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Hi everyone! Isaac is one of the most incredible people you'll ever meet. Everything he's gone through has only made him that much stronger, kinder, and more willing to fight for his community, and our country and our communities are all the stronger for it. Please consider donating any amount you can to send Isaac to college!!! CSU-Northridge is lucky beyond lucky to be getting Isaac as their student! <3 You can read some of his incredible story below these pictures of him getting accepted in to college, attending his sibling's wedding, and getting his drum on at rallies!
Stocking boxes, cleaning homes, passing out fliers, manning liquor stores, driving underground cabs, and food delivery. These are just some of the many low-paid jobs that I have done throughout the last 18 years of my life. As the primary breadwinner for my four younger siblings and single mother, it was time and time again I had to put brakes on my own dreams to put food on the table and just survive.
My family first immigrated to Los Angeles in 2000, where under my father’s student visa, I was able to enroll in a public high school. However, as time went on, opportunities to gain permanent legal status began to narrow, and I soon became undocumented at the age of 19 --one year shy of qualifying for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival). With my father soon out of the picture and my youngest sibling barely turning six, there was no clear pathway for me to continue my education, devoting the rest of my life to work in the underground.
Yet entering the informal workforce exposed me to a different set of struggles that I could have never imagined. In Koreatown’s fast-paced service economy, all too often, I saw co-workers and friends as well as experienced for myself, working overtime without pay, being misled by false promises of a green card, deferring to the whims of bosses, and enduring sexual harrassment. Due to the vulnerability of race, gender, class, and legal status, we were often caught up in a vicious cycle of cash-based below minimum wage jobs. Unlike myself, many of them did not come with their families but alone in search of opportunities as did generations who came before us. The isolated and often solitary experience of being an undocumented worker in Los Angeles was what sparked my initial interest in activism and my desire to create some kind of alternative.
While continuing to work, I have begun to support and offer help to others like myself in small ways by educating workers on their basic rights as well as connecting them to “safe” employers in Koreatown. The goal was to create a safe network for workers in Koreatown that were often missing in larger conversations in movements about immigrant rights. To further this goal, this year I have decided to go back to school, gaining admission into Cal State Northridge . Not only will I be able to develop a deeper understanding of inequalities in the immigrant experience but a school like Cal State would also be a great place to interact with other working students of color like myself in building a more solid basis for organizing around worker rights, especially for those who do not qualify for DACA like myself. In college, my goal is to obtain an education while continuing the fight to create pathways for people like myself who do not fall within neat categories.
I write this letter to you to ask for your support in furthering my education at Cal State Northridge. At Northridge, it is my goal to continue my activist project on providing pathways and spaces for undocumented immigrant workers like myself. Small acts like this will help those of us committed to the cause to continue the fight. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Stocking boxes, cleaning homes, passing out fliers, manning liquor stores, driving underground cabs, and food delivery. These are just some of the many low-paid jobs that I have done throughout the last 18 years of my life. As the primary breadwinner for my four younger siblings and single mother, it was time and time again I had to put brakes on my own dreams to put food on the table and just survive.
My family first immigrated to Los Angeles in 2000, where under my father’s student visa, I was able to enroll in a public high school. However, as time went on, opportunities to gain permanent legal status began to narrow, and I soon became undocumented at the age of 19 --one year shy of qualifying for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival). With my father soon out of the picture and my youngest sibling barely turning six, there was no clear pathway for me to continue my education, devoting the rest of my life to work in the underground.
Yet entering the informal workforce exposed me to a different set of struggles that I could have never imagined. In Koreatown’s fast-paced service economy, all too often, I saw co-workers and friends as well as experienced for myself, working overtime without pay, being misled by false promises of a green card, deferring to the whims of bosses, and enduring sexual harrassment. Due to the vulnerability of race, gender, class, and legal status, we were often caught up in a vicious cycle of cash-based below minimum wage jobs. Unlike myself, many of them did not come with their families but alone in search of opportunities as did generations who came before us. The isolated and often solitary experience of being an undocumented worker in Los Angeles was what sparked my initial interest in activism and my desire to create some kind of alternative.
While continuing to work, I have begun to support and offer help to others like myself in small ways by educating workers on their basic rights as well as connecting them to “safe” employers in Koreatown. The goal was to create a safe network for workers in Koreatown that were often missing in larger conversations in movements about immigrant rights. To further this goal, this year I have decided to go back to school, gaining admission into Cal State Northridge . Not only will I be able to develop a deeper understanding of inequalities in the immigrant experience but a school like Cal State would also be a great place to interact with other working students of color like myself in building a more solid basis for organizing around worker rights, especially for those who do not qualify for DACA like myself. In college, my goal is to obtain an education while continuing the fight to create pathways for people like myself who do not fall within neat categories.
I write this letter to you to ask for your support in furthering my education at Cal State Northridge. At Northridge, it is my goal to continue my activist project on providing pathways and spaces for undocumented immigrant workers like myself. Small acts like this will help those of us committed to the cause to continue the fight. Thank you for your time and consideration.