Augsburg Supoprts the DREAM Act - Let's show it!

It has been some years now that myself and other students have been working in getting the DREAM Act passed. It has been an arduous kind of work, but definitely important since it is about us as students, us as universities and colleges, about us as people who understand the value of freedom and education.

Last year some of us at Augsburg took it to another level and created a student group, MN Students for Equal Rights (MN-SER). Our mission is to solely support comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act.


Last year too we came to our Student Government and received the blessing from the college to support our mission through a resolution (Resolution I: Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the DREAM Act). Augsburg, a college that supports the DREAM Act, is not up for the challenge to make a difference.

Here are some facts. The DREAM Act will be attached to a military spending bill. The vote is to come as soon as Tuesday. There are various targets, but our target in MN should be North Dakota Senators, as the Immigrant Law center of MN has advised. They are convinsible votes, but we must bust their phones. Here's their info (just give the zip-code and your message):

Sen. Conrad of North Dakota (58504 – Bismarck) - (202)224-2043

Sen. Dorgan of North Dakota (58504 – Bismarck) - (701)250-4618

Your message:
"Hi, I'm calling to ask the senator to support the DREAM Act when it comes to vote next week."

It's that easy to call, but you should do it various times a day! Now, get to it!

My Dilemma

So, this year I will be taking courses that interest me. That means that I am taking courses in no specific discipline nor required for a major. Yes, surprisingly, I only need to get 8 credits and I get to choose what to take. A great and rare opportunity for a senior.

Now I am questioning whether or not I want to take a course at 7am. Usually classes start later but for some reason it is offered this early. The other thing is that it is 3 hrs longer than any other course I have taken. Now that is the thing. Do I really want to spend that much time in a class? We'll see what I decide in the next hours.

The Wrong Decision: English-Only @ LIno Lakes

Yesterday the Lino Lakes, MN council voted to enact a law banning the city from translating any documents or certain services to languages other than English. This is what we call the "English-only resolution." They have been floating around the country for sometime.

What is interesting here is that most measures, if not all, have been enacted by mostly all-white communities. Lino Lakes is 92% white. And they passed the resolution in "preparation" to the demographics changes coming in the nation and state to save the city some money. They passed the resolution as a "getting ready" for the changes that will drain the funds from the city. I don't buy that.

What I see here is that, as someone else said during an interview somewhere, this is more about politics at the national level and have nothing to do with demographic changes happening today or Lino Lakes. This also shows the hateful sentiment of fear of the changes that will occur at Lino Lakes in not too far a future. Of course, some of the Lino Lakes leaders voted for this only to score some points with the anti-immigrant people in our communities that have hijacked the conversation over immigration and what it means to be an "American."

What they are missing though is that in fact, the demographics of the city will change. And even though this measure has been passed, it can be banished. And that is the power of people in the future. And the future of Lino Lakes is going to be made up of different people than today (just as it is today with whites being different than the natives of the first nations). I just hope that mean-spirited measures such as this, fueled by fear, are banned before doing more damage. I wish had never been enacted. The social fabric of Lino Lakes has been torn through the enactment of hateful measures disguised as a "money-saving" gauge.

The college student mentioned in the MPR story should be ashamed of Lino Lakes just as much as all of us who do not live there are ashamed of Lino Lakes and its leaders today. Soon it will be time to turn the page and allow a new one to be written where every human is valued, no matter the language that person speaks.

Lino Lakes made a big mistake.

Food for thought:
I wonder if indigenous people ever thought about making their communities their-language only in order for the whites coming at that point assimilate to their new home...... Life would be very different huh?

An Amazing Week(end)

I have had a great week or couple of weeks.

First of all, graduation is over, which means we have many Auggies off to the "real world"! Congratulations to everyone.

Okay, now I would like to go over my last week in order to demonstrate why it was such a great week/end.

Last weekend (April 23-25) was exceptional. I was at the DFL State Convention in Duluth, which was new to me. I learned a ton about how conventions work and how things are done. I also saw and heard all kinds of things about what was going on before Margaret Anderson-Kelliher was endorsed by the DFL after all other candidates dropped or conceded defeat. It was a total emotional process, but totally worth it.

Then on Sunday after coming back from that long weekend in Duluth, I was at the Honors Banquet. Bob Groven, Director of the program, had asked me if I was there and I had said yes. I knew I had to leave at some point before the banquet ended. I did enjoy a really good vegetarian meal with awesome friends and new people. Then I left for a presentation that I was going to help about immigration and students with an awesome lawyer.

When the lawyer and I were getting ready for the presentation at this church in the suburbs, I got a text saying: 'Juve you won the Hesser House Award...!' I was like...'I just left....' Anyhow, we had to go on with the presentation and in the middle of the presentation, we figured there was this person who disagreed much with me. I didn't have to answer much because the comments were not directed to me, but it was an uneasy moment for sure (in an unsafe way). The lawyer was great at keeping the cool and not letting emotions dominate the conversations. It was kind of scary really. But I think, as I continue to promote and talk about students, college access, and immigration, I will have these kind of encounters. And I need to know what to do.

Then finals week came. Since I could not do much over that weekend, I was planning in finishing this final project for a class all morning until class that Monday. Then everything went wrong. The next day things were not that great, but was able to at least finish the project I had to have done the day before. On Tuesday I received my award from Sunday, which was really cool: a beautiful glass with the inscription of the award name (the Garry Hesser House Award for Leadership in Service to the Community) and my name. I also saw the movie, 'Caw,' which I really liked and my friend really enjoyed it as well, so that was good. On Wednesday we had our last Privacy Taskforce meeting and we had our first senate meeting of our administration, which was really exciting!

Thursday I spent all day reading and watching videos of Martin Luther King Jr., which gave me the chills of course. Friday it was hang out day since most people were all done with classes and I really enjoyed it.

This last Saturday it was commencement and I really enjoyed it. Despite the meaningless speech Gov. Pawlenty gave, I thought everything else was done phenomenally. Everything went smoothly. Father Fernando was very inspirational. It was also great seeing people I knew walk and then be announced as official graduates of Augsburg.

After commencement I headed to an immigration rally in downtown Mpls. Thousands of people there and it was a great time. I did get really tired, which caused me to crash and sleep like 10 hrs for the first time in months!

Today I went to the May Day Parade/Festival for the first time, which was excellent. Then I had a great time biking around the lake and just laying there for a bit. It did get a bit cold, but it was still a beautiful time. Finally, I went to see friends who had graduated at their grad-party and that was good too.


Overall, it was a wonderful week really. I am looking forward to whatever is next.

Crime, Stereotypes and the complex world

My mom just called me to tell me that my brother and sister-in-law were mugged last night at gun-point while their children watched.

I was at work with TakeAction MN today talking with our reNEW MN Campaign about the DFL State Convention today and we also talked to the candidates about appointments and priorities to communities of color. For this reason I was not at the gathering my family had at the park. Supposedly my bother showed up and he did not look right. At the end he told my family about what happened.

This is what occurred: they were getting to their home and when they were taking the kids out of the car, two men approached them pointing at them with guns and asking for their wallets. Both my sister-in-law and brother gave them their purse and wallet respectively. My sister-in-law fainted and one of the kids got really scared. The police then showed up after my brother called to report the crime. The police took the testimonies of my family and then advice they go cancels their credit cards. By the time they got to do that, supposedly the cards had been already used. And at least one cell phone was taken, which was well used before it got canceled.

I bet this was such a scary moment for all of them -- nothing like this has ever happened to a member of my family and we had never known someone to have gone through this. At least one of the kids is very traumatized and has not been eating well.

Here I want to recognize that there is a lot of stereotypes many Latin@ immigrants (the community I am a part of) hold about different ethnic communities. Sometimes even academics, especially Chican@ ones, dismiss this fact and only focus in stereotypes whites hold (which is important, but very impartial). I grew up hearing that blacks are bad and lazy, whites are good, especially when they try to speak in Spanish, and other Latin@s are so so. Asians are short and have many kids and Native Americans live off the government because they get so much money for being Native, so they don't have to work. Ever.

Now, what is very interesting to me is to see the language being used to describe what happened. Apparently the two males who mugged my sibling and family were black. The first time I heard it, it made me really uncomfortable. I think it was because these two black males meet the stereotype many in my community hold. Granted, we don't interact much with other communities, so every interaction we have with a member of an "other" community is going to live a mark. Definitely this one will leave a huge mark in my family's experience and how they think of blacks now.

Now that I am in college, I live in a very different world than my family. I interact with people from many walks of life and that shapes the way I think about race/ethnicity. I think I was also uncomfortable when I first heard it was two black males who mugged my sibling and family because for sometime I have been trying to speak about race/ethnicity not being the cause to why people act a certain way and what happened last night seems to be working against that. There was anything I could say to explain that the two males did commit this crime, but it wasn't just because they were black. It now appears that the belief is that all blacks are criminals for being black and yesterday's occurrence only enforced that, unfortunately.

I am not trying to excuse these thugs to any degree, but race/ethnicity is only secondary to what happened. And it is tough to convey this message, I feel.

This world of crime and race/ethnicity is complex. And occurrences that "prove" stereotypes we hold only reinforce what many think to be true even if it is not.

I am glad my family is fine and I sure hope this episode does not tarnish their love for humanity, all humanity.

Valeria Silva, a National Dissapointment

It was today that I heard Arlington High School will be closed if the Budget by St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent, Valeria Silva, is approved. I sure hope it is not. While she cites budget issues forcing her to make these decisions, she has yet to explain how this draconian acts of hers will actually do any good. While it might be true that Arlington, which I attended as a high school student for four years, has not been able to meet federal test requirements, it is important that we understand what Arlington is [I cannot speak about other programs in the city because I do not know them].

Arlington has a long history of being innovative. Arlington is the newest high school in the district. Since its inception, Arlington has been a hub for immigrant students and their families, something very unique about this school. Its ELL program was one of the best in the nation (I can attest to that). It was the pilot school where Admission Possible, a program for low-income students preparing for college (and that I was a part of), took flight and now is all over the twin cities and in Milwaukee, WI, getting hundreds of students to college [I have my reservation about AP too]. Arlington, in 2007, was restructured and became a BioSMART school, providing high quality education to its students in certain areas.

Now that I gave a couple examples about the innovative Arlington, let me list why closing it is the wrong decision. First of all, Silva is not giving the bioSMART program play out its part. The program was implemented in the fall of 2007, after I graduated. Research shows that it takes about 7 years for a program to give results that are measurable. Hardly three years is not enough. Maybe Silva does not understand how research works. Even without research, the new Arlington structure under bioSMART is working and one can hear it from students and teachers. They are the experts, not Silva or the Principal.

Two, Silva keeps citing the stupid rhetoric that Arlington is not meeting Federal Testing Standards. No Child Left Behind is doing more harm than good, and we all knew this. Also, as it is my understanding that Silva worked in ELL programming, won't she then understand the challenges of having a diverse community when it comes to immigration and how long one has been here? An ELL student who has resided in the U.S. for one year is going to do worst than an African American student. This is simple to understand. It would make sense for Silva to move and shake the system and try to implement policies that address these kind of thing: language, cultural, and geographical differences. Putting a bandage on a bleeding wound will not stop the bleeding.

Three, Silva also keeps talking about the low-enrolling number of students projected for the future. While that is a real concern, Silva is ignoring that this is a national trend. However, Silva is also, wrongly, ignoring the fact that it is the immigrant community the only community growing in the state of MN, especially in the cities. It is ironic that Silva, an immigrant herself, would ignore her own community for solutions. But then again, I should not racialize or expect from someone who looks 'like me' to think like me.

Valeria Silva, here are some good things to actually do. If you want to reduce the budget problems, stop traveling to DC with your staff because that is where I met you personally. And I am sure some funding from your budget was spent there. What about cutting your pay? Some smart organizations pay their employees based on need. I am sure you do not need more than a hundred thousand dollars to live well in MN. Do this for everyone and you will see that the budget problems will be solved. Of course I cannot expect this -- too radical for you I am sure.

Here are some more easy-to-handle proposals. Arlington, with its history to well-serving immigrant students like myself, should become, once again, a hub for immigrant students and their families. Its ELL program should be revitalized, which will not only live up to its legacy to bring people from all over the world together but it will also attract many more students and increase the total number of matriculated students (in order to address the number question). Testing should be based on many aspects about students, and not just how they are done today. Making Arlington also a center where college students and high school students come together will also increase the number of student graduating. Arlington should continue its bioSMART program -- I wonder if you are planning in using the funding left over for something else...I hope not or I hope you can't.

When Silva was elected Superintendent, many of us who work around the education realm were looking up to her because she has been here for a long time and knew the district. However, from what I see, I really question if she really knows our district, if she knows anything about Arlington. Her actions are not addressing roots causes of what is going on -- poverty, language problems, immigration status of St. Paul Public School students, violence, etc -- and that is why I wonder what she is doing besides cutting and cutting. Our governor is no friend to education, would she challenge him? I doubt it. The problem really lies outside of these schools and programs, but Silva is ignoring much of that at this point and seems to have learned a lot from our current governor: just cut, no matter who is affected or no matter if people don't want you to this. I wish she would have learned form someone else...........

Silva has no heart and compassion, integral ingredients for making a great superintendent and integral to good policy making. She is playing politics as usual. Valeria Silva is a total disappointment thus far.

It's one of those days

Today I came back from spending the day with the family in St. Paul. It was a nice break, especially being around my siblings (who have way too much energy). I also got some homework done while there when everyone was sleeping.

Once on campus, when most things are shut down, I went to do some ol' homework at Murphy Park and then took a nice nap on the grass (hoping no one would come and molest me...). I brought some good food my mami made too, so ate some after homework and napping.

Then my awesome roommate came back - hadn't seen him for over a week!

I had to go back to do homework later, so I took my personal computer since the library was close and the Urness lab gets a little warm sometimes. Plus, I had written a few pages for my classes, so really it made sense I would use my computer - maybe continue writing.

I turn on my computer, and I find out it asks me to log in... bad sign.... Then when I log in, the screen is blank other than what is on my desktop... really a bad sign.... I knew I had left a couple of documents open before I left my computer last night. Then I remembered my sister had said something was going with it and I was like, 'Oh just hit 'ok'.' I did not pay attention.

So now I find out all the writing I did over the weekend is gone! And maybe now I should get to writing it, again (I'm a day behind homework now for the coming week....)

So yeah, it is one of those days when everything is going well, and then, something stupid happens. Maybe this time my writing is better now that I have been thinking a lot about it while I was writing it all. Blah blah bla I don't want to do it though................