Initiative’s Impact on Young Minds

They were students during the fight over Proposition 187. A year later, they have become students of the struggle as well.

So when a federal judge ruled this week that most aspects of the immigration initiative were unconstitutional, six student activists at San Fernando High School barely blinked.

For these Latino student leaders, nothing has been settled in what they see as an assault on their rights.

They gathered with Times special correspondent Danica Kirka this week, not for a political debate on Proposition 187, but to reflect on how the battle over the voter-approved initiative has shaped their fledgling views on the American political process and their place in it.

In what has amounted to an applied civics lesson, Andrea Suarez, Cristina Pelayo, Libertad Ayala, Leticia Robledo, Marisol Morales and Eric Diance--all high school juniors and seniors and some first-generation immigrants--grew to accept involvement and leadership among their peers as necessary.

From the student walkouts at their school to mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, they described their involvement in the anti-Proposition 187 movement as an epiphany, a realization that they too could have a voice and role in the political spectrum.

They said the protests became one of the defining moments of their young lives.

Question: Did you feel vindicated by the court decision this week?

Andrea Suarez: I can’t actually describe it as being vindicated [but rather] as happy. The undocumented people that were being pushed away from this proposition, they are part of my heritage. . . . There should be no dividing lines among us.

Cristina Pelayo: I know [the proposition’s backers] are not going to give up. I know they’re going to try to appeal it again and go around till they try to get what they want. . . . That’s where we have to continue to keep strong and not give up our opinions. We are affected by this. . . . For us, we don’t have as much power as [the Proposition 187 backers] have, so they look down on us. But now, there’s a voice that did say it was unconstitutional. So that helps us go a step further.

Q: What did the protests teach you about fighting back?

Eric Diance: If you’re not well educated, you can’t fight. [After] educating yourself, you have the power and you have the will and you know how to fight back. But without education, you can’t fight back. You can’t fight back because you’re not aware of what you’re fighting against.

Suarez: I think that’s why a lot of the youth got involved with the proposition. Some [immigrants] cannot stand up for themselves. They haven’t had the education or the experience that we’ve had and it’s important for them to see that we are here for them.

We are of the same race. We are of the same color. We are Mexicanos. And we will stand up for what we believe in and we will stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

Q: Will the experience of getting involved in the grass - roots encourage you to continue in the political process?

Pelayo: I enjoy working with people. I know people will close themselves down and say, ‘Well, I’m not important,’ or ‘My voice doesn’t count.’ That’s why a lot of people don’t vote. Knowing what I know [now] and working together, we can make it happen.

Suarez: It’s important to speak out. And, like Cristina says, they [immigrants] give up. They just close the door and that’s it. It’s important to make everyone aware that it’s OK to speak out, to say how you feel and to really just go on and have faith in yourself. . . . If others can see from this example, we can do other things. We can say, ‘Well, remember [the fight against] Prop. 187: We did that.’ It’s encouragement to go on.

Leticia Robledo: I’m still active in [the Chicano student group] MEChA and I have this Sunday group that they formed. There’s this camp they call a brotherhood/sisterhood camp. And it’s a camp of tolerance, to break down the barriers of ethnic groups, to take away the ignorance in our world. . . . It’s all student-based, and student-run.

Q: How has the fallout from Proposition 187 affected your awareness of , or involvement in , the political process?

Libertad Ayala: With all the demonstrations and the rallies, we all learned from them. But that’s just one of the steps we’ve taken. There’s also the education: the workshops, the seminars, the conferences that everybody has to look at. That’s what the media hasn’t done. The media, most of the time, just looks at the negative. ‘They had a rally, but a fight broke out.’

The media never cares when we’ve had a workshop and tried to educate people, unifying one another. Like last week, we had a conference. . . . And you know, the media didn’t show up. But if a fight [had broken] out, the media would have been there right away.

Marisol Morales: I think it will affect every single one of us. . . . I’ve been getting into all these movements because I’ve seen it’s necessary to do something for ourselves. We have to stand up. We have to say what we think. Because if we don’t say something, we’re just going to end up how we’ve been.

Q: What do you see as the broader ramifications of Proposition 187?

Ayala: [Proposition] 187 is a sequence of events. Its point was getting [people] used to this form of segregation. . . . Now, we’re seeing affirmative action [attacked]. We know 187 is going to have a great impact on the lives of everybody. It’s all toward one goal: This one goal of segregation. The next thing, we’re going to have a national ID card. That’s hassling people more. It’s going to create more problems. It’s going to create more animosity. We can see that animosity now.

Suarez: People shouldn’t have to get used to segregation. There should be no segregation. . . . We really have to stand up more and make it known: We’re going to educate ourselves more and make something of ourselves. That way, other people can see us and be encouraged to be like us: Register to vote, become citizens, go to school, make a career . . .

It seems like they are making us pick sides. What do you want to be? Do you want to be with your heritage or with your country? When these two things should be integrated together because that is what makes our culture. It’s heritage, language and education.

Ayala: You know, our whole culture has been summed up [as being] something from Taco Bell. And it’s not our culture. It has been monopolized, turned into some weekend at Baja California where you can get everything cheap . . .

Q: Did your family backgrounds influence your decision to fight the initiative?

Pelayo: [My parents] . . . neither of then had wanted to become citizens because they wanted to be loyal to Mexico. So they didn’t have much interest. They would think about voting, but it didn’t really matter to them. Now after the proposition came out, my parents are both citizens. And they are really active.

Now that they’re citizens, they can become part of everything--working with congressmen, working with senators--all the people representing them.

All of us who are born here, we are all citizens. We will be voting this year.