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DREAM Act Week of Action: First Event
DREAM Act: A Staged Reading by James Garcia
Host: Arizona DREAM Act Coalition East Valley DREAM Team
Fifteen minutes later and I finally found the room! Driving into the parking lot, the campus of Mesa Community College did not seem that big. I thought I could just park and see where all the students were congregated. It did not turn out to be that easy. I had to use the map! Here’s my route: find the parking that doesn’t say “employee parking only,” walk into campus, ask a random student where the Najavo room is, look at the map, walk north, find the bell tower (yes, a bell tower), go into the building of the bell tower, take the stairs down, and make a right. Phew…The Navajo room was in the lower level of the bell tower building. Its entrance was on the corner opposite the cafeteria. At first I thought it was a bid hidden, secluded, not a good place for an event to bring awareness to the masses. Then I realized that the correct word was personal, and as the event ensued I decided that the location was just right.
The night started with the ADAC documentary “3 minutes of your time.” Although I have seen that video 5 dozen times, it still gives me goose bumps when I see my friend on a big screen. Carlos, who is almost ashamed at having to settle for less than what he is capable of, ashamed that his parents worked so hard to give him wings only to have them cut off by an ignorant and backwards immigration policy. Virgina, frustrated and mad at the injustice of being a great engineer but not being able to build a way out of her situation. At one point she starts crying, and no one is sure if it’s because of fear, sadness, anger, or a little of all. In the tears that roll down her cheek you see the reflection of DREAMers all across the nation.
I’m not sure if the actors cancelled or if that’s how it was planned all along, but James Garcia’s play was performed like I’ve never seen. There were no props, no diverse lighting, no music, and no costumes. The actors took the stage, and sat down in the row of chairs facing the audience. It was very…personal. In a “Vagina Monologues” style show, James presented the story of a homeless DREAM student who slept in the library and showered in the gym. The actors were right in front of you, they were naked, and they were raw.
For the first time ever, Marina took the stage to share her story. Marina has been an advocate for the DREAM Act for years. If I said she once was a DREAMer she’d correct me and say she still is. It has not been long since Marina gained her legal status, and she says she will always be a DREAMer. In telling us of the day she received her papers: “I looked at the paper and it said ‘Welcome to America.’ Welcome to America? That was funny to me because I had been in America for over a decade. But I knew there was more to that message. It was god telling me welcome to responsibility, welcome to giving back, welcome to helping bring change. And we need change.”
There were about 300 seats. They were not all filled, but that didn’t matter. It could have been 1,000 people in that room, yet when you saw Virginia on that screen, when you heard the actors speak, and when you felt Marina’s emotion when she shared her story, it was just you and them. That’s what made the event a success. It was Virginia’s tears, it was the group of actors that transported you into a world built by their words and your imagination, and it was the mixture of Marina’s fragility and courage. And it was the message of change.
There was no doubt after the event that things are bad. It will take hard work, dedication, courage to change things. It will take you talking to those close to you, sharing stories, making every person you talk to feel like they are the movement; that you and that person are in it together.
There will be those that say it’s too hard. That this movement is not for them, that it is not their problem. When people say that I know they are scared, because they think we will lose. But we won’t. I remember a quote a DREAMer once told me: “if only someone had gone before to live or suffer or die—make it so that it could be understood.” At first I didn’t get the quote, so he added: “it means that though it is hard to work for change and progress the fact is that there are things to change and though it might be hard, we must do it, and sometimes you wish someone else had suffered and worked hard to fix things, you know? Yet they didn’t and we must so that no one else suffers.”
Great Job East Valley DREAM Team. The night was yours, and every person in that room was there with you.
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