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Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 1 — 2012

New Majority Rising

Christine Joy Ferrer: What was it like growing up as ayoung, undocumented Latina in the South and how hasyour identity influenced your work?

Viridiana Martinez: If you look at the undocu-mented youth movements, most of the founders andcofounders are women. A lot of us are getting older;we’ve had to grow up so much more quickly thansome of our more advantaged peers. I’m not in Cali-fornia. I’m not in Miami. I’m not in New York orTexas. I’m in North Carolina. Reality in the South isa lot different than any of these places. There is noChicano movement. Many of us are the first genera-tion of Mexican and Latin American immigrants.The history of this region is the struggle existing.We’re the pioneers in terms of immigration work,immigrant rights, and activism. The challenges weface can be seen in either of two ways. One, this is sochallenging, I’m not going to do it and I don’t wantto get involved, or two, this is challenging, this isrisky, and this is crazy but I need to do it. We needthis open mind; this uninhibited creativity to seekdifferent opportunities in spite of obstacles. Let’s findopportunity in these tragedies to organize and toexpose our reality.

I have the privilege of being a fair-skinned Latina,and I’m fluent in English, so I don’t get profiled asmuch or as often as other people do. It’s differentbeing a fair-skinned Latina fluent in English in the

South compared to a farm worker who’s not fluent inEnglish and not fair-skinned. Being aware of my ownprivilege I think is very important in doing this work.

I got pulled over a month or so ago for speeding.My license expired last year. The cop came to mywindow and gave me the ticket and said, “You knowwhy I pulled you over—for speeding. And I’m alsogiving you a ticket for driving with an expiredlicense. You know it’s been expired since last July,right? Why haven’t you gotten it renewed?”

And I said, “Because I can’t, I’m undocumented.” I’m at a point where I’m like, why the hell do I

need to hide this reality? This is what I’m living. Butthis consciousness isn’t the same situation for allimmigrants. Many are still living with this internal-ized pressure.

Deportations are happening every single daythrough programs like 287G and Secure Communi-ties. Supposedly, it’s to find criminals but ourpeople are getting racially profiled. In the South,you have these like hick cops that are pulling overour folks everyday. They position themselves strate-gically near mobile homes and trailer parks or inneighborhoods that are predominately immigrant.They do so to target our people. I get three to fivecalls at least every two weeks, or emails saying: “Myson is getting deported. My daughter got pulledover. What do we do?”

Interview with Viridiana MartinezBy Christine Joy Ferrer

North Carolina Dream Team

V iridiana Martinez, 25—undocumented, unafraid and unashamed. Martinez is co-founder of the North CarolinaDream Team and a young community organizer and activist for immigrant rights. She only discovered her illegalstatus after graduating from high school. Born in Mexico and raised in a little town in North Carolina calledSanford, she has lived in the United States since the age of seven, when her parents immigrated. The NC DREAMTeam is an organization composed of undocumented immigrant youth and allies, dedicated to the creation of asustainable, community-led immigrant rights movement in North Carolina and to helping undocumented youthrecognize their individual and collective power to activate their communities.

Listen to more voices of activistas online and read their fullstories at urbanhabitat.org/rpe/radio

Reflections of anActivista

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Race, Poverty & the Environment | Vol. 19 No. 1 — 2012

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Photo:

Viridiana Martinez

©2011 D.L. Anderson/indyweek.com

Ferrer: What did the release of UrielAldesto, an undocumented youth, meanfor the immigrant community, activists,and others who have been mobilizingagainst deportations, institutionalizeddiscrimination and the exploitation oftheir communities?

Martinez: This was a major victory in the fightagainst deportations. It proves that a communitystanding behind a person can move mountains. Butit also exposed the structural racism and discrimina-tion within our communities. It was also a reflectionof our reality. Aldesto has a criminal background.Most of our youth are not valedictorians. They arenot the cream of the crop necessarily in terms ofwhat Anglo schools want to define as the cream ofthe crop. They don’t have the perfect, squeaky-cleanprofiles. We grow up facing some real life challengesand some of us are lucky to have both of our parentshealthy, working and loving each other. We mustcontinue to organize the community, get youth tounderstand the importance of coming out as undocu-mented, and educate people. Sometimes a familydoesn’t realize the seriousness of the situation untilone of their own is put in deportation proceedings orpicked up for driving without a license or for some-thing that simple.

Ferrer: What is necessary to achieve a just reform that isacceptable to and guided by the voices of those directlyaffected by our broken immigration system?

Martinez: Whatever legislation is necessary to serveour undocumented immigrant community, we firstneed those directly affected to speak for themselves.

Our youth who are graduating from high schoolfeel absolutely hopeless. This is very real, the pain,the anger, the confusion, and lack of hope, becauseyou don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thereare cases where some have committed suicide. One ofour biggest focuses right now is on the mental healthof undocumented immigrants. We’re hearing more

and more stories of undocumented youth and adultsliving with mental health issues. Whether it’s depres-sion, anxiety, attempted suicide, or that we’re hurtingourselves. Sometimes the help you need, to just hearthat you’re not alone, or to vent with somebody,requires the understanding from those who are in thesame boat.

We need to take the leadership as undocumentedyouth and organize. We need to create spaces,whether it’s at youth empowerment summits, ralliesor town hall meetings, where youth can get togeth-er. We must take the time to develop relationships,by creating a safe space where more undocumentedyouth can open up about their lives, about theabuse, the trauma, that they have lived to get on thepath to liberation—a space where they are notafraid or ashamed. Where they are understood morethan anything.

And having allies that are conscientious, whoadmit, “I am never going to know what it’s like tobe in your position because I have papers, but wantto help.” These are the people that we need besideus, behind us, so that we can be in the forefront andfeel supported. And if we fall, somebody’s going tocatch us as we fight for this. All this, in conse-quence, leads to lobbying efforts, rallies, andprotests, where youth are no longer afraid to hold ablow horn and speak out.

That’s why these organizations that are undocu-mented youth-led and for undocumented youth are soimportant. We’re not jut talking about legislationanymore. We’re talking about our own daily lives. Andwe need to be our own power. We need to be our ownvoice. We need to be our biggest advocates. n

Christine Joy Ferrer is the web and publishing assistant for Urban Habitat and the creator of eyesopenedblog.com, dedicated to all

artists of color committed to social justice. For more information on the North Carolina Dream Team, visit: ncdreamteam.org.

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