.
While her office doesn’t track data, Scholten said they are aware of a number of workplace raids. Most commonly, people are detained after an encounter with local law enforcement, such as a traffic stop.
There are certain places ICE considers sensitive locations, such as schools and day care centers, medical treatment facilities and places of worship. However, it’s unclear if agents will follow people from such locations. Scholten said there have been reports of agents doing so.
Courthouses are not considered a sensitive location, which Scholten said she believes undermines the justice process and makes people afraid to attend court hearings.
Under the Obama administration, there was a clear priority for enforcement to target violent criminals. Scholten said that is no longer the case.
Student Absenteeism Up
About 33 percent of Kelloggsville students are Hispanic. Guadalupe Diaz-Medina, the district’s hispanic community liaison, said she is seeing an uptick in student absenteeism among the families she works with. There is general fear concerning going out in public, and families have been affected by ICE deporting family members.
“The families are having a lot of stress in even bringing kids to school,” Diaz-Medina said, adding that she’s seen increase anxiety among all ages. “The whole family is affected.”
She sees students, some of them Dreamers, react too. Many become withdrawn. “They don’t want to talk about the situation because of the fear.”
She said keeping students out of school is counterintuitive because once a student misses too much school they are referred to truancy court or even Childhood Protective Services.
‘The Family Starts Breaking Down into Pieces’
In the one-square-mile Godfrey-Lee Public Schools district, where about 80 percent of students are Hispanic, Heredia, the KSSN worker, said families are too fearful to attend a session like “Know Your Rights” because they don’t want ICE to become aware of it.
“A lot of our families feel this district could be a target. We deal with situations on a one-to-one basis,” she said.
Yet, sometimes there are no clear answers to the questions families ask.
“I feel like it is so hard when you can’t meet with the family and give them some hope. It breaks my heart,” she said. “You know what they want to hear, but unfortunately there is no easy path.”
Heredia is planning an information session about DACA, hosted by Justice for Our Neighbors, to build awareness district-wide of what students and families are experiencing.
There is often a snowball effect when a person is deported.
Frequently it unfolds like this: A father is deported. The mother is no longer able to pay bills, rent, or to put food on the table. The family moves in with relatives. The mother must work long hours, relying on school and neighbors to take care of the children. Heredia knows of a 19-year-old left to take care of younger children after their parents were deported.
“You can see how the family starts breaking down into pieces,” Heredia said. As a result, children become disruptive and withdrawn and their grades slip.
But Heredia and staff members urge students to keep coming to school, where they are safe learning and interacting with peers. “We try to stress to the parents that kids need to be in school. It doesn’t help the situation for kids to be at home.”
Mostly, she hopes people will learn empathy.
“I just wish people would see each other as people. I hate the feeling of people looking at other people’s faces and automatically building a wall, and I am on one side of the wall and you are on the other.”
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Chammas Jurado, an immigration attorney, provided information to Hispanic families during a “Know Your Rights” event
Club members march in the Kelloggsville Community Pride parade. (Photos by School News Network)
For Hispanic students at Kelloggsville High School in the new Latino Student Union, there are many ways to relate to each other. They enjoy shared traditions and values: “tamales, Dia De Los Muertos, big families, music, dancing,” lists sophomore Joshua Casas. “Our parents are very hard working,” said junior Andrea Paniagua. And they teach manners, she said. “Manners are huge.”
The students also talk gravely about serious issues affecting their community, like friends who are Dreamers under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, rescinded by the Trump administration in September, and who now face an uncertain future. They also talk about fear in their community concerning threats of deportation.
Junior Karina Villagomez paints a sugar skull on junior Jackie Garnica’s face for Dia de los Muertos
About 35 percent of students at Kelloggsville High School are Hispanic, and many are first- and second-generation U.S. residents, coming from Mexico and other Central American countries. Andrea Paniagua, last year, wanted to restart the Latino Student Union, which hadn’t existed for several years, as a way to celebrate culture and share it with all students. The club is open to everyone.
“I wanted to have fun and I wasn’t involved in anything else,” said Andrea, who immigrated to the U.S with her family from Mexico. “A lot of us weren’t involved in anything, so we all agreed to put this together. We also wanted to show others about our culture.”
It was last fall and she noticed anti-immigrant sentiment heating up before the U.S. presidential election. She decided, “We are still going to start a club.”
From left, senior Alex Aguilar, junior Cindy Esparza and junior Andrea Paniagua dance the Caballo Dorado
Embracing Their Culture
Now about 20 students meet weekly to plan events and activities like selling Mexican candy, painting sugar skulls for Dia De Los Muertos, and hosting a fiesta with ethnic food. They are planning to take part in the annual Cesar Chavez Parade in March in Grand Rapids, and plan to host a dance.
The Latino Student Union started a trend. Since it began, students have started other clubs including the Asian American Club, fitness clubs and a gay-straight alliance.
“I like letting everyone know that it’s OK to embrace your culture and be proud of who you are,” Joshua Casas said.
Andrea approached Spanish teacher Diana Berlanga, who is also Mexican, about being the club’s adviser.
“I thought about the reason I became a teacher,” Berlanga said. “I love teaching Spanish but I also want to help out the Hispanic community, so I said this could be a great way to connect with students to motivate them to go to college and complete high school. For a lot of these students, what I’ve noticed is their parents didn’t graduate high school or even attend middle school, so education (for their children) is very important.”
A Godwin High School graduate, she told club members, “If I made it, then you guys can make it too.”
Parents’ Expectations High
Students said coming together regularly is motivating, and has helped them build friendships. In terms of academics, Joshua said the club gives him confidence and a group of people in similar situations to turn to.
They also hope to breakdown stereotypes. Andrea, who still visits Michauna, Mexico, almost every year, said she and her Hispanic peers are all different, but share common life experiences. They describe their parents as strict and insistent that they do well in school and go to college. “They expect us to go to school. That is not something they play around with,” Andrea said.
Their parents are also focused on being successful in the U.S., she added.
“I’ve never in my life seen a Mexican asking for money. That’s our last option. My dad came here with nothing and we have a house and a car. He gives us everything.”
In preparation for the dance they are planning, club members discussed the music and dances. They lined up to show off the Caballo Dorado, a lively cowboy dance — just one example of their celebration of culture.
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Latino Student Union members discuss plans for a dance they are hosting
