Cynthia is 20 years old and is a college student in Florida who’s helping to change people’s minds through her essays about what it means to be undocumented. I had the chance to talk to her about her story and how she is involved with the March For America — we’re encouraging everyone to get more people to the march through friends inviting their friends on Facebook. *Please invite yours using “Invite People to Come“!* Here is her story:

I was born in Mexico, and came to the United States when I was 12 because of the economic situation.

As an immigrant child, you find out what being undocumented is like. I found out in the 11th grade. I was applying for college. They told me that I couldn’t go to university. So at that point I was really disappointed. I stopped searching for help. I wasn’t thinking about going to college any more. My grades fell.

Later I got help from an organization called WeCount!, a community worker center that gave me moral support and advised me to ask about studying by going to a college in person. There I found out I could go to college but would have to pay out-of-state tuition. That’s what I’m doing now. I’ve been active in the cause and in the organization WeCount! since then.

During this last semester at college, most of the essays I wrote were about immigration and human rights. Sharing my writing helped students understand what’s really going on. The best essay I wrote was one the professor liked so much that it was shared with all classes. People started understanding the issue and the next week people wanted to volunteer at my organization and for the cause.

I’ve had the experience that many citizens don’t realize there are a lot of undocumented people amongst us because immigrants don’t go around saying, “I can’t go to school,” or “I can’t travel.” For WeCount’s outreach, I talk frequently with a wide range of people, and it’s surprising what people think. Because regular people that you wouldn’t imagine are undocumented actually are.

I like to talk with people, and listen. I don’t have a lot of free time, so talking and listening is what I do the most. I listen to other people’s stories.

With WeCount, we’ve been recruiting for the March. We have 2 buses and so far we have 30 people signed up. We talked about the March at a recent membership meeting to ask people to go and we’re sending emails to businesses to see if they will donate money. We’re also sending emails to our allies to see if they’ll send people to the March.

And personally, I have about 100 friends on Facebook and I’m going to invite them to March with me in DC.

We encourage you to become a fan of Reform Immigration FOR America and then invite your friends to march by going to the March For America Event page. Or you can sign up for the March For America on our website.

Please share this story with your friends to help spread word about the march!

Categories: Florida, March For America, Washington DC, Youth, immigrant rights, immigrant stories