Hijos de Soñadores

Children of Dreamers

Nothing is more intimate than our identity, the reality is only a few people know who we truly are. We show portions of our identity to some of our closest friends, family members, and loved ones. At the same time, we hide aspects of our identity and keep them locked away. For me, I have always struggled with my identity and when I was young, I would hide one of the most important aspects because I was scared. I grew up in the South Side of Milwaukee in a poor neighborhood and as a young kid, I would see how people and the media talked about my community and people who looked like me. As I went to school in other neighborhoods, I would be scared to talk about my family, mostly because I am the son of undocumented immigrants. My parents are from a small village located in the mountains of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico where there is barely any electricity, running water, and access to education and medical care. I was always scared to show that part of myself and I would try my hardest to fit in. As I got older, I started to embrace who I was and realized that I needed to share these intimate aspects of my life with other people. By sharing the reality of what it means to be an immigrant it will create dialogue and change the rhetoric. My reality is that my parents chose to immigrate because they wanted a better life and future for their kids but at the same time, they have not seen their family in 20 years. My younger siblings don’t fully understand the sacrifices that our parents have made but they do understand the importance of our culture and tradition. The importance of showing the reality of who we are, and our stories helps put a human face into these social issues.