Episode 7: Checkpoint at Fantasyland
Ai-jen Poo reads the story of Victor Galvan
Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen Poo, reads Victor Galvan's story about the overwhelming human rights challenges facing the immigrant community and his insistence, despite his fear and the obstacles ahead, of manifesting his American Dream.
Guests
Ai-jen Poo
Ai-Jen Poo is the co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, working to bring quality work, dignity and fairness to domestic workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. She is also the co-director of Caring Across Generations, a coalition of 200 advocacy groups working to transform the long-term care system in the US. A 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award, Ai-Jen believes the future can be glimpsed in the margins of our economy and society - both the potential threats on the horizon and the solutions.
Victor Galvan
Victor Galvan is a Rocky Mountain native, born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Victor is the Political Field Director at United for a New Economy, a grassroots organization that focuses on economic justice on the local and state level. His work as the former Civic Engagement Director at the coalition led to many pivotal victories in Colorado (the passage of ASSET which granted undocumented students, who graduated from high school in Colorado, instate tuition, and the passage of the Law Enforcement and Community Trust Act which did away with Colorado’s “Show me you papers” law, and expanded access to Colorado driver’s licenses for undocumented people).
Las Cafeteras
Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Las Cafeteras create a vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and positive message. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create ‘a world where many worlds fit’.
Full Episode Transcript
Tania Chairez (00:08):
From Motus Theater, welcome to the Shoebox Stories podcast, where we invite you to stand in someone else's shoes. I'm your host, Tania Chairez.
For our first podcast series, UndocuAmerica, Motus asks a prominent American to stand in the shoes of an undocumented person by reading aloud their story, saying their words and holding for a moment the weight that they carry. By reading the story handed to them in the studio, the reader is not saying they agree with everything written. They are simply agreeing to suspend judgment and feel the impact as they word-by-word, experience the world through another's eyes.
Our guest reader is an American labor leader and Director of The National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen Poo.
Ai-jen Poo (01:17):
Domestic workers who are undocumented take care of children, take care of the elderly, create peace and safety inside of our homes. They're really the backbone of our families of this entire economy in this country. And their stories have not been visible.
Tania Chairez (01:35):
She will be reading the story of Victor Galvan, an immigrant rights leader with DACA, who has lived in this country since he was eight-months-old. It is a story about Victor's experience of the overwhelming human rights challenges facing the immigrant community. And his insistence, despite his fear and the obstacles ahead, of manifesting his American dream. After the reading and reflection, you will hear a musical response to Victor's story from Las Cafeteras, a Chicano band fusing spoken word with folk, Son Jarocho, Afro-Mexican and Zapateado dance music. And now, Ai-jen Poo, reading Victor Galvan's story, Checkpoint At Fantasyland.
Ai-jen Poo (02:21):
I am a 29-year-old DACA recipient who has lived in Colorado since I was eight-months-old, long enough to see four different names on the Broncos Stadium. My dream has always been that I would become a citizen and then eventually serve my country as a congressional representative. But right now the whole idea of dreams feels like a forgotten luxury. And to be honest, I'm scared. I'm scared that I'll be kicked out of the country in which I've lived my entire life. And I'm afraid if I'm deported, my roots will not take in the place that they send me. That is not easy to admit because I'm an immigrant rights leader. And my battle cry is, and always has been, that I am undocumented and unafraid. But every few months, there's another announcement from the Attorney General or the Department of Justice. And yet another attack on the undocumented community.
Ai-jen Poo (03:23):
The phone just keeps ringing in my office with terrified people seeking help. Not long ago, this father was picked up at his home under an order of removal in Colorado. And within 36 hours, before we could really organize resistance, he had been moved to Texas and then to New Mexico. And in New Mexico, they forced him to sign a voluntary departure. I saw the paper he signed and it was grotesque. It was completely crumbled. There were scribble lines all over it. I don't know what they did to him, but he is not the kind of man who would have left his wife and four children without a fight. And looking at that broken signature, I fear that a fight with a few detention guards is exactly what they gave him.
Ai-jen Poo (04:17):
The hardest thing is that these deportations and human rights abuses are being done on such a massive level, that the individual starts to bleed into the abyss and each unique case ceases to matter. And that hurts because each one is a very real person with real dreams like me. I am here. I am brave. I am funny. I care. Is it okay to tear me out of my bed and away from my family in the middle of the night? Are you going to believe I'm scum that doesn't deserve compassion? When I was a kid growing up in Colorado, I was told you can be anything you want to be if you work hard enough. Dream, dream big. What they didn't tell me was that there's an immigration checkpoint at the gate to fantasy land.
Ai-jen Poo (05:15):
I'm trying not to let my hopes and dreams fizzle away with the attacks from the current administration, because I'm afraid that there are fights we have yet to see that are far scarier, more effective, better funded, even than this. So I'm going to share a political anecdote that has kept me going. During the 2018 election, my work was to get out the vote. It was hard. People of color were afraid their vote wouldn't count, or they would be disenfranchised. We were watching in the news situations like Georgia, where the Secretary of State, who was running for governor, literally took half a million people off the rolls. And yet here in Colorado, we were able to turn out people of color, especially Latinos. And that made the difference locally and across the country with an unprecedented number of people of color and women in office. That shift in representation is important because it shows we are changing things if we actually raise our voice. If we actually come out and say, what flew as the status quo before doesn't fly anymore, right?
Ai-jen Poo (06:30):
If you shut doors in our face, we will pry them open ourselves. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had nothing in the way of media or money when she took on a 10 term incumbent Congressman. She ran her campaign out of the restaurant where she waited tables. A woman whose mother cleaned houses and drove a school bus. She won on a platform of Medicaid for all, federal job guarantee, a green new deal, free public college, a 70% marginal tax rate for incomes above 10 million, criminal justice reform and abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A young woman of color from the Bronx, playing a rich man's game, with all the odds stacked against her. And she'd beat her chest and said, "Yeah. I'm going to do this."
Ai-jen Poo (07:29):
And that inspires me because that's our story. That's my story. You tell me I can't and I will anyway. I don't care what you think or that the system is rigged against us. When you tell me to dream big, I take that to heart, because that is what I think America is supposed to be about. And I'm worth it. I do matter. My name is Victor Uriel Galvan Ramirez. I'm undocumented and afraid, but I'm not giving up. You can write me in for Congress.
Tania Chairez (08:11):
Thank you, Ai-jen. What most impacted you when reading the story directly to Victor?
Ai-jen Poo (08:19):
Well, first it felt like such an honor to be able to read your story and your words that are full of so much emotion, and passion and honesty. And when you had those words about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that her story was your story. When I read the line, "That's my story," I felt like it was my story too. Yes, very amusing.
Victor Galvan (08:54):
Thank you.
Ai-jen Poo (08:56):
I was in Georgia in 2018, getting out the vote. Women of color voters and unprecedented numbers of voters of color showed up at the polls and they waited eight, nine hours in line to vote. They didn't give up either. And the only reason why we didn't win is because the system was rigged, but we're coming back. We're not stopping. It's just a matter of time.
Victor Galvan (09:28):
That's right.
Tania Chairez (09:30):
Victor, what most impacted you hearing Ai-jen read the story to you?
Victor Galvan (09:35):
I think it was the same moment that grabbed me too, when you were saying those same words about Ocasio-Cortez, I felt it as you felt in your own story and feeling those moments where we find something in ourselves that is just unimaginably powerful. And you know that everyone's with you, you're on the right path. And I think that story speaks to me so immensely because of that. I think I connected with you exactly the moment in which it hit you. So thank you for really feeling the words.
Ai-jen Poo (10:10):
I think this time with you is so important. And what it means to me is really honoring the millions upon millions of undocumented women, in particular, people in general, but also many, many domestic workers who are undocumented, who take care of children, and take care of the elderly, and create peace and safety inside of our homes. And yet, have been so undervalued and invisible in our economy and in our workforce. Then they go home and they take care of their own families.
Ai-jen Poo (10:47):
And they're really the backbone of our families of this entire economy in this country. And their stories have not been visible. So much of my work every day is about not only making them visible, but really honoring them. And so I thought it was important to do this with you today because you're a part of the story of what makes us who we are as a country. What makes it possible for us to have hope and move forward. Just like the millions of undocumented domestic workers that I work with every day. They're really my inspiration and my hope for the future.
Victor Galvan (11:27):
I have to take a moment just hearing you say that.
Ai-jen Poo (11:32):
Take your time.
Victor Galvan (11:39):
I hear you in the moment that we're in, it's unexpected, everything that you say. It's just deeply resonating with me because I know what people are going through. These folks are reaching out to us on a daily basis. And the amount of pain, an overwhelming sense of duty to their family and their community comes through in their voice, and all while having to deal with everything that's happening right now with COVID-19 and this crazy administration.
Victor Galvan (12:15):
And of course, the protests. Thinking about holding someone's dignity in the moment and when they encounter police. So just all of that, I'm holding a lot of my community at the moment. And it's important to me because I've decided to live here, and grow here and make something of myself here. I heard a quote not too long ago, "Happiness is not about achievement. It's not about having. It's not about getting somewhere. It's about becoming." And I'm hoping at the moment, the tribulations that our community are going through will make what we become in the future.
Ai-jen Poo (12:59):
Beautifully said.
Tania Chairez (13:00):
I know that there's a lot going on in the world, but for a few minutes, we have the opportunity to be in the same conversation. So could we all take a few deep breaths and maybe see if there's any last words you would like to say to each other?
Ai-jen Poo (13:18):
Well, I'm ready to write you in for Congress. You just let me know, how are we going to make that happen. I'm on board. Sign me up. And we can't forget that there's an election this year. And our dreams are on the ballot. And our kids' dreams, our families. And it makes me happy to know that you're doing that work in Colorado. And I want you to know that I'm going to be doing that work too. We're working in so many states this year, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, because our dreams are on the ballot. And I'll be holding your story with me as we go and do this work. I'll be thinking about all the people in Colorado that you're talking to and remembering that we are one. We're in this together.
Victor Galvan (14:19):
Thank you. At this very moment when the election is so pivotal, so important, we forget so often that what we really need and what we really want is the power to improve our communities. To right the wrongs, to have access, to make opportunities. And as social justice leaders, as community organizers, we carry so much. When I think about serving the community, it's not that I want power. It's not that I want status or that I believe that I'm the only one that has the answers. I'm so afraid that no one will do it. If I see that person has already stepped up, then I'm going to back them 100%. And I think that's why I'm so happy to see people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in office.
Victor Galvan (15:10):
Here locally, we have folks like Senator Dominic Marino, Senator Julie Gonzales, Senator Serena Gonzalez-Gutierrez. And people who have lived in the same neighborhoods that I grew up in, have been told not to speak Spanish, are fighting the same internalized oppression and the same rhetoric that we grew up, just hating. And to me, it's such an important part of our culture as new Americans, as community organizers, as leaders, to step up in that way. And if at one point I do have the opportunity in front of me and I have to make the decision. I hope that I make that decision to serve the community. But if it doesn't happen, I'm okay with that. And I hope that I have someone to stand behind too.
Ai-jen Poo (16:06):
That's beautiful. It's such a special time to be alive in so many ways in this country. And I don't know if in Colorado, if you've seen weather patterns that are called sun storms. When you have a really powerful rain storm, sometimes even hail, where it's thundering. But then still the sun is somehow shining through it. Have you ever seen a storm like that? They're pretty common in parts of the South and the Midwest, but it's always really striking whenever I see them, because you just don't think that these two things can coexist. And there they are. And they're both fierce, the sun and the storm. And what I think about this moment that we're living through is that it is a political sun storm in this country. Where we're facing unprecedented attacks on our communities, on our rights, on our democracy itself.
Ai-jen Poo (17:07):
All of our institutions. Our moral fabric. So much is under attack right now. And we have the sun, the people, you and the Dreamers, and all of the people who are protesting on the streets right now in defense of black lives, and all of the women who showed up to vote and showed up to march. And there's so much unprecedented energy that's about love for humanity that is also showing up in this moment. It's the sun. And I do believe in the end, the force of the sun is much more powerful. We just have to keep showing up and we have to do the work. And if we do on the other side is that country that we deserve and you're part of creating it, and so am I, and all the domestic workers that I work with. And I believe in us.
Victor Galvan (18:09):
Thank you for sharing that metaphor. How beautiful.
Ai-jen Poo (18:10):
Thank you for sharing your story with me and the world. The combination of your incredible clarity and defiance, I think it's going to stay with me for a very long time. Because if that is what's going to power our movement and our democracy, I know we will win. I know we will win. It's rooted in such a deep connection to humanity, your own, and the man who was deported and so many in the community. And you speak for me, you speak for so many of us who are both enraged, and defiant and determined. And so it was just so powerful. So powerful to hear your words.
Victor Galvan (19:10):
Thank you. And I'm just very humbled by all of your words today, and really just taking the time to read my story. So often people in our community go completely unheard. Really, you're giving us a gift to use your clout, your position, and your experience to move a story like mine. So, thank you.
Ai-jen Poo (19:41):
Your story is going to change the country. It already is. And we're going to win. I know we are. We deserve it.
Victor Galvan (19:50):
We will win. Thank you.
Ai-jen Poo (19:55):
Stay strong. Stay hopeful. Good luck.
Victor Galvan (19:59):
Likewise.
Tania Chairez (20:02):
Thank you both. Thank you for spending time with us today.
Las Cafeteras (20:08) - If I Were President
Tania Chairez (24:07):
That was Las Cafeteras playing, If I Were President, in honor of Victor Galvan's story. You can watch a video of Victor reading his own story on our webpage shoeboxstories.org, or hear him read it to Ai-jen Poo on our companion podcast, Motus Monologues, UndocuAmerica series. We hope you will share Victor's story with your friends and family, so everyone knows the people whose lives are at stake in U.S. immigration policy. Next month on the Shoebox Stories, UndocuAmerica series, hear artist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors read the story of Armando Peniche.
Patrisse Cullors (24:50):
I believe that if undocumented communities, specifically black and brown, come together with black Americans. We can be really powerful together.
Tania Chairez (24:59):
Thank you to Ai-jen Poo, Victor Galvan, Las Cafeteras, and all of you listening, who are willing to stand in the shoes of someone with a different experience than your own and see the world for a moment through their eyes. Please take good care of yourselves, those you hold dear and your neighbors, both those near and far.
We are grateful for the Shoebox Stories creative team, including Carlos Heredia, theme song, Anthony Salvo, violin underscore, Alejandro Fuentes Mena, vocals, Robert Johnson, vocals. The podcast content editor Motus Artistic Director Kirsten Wilson. Technical editors Sam Glover, and Douglass Reid. The Motus Theater production team, Rita Valente-Quinn, Michelle Maughn, and Kiara Chavez. And Motus UndocuMonologists: Victor Galvan, Tania Chairez, Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodriguez, Laura Peniche, Kiara Chavez, Juan Juarez, Irving Reza, Cristian Solano-Cordova, Armando Peniche, and Alejandro Fuentes Mena.