Programs

Written By Tina Lam

Every early morning at dawn, the frail yet cheerful Mrs. Chu anticipates her daily activities at the senior center. She puts on her coat and backpack and grabs her cane as she looks up at a black and white portrait of her late loving husband, whom she lost to old age. With much enthusiasm, she heads towards the apartment elevator, where she navigates her way to two buses and uses limited English to greet and thank her bus drivers.

Written By Luis R. Garcia Chavez

Farms have been a symbol of the American way of life for generations. The idea of a man/woman owning their own land, making their food, and establishing a good life though hard, honest work is a symbol all Americans wish to emulate. In reality, agriculture is now an oppressive, difficult system that sees regular people and immigrants abused by agribusiness corporations.

Written By Luis R. Garcia Chavez

Unions and immigrants have had a tenuous relationship since the inception of employment unions… They believed that these workers were causing their wages to fall and a reduction in union power against the employer. However, as union rates have dramatically dropped, their relationship with the immigrant community has changed

Written By Medlyn Grasheyella

Illegality is a spectrum consistently and inaccurately represented as being black or white. We're “good” immigrants or we’re “bad” immigrants. We came “through no fault of [our] own” or we came the “wrong” way. We have protection through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or we are completely undocumented.

Written By Brandon Zuniga

The guy who lives next door played his loud music yesterday until four in the morning, on a workday… I had to wonder if my neighbors felt the same way, or if they realized that we were to blame as much as him…

Written By Ruth Velazquez

Living in a country that holds capitalism in the highest regard comes at the cost of working- and low-income families’ livelihood and peace of mind. Capitalism is ideally an economic system that allows everyone to thrive through the free market…

Written By Medlyn Grasheyella

Colonialism is an ongoing process that constructs the realities of western modernity. The legacies of colonialism are so deeply interwoven into the cultural fabric of our modern society that it dictates contemporary historical trends, geography, political institutions, policies and social structures…

Written By Michel Ramirez

I am one of the 11 million immigrants that reside in the United States without legal status. Whenever people ask me why I didn’t come to the country legally or why I don't apply for a green card, my answer is short: there is no such option.