An activist for immigrant students now participates as a citizen

María Barrera, 36, went from being a poster child for an undocumented student movement to participating as a citizen, and she never missed a beat. She knows from experience that a person doesn’t have to have citizenship in this country to use their political voice.

Maria arrived at age 6 in the United States with her parents from her native Guadalajara, Jalisco. Being born in another country limited her opportunities as a student, so she set out to do something about it.

At first, she wasn’t sure how to get started. She admits that “all that political stuff” didn’t resonate with her at the time. But she got involved with WiseUp!, the high-school activism arm of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), where she learned to talk to lawmakers and push for change. Eventually, she was in the first class of students who benefited from AB 540, the 2001 law that allowed students to pay in-state tuition.

“My high school counselor couldn’t help me get into college as an undocumented student,” Maria said. “Without that law, students like me, who were here since first grade, would have been treated as international students because we were foreign-born.”

She enrolled at the University of California at Davis, where she earned a political science degree and even won an internship in the office of Assemblymember Marco Antonio Firebaugh, who wrote AB 540. Later, she became statewide organizer for CHIRLA’s California Dream Network, helping undocumented college students organize for immigration reform

While doing this work, Maria became more and more interested in mental and physical health. She created a workshop, Unraveling the Undocumented Identity to help young people cope with the constant stress of their undocumented status, so they could understand it as an identity imposed by the law enforcement system and not a reflection on their own worth.

Maria became so interested in this work that she eventually earned a Masters’ degree in acupuncture and oriental medicine, with a pediatric specialty. Armed with that, she opened her own healing center, where she now treats these same students, but as clients.

Maria became a citizen in 2012, with help from CHIRLA attorneys. She voted for the first time that same year, in the presidential elections, to re-elect Barack Obama. And ever since then, she and her family make it a point to hash out their political voice together. Before every election, they have a weekend get-together to discuss what’s on the ballot, from the candidates to the propositions.

“We discuss each one,” she said. “Each person learns about one proposition and presents it to the rest of the family; it is such a democratic dynamic.”

But she says not being able to vote is no barrier to speaking out politically. She is proof positive that there are many ways to get involved, including urging those who can, to vote.

“Do whatever is in your power that allows you to feel like you are a part of the process,” she says — whether it’s phone banking to get out the vote, getting involved in a campaign, or even driving folks to the polls. “There are many ways you can have an impact.”