Undocumented University of California, Los Angeles students share their struggles to help advance the DREAM Act.
When Mario Escobar was getting a double major in Chicano studies and Spanish literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, money was so tight he often went to class hungry and wore clothes from Goodwill that didn’t quite fit. As an undocumented student, Escobar wasn’t eligible for financial aid or loans.
Escobar, who as a child fought in El Salvador’s brutal civil war where his father, grandmother and cousins were killed, is no stranger to hardship. He says getting an education was worth the sacrifices he made.
“My motto was, ‘I can lick the floor for the rest of my life, or I can lick it now,’” he says.
Escobar is no longer struggling like before. In 2007, Escobar received political asylum, and now he’s on a full scholarship at Arizona State University where he’s getting a Ph.D. in literature.
Escobar’s story, along with those of seven other undocumented students, is featured in a book put out by the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, Underground Undergrads. It also has information about legislative issues affecting undocumented students such as California’s Assembly Bill 540, which offers high school graduates in-state tuition, and the Federal Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a pathway to citizenship for many college students.
