Organizing For the Community

            It has been fourteen years since my family and I migrated to this country from Ecuador and we still cannot understand why they told us the United States was almost paradise.  In the year 1999 Ecuador had its highest migration to Spain and the United States, we were part of that group.  Majority of the people who left were indigenous low class ciudadanos Ecuatorianos, our case was different.  We were told that work in the United States was very easy, no one mentioned anything about laws against and for immigrants, we did not know what a social security was, we did not know what we were getting ourselves into. 
            A couple of years passed and we quickly learned being an undocumented family was not easy, it was one of the hardest things we had do go through.  Besides living in limbo, being an ESL immigrant child was very difficult for me.  I used to and still struggle in school because I did not get the education I needed in both English or Spanish.  When I arrived in the United States at the age of eight, the elementary school took me out of classes and I had an American lady teach me English, while teaching me English I was missing out on the important lessons of how to write and read.  My Spanish was very well conserved and until this day I express myself better in Spanish.
            After battling with school I was finally admitted to NIU for the second time and I was able to embrace my status, lack of education and experience by working with the undocumented students here at the University, as well as the Latino high school students that desperately need role models. I still struggle with my two languages, not to mention the psychological shifts that are slowly healing by being involved in the Latino community.
              When working with high school students who are immigrants I see they are facing the same problems I did.  They come here at a young age; learn enough English to get them to communicate but not enough to navigate the education system.  What happens to these students is that they get pushed along to make them pass but are not being prepared for higher education. 
            Dream Action NIU has been running since 2009 and is holding up strong within the university and the Dekalb community.  It was first organized to fight for the Dream Act proposed in March, 2009.  As the years have passed Dream Action NIU moves with the needs of the immigrant community and provides resources to aid la gente. 

            After my family saw how hard life is here in the United States we advice our family and friends to
 come visit only.  My mother has said multiple times “si yo hubiera sabido que la vida iba a ser así en este

país, no hubiera venido” “if I would have known that life was going to be like this, I would have not come”