Haas fund gives $1 million in scholarships for undocumented UCB students

Excerpted from article by José Rodríguez, University Relations UC Berkeley newssite

…the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund has awarded $1 million to UC Berkeley for scholarships for undocumented students — a life changer for students like Rivera. This is the single-largest gift for scholarships of this type at a U.S. university.

The gift will assist the nearly 200 undocumented students at UC Berkeley from 20 different countries who currently qualify, and will help more in the future. These students are not eligible for federal Pell grants, federally backed loans or work-study positions. Their average family income is $24,000….

As public support for comprehensive immigration reform grows — and with it, an acknowledgement of the plight of students who came to the United States as children and are hampered by their immigration status as they pursue higher education and careers — UC Berkeley is leading the nation in assisting its students who are undocumented. Most of these students were brought to this country by their parents, were educated in California’s public schools and achieved academic success, despite barriers resulting from their legal status.

As a diligent high school student in Los Angeles, Rivera thrived in the classroom and juggled numerous family responsibilities, volunteered, worked in a convenience store owned by his family and did homework from 10 p.m. until midnight every night. At UC Berkeley, he embraced campus life, becoming active in student government, but was forced to drop out more than a year ago when he couldn’t keep up with the cost of tuition. Next semester, with money he earned working at the store and new state financial aid made possible by the passage of the California Dream Act, he’ll return to finish his studies. In the fall, funding from the new Haas, Jr. Fund scholarships will provide additional and much-needed resources for Rivera and others who don’t qualify for federal student aid.

“I’m so grateful for this opportunity,” said Rivera. Of UC Berkeley’s new services and scholarships designed for students like him, he added, “You’re not just paying for a student to go to college, you are helping a whole community.” Continue reading »

For the Women of Ciudad Juarez

MALCS Member Rosa-Linda Fregoso read the December 3, 2012 Mujeres Talk essay on Human Trafficking legislation and wanted to share her own essay “For the Women of Ciudad Juárez” from FeministWire on memorials to the murdered and disappeared women of Juárez: 

By Rosalinda Fregoso
Crossposted from The Feminist Wire, 12/3/12

In late September of 2012, we gathered at the site where the remains of eight murdered women and girls were found in an open field known as el Campo Algodonero (The Cottonwood Field), located across from the maquiladora industry’s headquarters in Ciudad Juárez. Since the discovery of their bodies eleven years ago this November, Campo Algodonero has been an “unofficial memorial,” a gathering site for public art installations, performances, and protests denouncing the ongoing terror of feminicide in the border region. This year, the site became an “official memorial” funded by the government after an international court found Mexico guilty of negligence in the Ciudad Juárez feminicides.

The last time I stood here, Campo Algodonero was a barren field, the only objects on its grounds were eight crosses painted in the iconic pink, each bearing a slain woman or girl’s name. The crosses are still standing although now encircled by the walls of the newly configured memorial site, a small urban park bordered to one side by a heavily-trafficked boulevard, to the other by two newly-built apartment complexes which overlook the park’s interior space. Our tour guide to the Campo Algodonero memorial site is Dr. Julia Monárrez, lead expert on feminicide and researcher at the COLEF (Colegio de la Frontera-Norte), where a two-day international seminar on “Bodies and Borders” had just taken place. When the eight of us arrived in the late afternoon the memorial site was empty, despite the bustling sounds of street traffic, police sirens, dogs barking, children playing.

The Campo Algodonero memorial is clean and unassuming, three undulating walls mark its perimeters, separating the park from the exterior urban scape, its sandstone colored walls, paths, blue-mosaic waterways and curving walkway leading to polished marble-top stone benches appear to be designed as spaces for public and private reflection. The park’s architecture draws visitors to four major focal points.

To the right of the entrance, a plaque dedicates the memorial “To the memory of the women and girl victims of gender violence in Ciudad Juárez.” At our next stop, the names of the women found at Campo Algodonero (Claudia Yvette González, Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, María de los Angeles Acosta Ramírez, Mayra Juliana Reyes Solís, Verónica Martínez Hernández, Merlín Elizabeth Rodríguez Sáenz, María Rocina Galicia) are engraved on a wall, in a marble-encased panel. The adjacent memory wall is partially filled with names of additional women who were murdered in the city. Next we faced the shrine bearing a large cross, painted in the iconic pink, a tribute to and recognition of the mothers’ cross campaign for justice. Finally, at the far side of the memorial site, we reached the large bronze scupture, “Flor de Arena,” designed by Chilean artist Veronica Leiton. Continue reading »

Young Immigrants Say It’s Obama’s Time to Act

Chair Theresa Delgadillo writes:

You might be interested in this article (New York Times) on the anatomy of the Dreamers movement — and how all those protests against specific deportations last academic year fed into a campaign to push for Executive action.  Here at OSU, students organized a small but successful candlelight vigil against a deportation from Ohio.

It has been a good year for young immigrants living in the country without legal papers, the ones who call themselves Dreamers.

Members of United We Dream protested outside a Republican presidential debate in Mesa, Ariz., in February. The group is meeting this weekend.  Their protests and pressure helped push President Obama to offer many of them reprieves from deportation. So far about 310,000 youths have emerged from the shadows to apply, with numbers rising rapidly. Continue reading »

Cecilia Burciaga is doing better!

The Burciaga family writes that querida veterana Cecilia Burciaga is doing better!

“We have good news!  The four rounds of chemotherapy (and no doubt the miraculous power of prayer) have helped shrink the largest tumor by about 1/3 and decrease the swelling in her lymph nodes. The CT scans did not reveal anything new and it seems as though the cancer is not spreading for the time being.

What’s more is that Cecilia continues to feel better and has more energy. She is no longer on oxygen (going from 24/7 to not at all!) and while she can’t walk long distances, she does not need a wheelchair anymore.  Even her nurses are surprised by her recent progress! This feels like nothing short of a miracle.

This is still a stage IV diagnosis but for now we focus on helping her (re)gain physical strength and supporting her through dialysis and the challenges that come with that.  She will see the oncologist every 6 weeks and have CT scans every 6 months.

Antonio continues his practice of reading to her in Spanish every night – a joy they both love and relish.  The whole family thanks you all again for your positive thoughts and support.”

It’s amazing to read Cecilia’s guestbook and see the incredible range of people who have been influenced by her life and work….

New Gerber baby Mary Jane Montoya

Gerber Foods announced that the winnerof their “Gerber generation” Search is an eight-month-old Latina,  Mary Jane Montoya of Fresno, California.

Mary Jane was chosen from over 308,000 entries and will receive a $50k cash prize as well as appearances in Gerber advertising. Her mom Sara Montoya said “Like parents everywhere, we think our baby is cute, but to have this honor is something we’ll cherish for forever. To us, winning $50,000 is like winning a million dollars!”

Some links for post-election reflections

• A detailed anatomy of Obama’s presidential win at the BBC news site – breakdowns by gender, age, income, ethnicity, religion and empathy.
   .
• “The GOP’s Rape Apologist Caucus Did Not Fare Well Tonight” – at The Atlantic Wire.
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• “The Gay Election” by Richard Socarides at HuffingtonPost
  We won our first marriage equality ballot initiatives — in fact, we won all four of them (in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington). We elected our first openly gay or lesbian member of the U.S. Senate, a club historically restricted unlike any other in Washington. We added new openly gay members of the House of Representatives. Continue reading »

Women, Latinos: Record numbers in Congress

From CBS News:

By many measures, 2012 saw the most diverse electorate in history turn out to the polls. 2013, as a result, will see the most diverse U.S. Congress in history assume office.

Latino-Americans and women played a decisive role in yesterday’s election, voting by wide margins to reelect President Obama (55 percent and 71 percent, respectively, according to exit polls.) And when the 113th Congress assumes office in January, both groups will be represented in record numbers on Capitol Hill, leaving them poised to play an equally decisive role in shaping the agenda of the years ahead.

America is changing. And from the demographics of the national electorate to the makeup of Congress, the evidence is everywhere. The new Congress will include 20 female senators, up from 17 female senators today, and a staggering tenfold increase from the two female senators who held office 20 years ago. New female faces on Capitol Hill come January will include Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, who will also be the first openly gay member of the Senate, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono, the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Senate, and Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and triple amputee who ousted a bete-noire of liberals, Joe Walsh from Illinois’ 8th Congressional district….

And the record number of women in Congress is no accident – at a press conference the day after the election, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who helmed the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, explained, “We recruited and nominated the most Democratic women ever…I believe that is a great thing for our country.”

article continues here

Article continues at CBS News