Youth Spotlight: Hector Moreno
In our flagship 110′ After School Magazine Project, we ask youth to see their communities differently through developing their writing and photography abilities and to see their community roles differently through using the media arts to get their voices heard in the public square. A great example of this happened on April 7, 2006 when 110′ participant Hector Moreno published an op-ed in The Arizona Daily Star about student marches protesting federal immigration legislation.
To March or Not to March
by Hector Moreno
I arrived at Catalina High School March 30 aware that many students across the city had walked out of their classrooms in protest of a bill just passed in the House of Representatives that, among other things, would make being an undocumented immigrant a criminal act. I felt that it was wrong to place immigrants in the same category as criminals guilty of murder. I don’t think it should be a crime to move to America to make a better life for yourself and your family.
Hector said this about his after school VOICES experience: “Working at 110¬? is a chance to put yourself on the map and a chance to speak up and get your voice out. There’s so much good you can do for the world by telling stories about how it really is, by observing and telling the truth. You can help people understand situations they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”
I thought about the people I knew who, if the bill were passed in the Senate, would have to live with a greater fear of deportation or prison sentences. I thought about how many of my friends, peers and family members would have to deal with the effects of racial profiling and discrimination by cops and Border Patrol just because we were of Latino descent.
We should not have our freedoms infringed upon just because we are more recently emigrated that the members of Congress who are making laws. If America was founded on principles of freedom, then passing this bill is an act of hypocrisy.
When students walked out of my first-period class, I was ashamed for not taking action immediately and going with them. I felt that staying in school was betraying my race and not standing up for my mother, a first-generation immigrant. At the same time, I knew that I should stay because I needed to do better in my classes and that my parents would tell me to put school first.
While I struggled to make a decision, the principal came over the loudspeaker and asked the students to come to the auditorium if they were thinking about walking out, so I went. I saw a lot of people I knew in the auditorium: white kids, Mexican-American kids, black kids and people of different cultures. I was proud to see my friends there, trying to get more involved and educate ourselves. The fact that an assembly was organized and that we were given the space to have our questions answered felt empowering.
The principal said if we walked out of school to protest, it would be an unexcused absence. We were given the opportunity to make our own choice: to stay in school or to protest and face the school’s consequences. For the first time, I felt that I would be able to participate in our nation’s democracy, that I would experience the freedom I have as an American citizen to speak out against what I believe is wrong.
I decided to walk out of school because I knew this day would be remembered in history and I wanted to be a witness, I wanted to be a part of it.
I took my camera and decided to document everything, to follow the students from my school all the way to the federal building, the only place we felt was connected to the vote in D.C. If we could have marched to the White House, we would have, just to share our voices with those who would listen.
PHOTO CREDIT
Tucson teens on the march against federal immigration legislation, March 30, 2006. Photo by Hector Moreno.
