In Lorena’s story about how her journey to cross the Mexico
border with her mother, stepfather, and siblings. When she finally came to
California, she started to work with her cousin’s identity, since she didn’t
have paperwork/evidence to show that she can be legally here in the states.
When she was given an opportunity to work in North Carolina to help
farmworkers, she stated, “I’ve always reminded myself that the only reason why
I’m in school and I have a good job is because my parents did backbreaking labor
so that I could go to school.“ (Orner 190) This statement reminded me of how
the kids that I’m mentoring at MCCS don’t have that consistent mindset of why
graduating high school is so critical for them and their future. My first time
coming in was last week, and I learned so much in just 4 hours. Many of the
kids were so talented and can absolutely graduate out of that school if only
they have a major reason to look at just like the character, Lorena did. Another
statement that Lorena said was, “ My experience at the internship opened my
eyes […] “. (193) relates to the faculty members and myself as well. In
Lorena’s case, she didn’t know that the farmworkers were so different in North
Carolina than California. She discovered the lifestyle there, and how people
are dying or scared of their environment. She was determine to come back and
make a change one day, because her goal was to at least change one person’s
life. I can tell by mentoring at MCCS that it’s not an easy job, where the
teachers and faculty have almost everything under control all the time. The
faculty already knows that everyday will consist of unexpected situations, such
as a student walking out of class whenever they feel like it, a fight will
disrupt the campus, a student bringing a weapon to school, etc. Even though all
this can be intimidating, it made me open my eyes that I really want to work
these kids, and I found out that they are really nice kids under that pride of
theirs. I expect that every time I come into the school, I will learn something
new and this experience will definitely open my eyes at the end.
The author of the book first introduces the book with his
own experience with immigrants, and even had his own case. One of the most memorable statement from a
lady after the judge denied his individual was that “She suggested that the
judge might have just simple seen one too many Guatemalans that day”. (7) He
remembers this clearly because, it seems to give off a sense of that the
individual he was helping, didn’t mater for his own rights, but for everyone
else as well. Eduardo was his name, and he had his own reason to be standing
where he was, until he went to jail. The kids at MCCS all have their own reason
to be there, whether it was because of bad choice or they didn’t have
motivation to keep going in their regular high school. It’s nice to know that
the society put up a school because they believed that every individual is able
to succeed if they have the opportunity. Finally, “At home, however, undocumented
people experienced significant human rights abuses that include, to name only a
few here: unsafe working conditions, separation of families, arbitrary
detention, forced labor, harassment, working for less than minimum wage, and
violence”. (10-11) This is significantly true because the kids at MCCS may come
with a background of not such a good environment, so no one is there to teach
them of what’s right. Just like the statement said, separation of family,
harassment, or working for less than minimum wage causes problems, and
discourages kids to do well.
All in all, this book is relative to the service learning
that I’m working in for this semester, because not only the race is common, but
there are many stories that is wrap around the age group in the book and the
kids out here. Even though through the outside people might judge of what they
see, but we should stop and maybe ask someone sometime what their story is for
being here.
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