Cochitlehua-lí, Youth Advocating For Education For Undocumented Students

Student advocates of the "Dream Act" from Cochitlehua-lí

San Jose, CA -- Cochitlehua-li, which in the indigenous Nahuatl language in Mexico means "dream," is the name of a group ran by 18-years-old youths, all undocumented Latino immigrant students, who are better known as the AB 540 students.

The AB 540 law, passed by California legislature in 2001, allows foreign-born and out-of-state students (who met certain requirements) to pay in-state tuition rates at all California public universities and colleges.

Of the 5.5 million children of undocumented parents living in the U.S., according to the 2009 study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, about 1.8 millions live in poverty.

In the Cochitlehua-li group, everyone is foreign-born. They came to the U.S. with their undocumented immigrant parents. Though they have grown up in California, these students don’t qualify for the majority of state and federal resources that come in the forms of loans and scholarships because of their undocumented status.

Bianca Ribera, a business management major at San Jose State University, said her parents decided to leave their hometown of Durango, México, for California four years ago because staying would mean hunger. She was 15-year-old at the time when her family illegally entered the U.S.

Another San Jose State student, Viridiana Reyes, a psychology major, she crossed the border with her parents when she was one-year-old. Living as an undocumented immigrant “is a hard part of my life, but at the same time it makes me strong and motivates me to change the system,” explains Reyes. As San Jose has many AB 540 students like Ribera and Reyes, over a year ago, they have decided to form Cochitlehua-lí as a support network.

One of the group’s first activities was to collect books to lend to other AB 540 students at Evergreen College, where most of the Cochilehua-li members are from. To help fellow students coping with the stress of dealing with ICE raids, the group also organizes theatre plays to minimize the effects.

But Cochitlehua-li’s passion has gone far beyond its beginning as a support network. The group is putting together a bilingual book, a collection of members’ personal stories. Despite their young age, virtually all of these students have extensive experiences in overcoming barriers through struggles and perseverance.

“With this book, we want to tell other students that they are not alone. And in spite of everything, we can move forward and go to college,” exclaims Xavier Carrillo, a member of the group.

The book features students like Xavier Carrillo, a business major, who arrived in the United States at the age of 12 from Mexico. He wants to share his experience with others about how difficult it was for him to learn English and adapt to American school. “I didn’t know one word of English on my first day. But I didn’t let that get to me. It actually made me try that much harder,” Carrillo adds.

Another student, Marco Gallardo, who was born in México City, explains that the hardest moment in his life was when he and his family overstayed their visa and were forced to remain undocumented in this country. He mentions that back in Mexico, for a while his family “lived well in Mexico.” But during Vicente Fox’s presidency, his father became unemployed. That was when his family decided to immigrate. Mario’s wish is to become an engineer.

The Cochitelhua-li group is placing much hope in President Obama to pass immigration reform soon to create a pathway for undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship. If he cannot change his illegal immigrant status by the time he finishes his management studies, Carrillo says he might have to return to his birthplace in Guerrero, Mexico, and look for work in tourism in Acapulco. However, he explains that it would at the last resort because he would exhaust all options to stay in this country.

Cochitlehua-lí is open to all students that want to join the group. For more information, call (408) 937-2559.