The Dreamers

People don’t realize how important landscaping is – it kind of makes your whole environment. There is a feeling of peace that you can’t get from any other job that I’ve ever had that you can get from doing landscaping.

I live in Chico, CA now. My husband and I have owned a landscaping business for the 27 years. Craig and I started our business just the two of us mowing lawns. We started on weekends. Since he worked the swing shift, he would work until 4 p.m. and then I would finish up the day. We started working to build the business and started having more employees, but have come to a stumbling block. We are having a great difficulty getting employees – finding legal employees to work for us.

People that are coming to me for jobs are undocumented workers. Without employees I can’t do it. I don’t have a one-man operation. It can’t just be Craig and I pushing mowers. If something doesn’t happen in the next year, it’s looking very scary for us. I fear that we may not be able to not only grow the business, but there is a good chance we may even have to shut it down.

It may not only mean that my husband and I would have to find new jobs. It may mean that my kids will have to find something else to do for a living. The biggest fear is that I may be breaking the law by trying to support my family? I think that I’m doing everything in my power to do it right.

I understand that they came to this country without documents, but they also came to this country for the same reason my grandfather came to Ellis Island over 100 years ago from Russia – for the American Dream.

These workers are helping my company grow, and in turn I’m helping them and helping give them a good way of life, better than what they had. I’m helping them raise their children and educate them and send them to school. It’s not a bad thing that people from other countries work here. Our country was built on that. This is an opportunity for the United States to be a leader and to do what is right.

My father gave his life for Vietnam, and I have dedicated my life to Educating Youth.

My father was an honored soldier in Vietnam. The horrible war that took the lives of over 1,000,000 Vietnamese and 60,000 Americans took the life of my father. To escape a similar fate, my Grandparents escaped with me to America, leaving my mother behind.

It was hard to be without my mother for so many years. Growing up in Florida I struggled to adapt to America. Part of me still struggles to understand all of the pain I felt as a young child. I did not reunite with my mother until I was 16 years old. Although seeing my mother again was a dream I always had, so many years apart grew a strain on us. It was hard at first, but we have a great relationship now.

It is not a stretch to say I had a hard time fitting in Miami, Florida. I was one of the only Vietnamese children in the neighborhood and school. However, I learned from my family the values of honor and persistence. I learned to be strong and work hard for a better life -- one I hoped I could share with my mother.

Once my mother arrived in the US, we both moved to California where my mother struggled in the service industry. She currently works 6 days a week as a manicurist to provide a better life for my sister. I have always admired her strength, not only in working so hard to give me a better life, but in dealing with the loss of my father and our separation. Perhaps that is what motivates me to work towards the dream I have and live now.

I now have an education degree from USC, and I have been an adjunct faculty member at CSUDH. Currently, I am Assistant Principle at Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School. The passion I have for helping immigrant youth adjust and work hard in school to secure a better life is as strong as the passion I have to make sure as educators we deal professionally and ethically with all students. I do everything in my power to make sure we build the kind of society that values and rewards the passion, honor, work ethic, and family values of immigrants and do not ridicule or take advantage of it.

I was about seventeen years old when I took part in my first march for justice in El Salvador, Central America. Since that moment I have not stopped fighting for justice.

I became a union organizer in my homeland. I only left the country when 3 members of my family were brutally assassinated by Salvadorian government death squads.

Then, I started my journey as an immigrant. A couple of years in Mexico showed me that the injustice in Mexico was almost the same as in my own country. I came to the United States under the protection of the Sanctuary Movement. I spend about 4 years helping out immigrants to get settle in this country or go to Canada. I spent time picking up harvest in Oregon and that help me out to get legal status during the 1986 amnesty.

In the 80's I joined the unions in the United States as a union organizer. Since then, I have been in Washington D.C., fighting for better wages for janitors, mostly my country men from El Salvador. I have been in Baltimore fighting for better wages and health and safety for laundry workers, and currently, trying to change the working conditions for construction workers in California.

I have been married for 27 years. I have 2 kids in college. I'm sure my 2 kids will be great assets to the economic, cultural and political development of this country.

The Beaches of California looked beautiful to a 17 year-old African American from East Texas.

Growing up in East Texas is no small thing, especially if you are an African American in the 1950s. It was rough. When I was a kid there was a town called Greensville, Texas and the Welcome sign said it all, “Greensville, Texas Darkest Land, Whitest People.” That kind of says it all. We used to hear even worse stories from our parents, but only some folks did anything about it. Well, my Mother knew we needed to find a better place so she left in 1954 to Los Angeles.

My Mother left housekeeping in Texas for housekeeping in Hollywood, and that sounded good to me. I was about 12 years old, and I stayed with my grandparents. My grandmother also did housekeeping for mostly white folks in Texas. It was hard for me to be away from my mother, but I knew it was for the best. I guess I always had an eye on joining her.

One day a group of friends and I went to see a buddy play basketball in a town nearby and our car broke down. The nearest town was Mansfield, Texas. The reputation for African Americans at the time was to stay out of Mansfield, Texas if you wanted to keep your feet on the ground. Every single tow truck wanted to drop us off in Mansfield, but I kept saying, “you ain’t taking Roy Tyler to Mansfield.” Finally we got a driver to take us past there to another town. As we drove through Mansfield it seemed like every single porch light turned on to see us. That is when I began to think about visiting my Mother in California, permanently.

It seemed like people talked about gold on the ground in California, and after several years away from my mother, I figured I’d give it a try. After High School, I came to California and stayed with my Mother and an Uncle. We worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices hoping for a better day. After a while we got better and better jobs and began to do OK. I look back now and realize that coming to California was one of the best things I ever did.

I am on this Dreamer Train because I understand what it is like to be separated from family. I also know what it is like to leave a place that doesn’t offer much for a new beginning and the hope of a better life. I also think it is the government’s job to fix things. At my job at Dodger Stadium and the post office, we have a diverse group of workers, but we figure out how to stay united and get along. However in America in general we are divided on immigration. We need to fix that, and I want to do my part by talking about it.

I currently attend Cathedral High School. I am entering my last year of high school.

One of my dreams is that kids my age and at my grade level that are immigrants are able to get the same rights that I do as a U.S. born citizen.

My grandparents had a dream 60 years ago of coming to Central California to work and find a better life for my aunts and uncles. They hoped that their children would make a difference someday. My mom is living out my grandparents’ dream of making a difference in the world. My dad lived out his parents dream too until he recently passed away.

My main dream is becoming a great sports journalist or broadcaster. I hope my kids can live out their dreams too.