Essay paper on Dreamers book

5 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

The dissident DREAMers had repeatedly stressed their frustration with how they were represented in earlier campaigns by national rights associations. They were tired of being made to cower in the “shadows” of the public sphere. They wanted to come out, stand proudly, and speak for themselves. They were also frustrated with having to silence those aspects of themselves that veered off message. The youths struggled against the closets and the shadows of the past. They were now seek- ing to reconstruct the DREAMer in a way that moved beyond the nar- row “boxes” of the good and exceptional immigrant.1 However, many of these DREAMers were also realists. They understood that their abilities to win legal residency for undocumented youths depended on follow- ing certain “rules of the game.” This meant that they had to produce an image of youths that resonated with values of the broader American public. They certainly wanted to forge representations that were true to themselves, but they also needed to represent the DREAMer in a way that would advance their fight for legalization.

Striking a balance between these competing representational needs has become one of the central dilemmas facing this new genera- tion of autonomous DREAMers. The DREAMers needed to be more open about their multiple selves and radical about their claims, but they also needed to make sure that their message would resonate with their

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 3 . S t a n f o r d U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 7/22/2020 1:11 PM via CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO AN: 713555 ; Nicholls, Walter.; The DREAMers : How the Undocumented Youth Movement Transformed the Immigrant Rights Debate Account: ccsf.main.ehost

Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic 119

targeted publics. Trying to strike a balance between these discourses and arguments has precipitated intense reflection, debate, monitoring, and policing over what should or should not be said in public. The DREAM- ers have assumed the principle responsibility of policing and disciplining their ranks. They actively train youths in messaging, monitor how activ- ists deliver carefully crafted stories, and exact sanctions against those who deviate from established understandings of the positive representa- tion of the DREAMer. As certain leaders have assumed a role in instill- ing order and discipline within their ranks, the critiques and grievances of deviating youths are directed at those charged with ensuring a positive representation of the DREAMer in the public sphere. This revives rep- resentational cleavages and conflicts over who has the right to represent the true voice of undocumented youths.

Representing the DREAMer Crafting compelling discourses to represent themselves and their

cause has continued to be a central task. “Even before we plan an action, we think about what our messaging is going to be. We go through a pro- cess of brainstorming: framing our messaging and deciding key sound bites. When the media asks what the action is about, we need to make sure that everybody has the same sentence, everybody has the same sound bite, and everybody sticks to the same frame.”2 Winning support from the public continues to depend on creating a sympathetic portrait of DREAMers and their cause. The “iron rule” of the hostile public sphere requires activists to cleanse themselves of the stigmas attributed to immigrants and demonstrate conformity with the values of the national public. For nationals to recognize undocumented immigrants as rights- deserving human beings (rather than threatening enemies), immigrants must demonstrate their “common” humanity by showing that they have the same values, aspirations, and tastes as any “normal” American. The core discursive themes of the good and exceptional immigrant had been effective in the past because they were premised on simple binary dis- tinctions that resonated with the public and politicians. Undocumented youths were assimilated Americans and not foreigners; they were con- tributing to America and not taking from it; and they were innocent

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120 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

and others were guilty. Stressing these binary themes made this seg- ment of the undocumented population sympathetic in the eyes of many Americans.

Most leading DREAMers recognize the effectiveness of the past messaging strategy. The discourse of the good immigrant made it pos- sible for many Americans (allies and adversaries) to view undocumented youths as deserving the right to stay in the country:

DREAMer: I think the function of messaging is really to start to get people to think differently, especially those on the right and have this very antagonistic and very hostile point of view of immigrant rights and immigration. If the messaging is correct and effective, then the message will be able to trig- ger hearts and minds, for them to be able to start thinking differently. And that has been really key for the DREAM movement.

Interviewer: What would you characterize as an effective message to change hearts and minds?

DREAMer: This whole idea of DREAMers being part of the system, that we are “Americans”; that we have so much talent to give back to our communities. But because of this very outdated immigration system we have in place right now, we’re not able to give back. I think this whole idea of belonging here, being part of here and really having to decide to give back to our communities, economically but even with our values and culturally. So those messages really have been very strong and have worked very well.3

Changing “hearts and minds” of a hostile public requires a message that stresses national belonging. Another DREAMer agrees but emphasizes new efforts to deploy this message in a more nuanced way, “We know that the ‘good immigrant’ strategy works. It works extremely well! But, we also believed we needed to be more strategic in the way we use it and not just throw it out there. ‘I graduated from UCLA with a 4.0.’ So, we use it but we are also careful not to demonize our parents or other immigrants at the same

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Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic 121

time.”4 This DREAMer knows that there are “rules of the game” that gov- ern the production of compelling discourses in a still hostile public sphere but also believes that DREAMers have flexibility in how these discourses are produced. They need to stress the attributes that make undocumented youth good, exceptional, and deserving immigrants, but they also need to avoid reinforcing stigmas attributed to other immigrant groups (parents, recent arrivals, adults, and so on).

In spring 2010, a major innovation in framing the DREAMer was the introduction of the “undocumented and unafraid” theme. Several dissident DREAMers argued that they should cease being ashamed and openly state their undocumented status in public.

Last year was the big push for us to come out as “undocumented and afraid.” For us involved in this, this was important because we needed to put a face to a human issue and stop hiding behind the pseudonyms we used in the past when we spoke in public. We were able to do that because over the past ten years undocumented students have built political clout and have built solid political alliances. This makes it possible so that we can come out and say that we are undocumented.5

“Coming out” as undocumented was viewed as a way to defiantly assert one’s dignity in a world where hiding in the shadows had become the norm. They were undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic. Publicly asserting one’s status has also been a way to assert one’s existence as rights bearing human beings. The DREAMer and artist Julio Salgado expressed this feeling in his “I Exist!” illustration series (see Figures 3 and 4 below).6 “We’re doing this to make presence, to make people know that we are here, to say, I exist! The worst feeling that any human can have is being made to feel nonexistent. We have been told for so long, ‘You are not like me, you’re different, you don’t have a right to exist.”7

Coming out also provides emotional support for undocumented youths. When DREAMers come out about their status, they reveal to undocumented youths everywhere that they are not alone. Responding to the suicide of an undocumented youth, one DREAMer reiterated the importance of coming out in a Facebook posting: “If you ever ques- tioned why there is a need to come out and be in people’s face about your status, this is why. There’s always a young person out there feeling alone

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122 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

and thinking that this [suicide] is the only way out. When anti-migrant bills all over the country exist, this shitty government is giving permis- sion for others to hate and for some to feel dehumanized.”8 Coming out provides support to youths across the country by demonstrating they are not alone. Just as important for this DREAMer, it affirms the humanity of undocumented youths by countering the dehumanizing discourses of the government and public.

F I GUR E 3 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic. Image by Julio Salgado.

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The theme of coming out and being unafraid provided the move- ment with added momentum and energy. “But I think across the board, everybody saw that people also have the right to be undocumented and unafraid, and you shouldn’t take that away from anybody. And it’s an empowering identity, something that’s grown, something that has fueled our momentum.”9 Another DREAMer remarked that this theme inspired youths across the country to come out and join the struggle:

F I GUR E 4 I Exist! Image by Julio Salgado.

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124 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

Last year, with this coming out, events started happening all over, students were coming out for the first time in public about their status, and they were not afraid. It was very empowering to see students in Georgia and Arizona coming out, and this whole hostile anti-immigrant space, and like “wow, they’re doing it, so why can’t I do it?” We were able to empower each other through this very meaningful, inspiring wave of events that were happening and occurring all over.10

One youth who went on to become a leading DREAMer noted that the theme motivated him to join the campaign in 2010:

DREAMer: But when they had that coming out on Pershing Square [in downtown Los Angeles] and they had the “I Am Undocu- mented” shirts, I thought: okay, that’s interesting. That’s really good; people should know that we are undocumented. They started going around Pershing Square, talking to people and telling them that they were undocumented, and then having them sign a petition for the DREAM Act. That’s when I was like “Okay, this is something good.” It was pushing those boundaries, right? They were undocumented and unafraid, and I thought, “Hell yeah, me too! And it’s about time!”

Interviewer: So, the message of undocumented and unafraid played a role in joining the movement?

DREAMer: Yeah, of being unafraid, of stepping out of our comfort zone, stepping out of the shadows and showing people who we really are. Before, when folks were fighting for the DREAM Act, I never heard something like that. It didn’t seem like the message was coming from an organizing perspective, from the grassroots. It just seemed like a nonprofit was try- ing to pass a policy that was good but . . . I didn’t really see us defining or pushing the campaign. When I saw this I was like “Okay, this is good.”11

The “undocumented and unafraid” theme has complicated the simple and clean discourse of the past. Rather than undocumented youths presenting themselves as good and humble immigrants, the new dis-

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course stresses that their undocumented status is a part of who they are as Americans. Indeed, they are Americans but also Americans who are undocumented. The combination of being both American and undocu- mented has complicated past depictions of the good immigrant, which stressed total conformity with national values and silencing of foreign- ness. The aim of dissident DREAMers was to collapse the boundary between the two and assert that one can be both simultaneously. In Jacques Rancière’s terms, the dissident DREAMers were aggressively staking out a political subjectivity based on their “in-between” status.12 This has presented a challenge and disruption to mainstream ideas of what it meant to be American and what it meant to be undocumented. Moreover, the assertion of being “unapologetic” presented a further challenge because it defies national ideas of acceptable behavior from immigrants. A good immigrant knows his or her place within the re- ceiving context and seeks to humbly and silently fit in. The brash state- ments of the DREAMers challenge the established norms of Ameri- canness and do so unapologetically.

Further complicating matters, DREAMers now talk about the “intersectional” character of their struggle. They are not only undocu- mented Americans; they are also Queer, minorities, women, and so on. They believe themselves to be positioned at the intersection of overlap- ping powers, with each power producing its own distinctive form of repression and injustice. The embrace of intersectionality as an overarch- ing theme resulted from the positioning of student activists in multiple struggles, such as union organizing, feminism, LGBT, and so on. But it also reflects the growing influence of the poststructural political theory among this new generation of youth activists. The DREAMers have also stressed sexuality as a core part of their identities. Self-identified Queer youth have assumed a prominent role in the leadership of the movement. “I don’t know if you picked up on this—also, a lot of key leaders or folks at the forefront of the DREAM Movement have been women and Queer people. And so for me, I also identify as queer.”13 This has encour- aged strong affinity with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ ) movement and resulted in the appropriation of core symbols, discourses, and rituals (for example, “coming out”). This perspective was expressed in the op-ed piece in Dissent magazine:

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126 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

F I GUR E 5 Queer, Undocumented, and Unafraid. Image by Julio Salgado.

We have lived with fear since arrival and our exploitation runs rampant because we are also women, Queer and transgender people of color. For those of us undocumented youth who identify as Queer, coming out is a something we must do twice. We come out as Queers to our families and friends and then come out again as undocumented in this country. . . . We can no longer be afraid of revealing our status or identities. We must fiercely challenge privilege and oppression, whether located among allies or the opposition.14

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The strong assertion of Queer identity has become a strong part of the general messaging strategy (see Figure 5 below).

The public expression of multiple identities (especially sexuality) is a departure from the earlier strategy of narrowly focusing on the attri- butes that made undocumented youth good, exceptional, and deserving immigrants. The old messaging strategy focused on one narrow aspect of their identities—Americanness, good students, and so forth—and silenced other aspects that would divert attention from the central mes- sage of a campaign. Presenting the Queer identity of a DREAMer in public was previously discouraged because it distracted from the cen- tral message. During earlier actions young gay couples were discour- aged from public displays of affection by immigrant rights associations because such displays would complicate the central message. These acts of silencing by immigrant rights associations elicited resentment by many activists, especially those with identities that did not conform to the script. Many DREAMers have expressed deep satisfaction with recent changes: “When I first came into the movement, I used to have to engage in painful negotiations over whether to wear my undocumented hat or Queer hat. But because of the empowerment that happened last year, I could stop these negotiations and say who I was and not hide any aspect of myself.”15

The traditional messaging strategy also aimed to cleanse undocu- mented youth of the stigma of “illegality.” The talking point “no fault of their own” was used to stress the innocence of the undocumented, but it did so by attributing guilt to parents and others in the community.

A key talking point created in the past was that we were brought here by “no fault of our own.” This was created by policymakers and advocates, but most DREAMers disagreed with that statement. Now what we do is intentionally let people know that we don’t agree with that statement. We no longer say “through no fault of our own.” We now say we were brought here by our parents who are courageous and responsible and who would not let their children die and starve in another country.16

DREAM activists have reconstructed the “no fault” theme by stressing that family migration was a response to structural or political forces and not a matter of choice. Parents sought out a better life for their children

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rather than allow them to perish in another country. By shifting respon- sibility to structural causes rather than “choices,” the message absolves both youths and parents from the guilt and stigma of “illegality.” Rather than framing parents as guilty, they are now framed as responsible and courageous in their struggle to provide a better life for their children. Dream Team Los Angeles has worked with others to circulate this mes- sage to DREAMers in the broader movement (see Figure 6 below).

In a Facebook posting announcing the new messaging campaign, a DREAM activist posted the following commentary: “Our parents are still being blamed and criticized for our situation. Next time you hear someone blame the parents, tell them: MY PARENTS ARE COUR A- GEOUS AND RESPONSIBLE. THAT’S WHY I AM HERE! This next set of drawings is dedicated to my fellow DREAMers, risking their whole lives in the name of justice.”17 The illustration and commentary elicited more than one hundred responses from DREAMers across the country:

∙ STOP BLAMING OUR PARENTS FOR PURSUING A BETTER LIFE FOR US. THEY DESERVE OUR RESPECT. DOPE IMAGE.

∙ I think it’s so appropriate considering the amount of blame put on our families.

∙ DON’T BLAME MY MOTHER FOR WORKING HARD ALL HER DAMN LIFE SO THAT SHE COULD BRING BREAD AT THE TABLE.

∙ Right on! the political game is so tired. Parents didn’t have a choice- they were forced too.

∙ awwwwwwww! this is bad ass ! thanx!

∙ this is so great! it captures what i’ve been thinking about my own immi- grant family. beautiful.

∙ love it!!! That’s what I’ve been feeling!! That was the best choice my par- ents every made for me!! I wouldn’t be in this fight and meet everybody because of that choice they made . . . A Better life for me.

The comments reflect the strong resonance of the new message. The Cal- ifornia Dream Network, an organization that had tense relations with Dream Team Los Angeles and Orange County Dream Team because of

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conflicts in 2010, also adopted this new messaging. One DREAMer from the network notes, “So when we have big campaigns, like the DREAM Act campaign in California, we had this caravan across California, and we were meeting with members of the legislature. So every time we were going through—we were telling the students, ‘When you tell your story, don’t blame your parents.’”18

In exercising their autonomy, this new generation of DREAMers has sought to refashion and reconstruct traditional representations of themselves and their cause. In the past, the representations of undoc- umented youth were designed primarily to produce resonance with a

F I GUR E 6 Courageous and Responsible Parents. Image by Julio Salgado.

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130 Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

hostile American public. This resulted in tight and narrow depictions of the good immigrant. They were exceptional Americans (and not foreign) and wholly innocent of the choice to migrate (and not guilty like their parents). This narrow depiction was successful in opening up opportu- nities where none had previously existed, but it also came at the cost of stigmatizing others in the immigrant community and silencing impor- tant parts of themselves. Now, dissident DREAMers maintain certain themes from the past (American values, talented students, and so on), but they have also crafted more complex, nuanced, and forceful repre- sentations of DREAMers.

The Dilemmas of Complex Discourses The proliferation of different and sometimes discordant dis-

courses within the same social movement has raised important dilem- mas for DREAMers and allies alike. There has been growing concern over whether DREAMers are speaking too much to themselves and not enough to the general public. Like other identity movements, discourses that assert the right to recognition may satisfy the claimants’ political- existential needs, but these same discourses may not be effective in gain- ing broad support for legal-juridical rights. One longtime DREAMer expressed this dilemma:

I think they have produced messages that resonate a lot with DREAM- ers. It appears that the message is to the rest of the [DREAMers’] move- ment instead of messaging to the masses. The messaging itself has been like, “We’re undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic. We will not live in shadows, we will not live in chains, etc.” It is very poetic in many ways, but it doesn’t have that practical and concise, “what do you want, what are you doing” focus needed for an effective message.19

The new tone, themes, and rhetoric risk dulling the concise messaging needed to achieve the movement’s most pressing goal: legalizing the status of undocumented immigrants in a country that remains largely hostile.

There has also been greater openness to using theoretical and philo- sophical discourse. DREAMers who master this language have been well received by other activists in the network. “I don’t know if you checked

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Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic 131

out any of the work of [———]? [This DREAMer] is very much a Marx- ian, Foucauldian theorist. . . . She’s a social media guru. Every time she writes something it gets spread out through the blogosphere. Her politi- cal message is very deconstructed, post-national and post-everything.”20 DREAMer intellectuals are influential discourse makers in their own right, with their ideas and language achieving great influence and reso- nance within the movement. “Some of these DREAMers are calling for a postnational world. They want to believe in it, they want to create it, and they want to belong to it. Not all these people are intellectuals in this way, but some are. Still, their influence has been important. The concept of “intersectionality” now roles off the tongue of the average DREAMer like water. This is a good and fine concept, but you can’t make an easy talking point with it.”21 Concepts like “intersectionality” inspire DREAMers intellectually and emotionally, but they do not lend them- selves to clear messaging. Moreover, discourses that reject assimilation and celebrate postnationalism are more likely to trigger hostility from a broad American public than support.

Many DREAMers have addressed the dilemma by trying to strike a balance between messages “for themselves” and the messages for the general public. United We Dream has been careful to craft a compel- ling message for public consumption, but it also fosters new discourses and identities for internal communications and events. “United We Dream—we’re definitely into much of this new language. But when it comes to the press, it’s very much like a mainstream message. NIYA [National Immigrant Youth Alliance] can do that game too when they want to. So it’s like divided between the conversations that you have for community building within your activists and when you bring people together, and the message that you put out—your political message.”22 Rather than argue that there are good and bad discourses, this strategy suggests that there are many discourses, but some are more appropriate for broad audiences while others are better suited for DREAMers and their supportive allies. While many of the prominent DREAM organi- zations have employed this strategy, others have argued that discourses on intersectionality and “undocumented and afraid” are frontal critiques on discourses that stressed national identification and assimilation. These discourses cannot coexist within the same movement because one

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negates the other. This dilemma is captured in an exchange between DREAMers on Facebook:

Henry: Our audience is vast, and we need different messages to attract different people. There isn’t “one” narrative . . .

Lisa: Henry, “attracting” different audience means playing on the oppressors’ terms. I deal with elitist people all day long at my elitist private liberal arts school, and I’ve learned the importance of not doing activism for allies but for our people. This is exactly the same problem in national messaging by RIFA and FIRM this time around (and last). The worst thing is there are lots of undocumented people giving into documented people’s thinking. Come on, we don’t have to! Why resist the truth when you can hop on and join the fight? . . . Human rights for human rights. No need to be “American,” no need to be aspiring, just human rights. I’m done here.23

Stitching together the different discourses, arguments, and messages has by no means been easy. Some DREAMers have sought to incorporate these various discourses and deploy them selectively for different audiences, but others continue to maintain that one (undocumented and afraid) negates the other (assimilationist, good American line). These disagreements over representations are associated with different factions and organizations of the broader youth movement. Whereas United We Dream has sought to incorporate these different discourses, the National Immigrant Youth Al- liance has expressed a preference for a more radical line.

The new and more complex discourses haven’t only resulted in important dilemmas. They have also created new opportunities. The employment of new and diverse discourses has helped to align the mobi- lizing frames of DREAMers with the frames of different rights move- ments in the United States.24 This facilitates the abilities of people in other movements to see how the DREAMer’s struggle links to their own move- ments and struggles. The strong incorporation of LGBT themes into the DREAM movement (for example, “coming out,” “undocuqueer,” and so on) has helped draw in support from outside activists. The appropriation of civil rights discourses has also facilitated activists to find similarities in the struggles of the civil rights movement. In one campus meeting,

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the organizer leads a lengthy discussion concerning similarities between African Americans fighting for equality in the 1960s and undocumented immigrants fighting for equality today. A participant observer described the meeting:

He [lead organizer of the campus group] wants to show us a tape of the SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]. He explains to the group that African Americans couldn’t eat in diners back then and these students organized sit-ins, hunger strikes. They were beaten and arrested although they were nonviolent. He asks the group what similarities they see between the African Americans back then and the undocumented youth movement right now. The other lead organizer continues. He says that back then the mainstream organizers of the civil rights movement did not want to organize any real big campaigns. The young students wanted to push on and escalate the struggle. He says, “It is always the youth who feels what is right. They are the ones willing to fight for what is right. They are always bombarded with negative criticism. People are telling us not to fight and to just get a Latino Democrat into power. But we know we need to fight.25

They not only identify similarities between movements (fight for equal- ity by oppressed people), but also use other movements to explain and give meaning to the dynamics found within their own struggles (the importance of youth in escalating struggles). These kinds of exercises permit DREAMers to create symbolic, analytic, and emotional bridg- es, providing the conceptual foundations to build alliances across race, class, and sexual differences.

Disciplining and its Limits Striking a balance between what should and shouldn’t be expressed

in public has remained an important strategic concern of this new gener- ation of DREAMers. DREAMers remain extremely vigilant about what is said in public and have worked hard to train their activists in recog- nizing the line between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” public speech. Before 2010, the process of making undocumented youths into disci- plined deliverers of the DREAM message was largely directed from the top down. After 2010, the disciplining process has largely been managed

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by the DREAMers themselves. Leading activists have assumed promi- nent roles in producing strategies, developing campaigns, and shaping the discourse and messaging of the movement. They have also played a very important role in ensuring discipline among the ranks of the DREAMers.

Good public messaging has continued to be goal of this new gener- ation of DREAMers. Constant trainings and workshops have remained core techniques to ensure a high level of messaging discipline among the activists. A leading member of Dream Team Los Angeles described one such training session:

We provide a lot of media training in things like how to talk to reporters and how to stick to our talking points. Training people to deliver a message is a distinct talent. We do a three-legged dog activity. Everything I ask a person, they have to respond with “three-legged dog.” For example, I would ask, “How was your day?” and they would respond, “Oh fine, I went to the store and there was a three-legged dog.” We then tell them that the three- legged dog is the DREAM Act talking points. So whatever a reporter is ask- ing, they have to go back to the three-legged dog, the DREAM Act talking points. We stress that you don’t have to answer everything the media asks you, just be sure to consistently hit the talking points. Whatever comes out on air is whatever comes out of your mouth.26

Controlling what comes out of an activist’s “mouth” has remained a stra- tegic priority. These constant trainings help create a seamless channel between the general message, the “mouth” of the activist, and the public sphere.

Activists who have been trained by leading DREAMers go on to employ the same techniques to train new recruits to their own organiza- tions. One DREAMer describes the use of the same technique to train new recruits in her campus organization:

An exercise we usually do is the three-legged dog. You make people prac- tice by telling them, “Pretend you’re being interviewed and every time the reporter asks you any kind of question you have to bring it back to the three-legged dog.” So that forces them to make sure to stay on track, to not let the reporter throw them on a tangent, to not repeat anything

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that the reporter might say that might be used in a snapshot of them, and it forces them to think that they need to stay on point for themselves. I need to be aware that the reporter is not necessarily there to support me; they’re just there to get a story. So it’s making sure that people think about those things. You’re not going to know if you’re just thrown into that space [interview with reporter]. You’re just going to say whatever comes out of your mouth.27

The above DREAMer replicates not only the technique but also the ra- tionale: new recruits don’t know how to express themselves in public and often say “whatever comes out of your mouth.” Off-message utterances divert from the central message of a campaign, missing an opportunity to shape perceptions in the public debate and raising the risk of reinforc- ing negative stereotypes of the group. Undisciplined utterances are fine when expressed behind the scenes, but they work against the movement when expressed in public. This requires experienced DREAMers to mold the minds and mouths of new recruits.

Storytelling has remained an important technique in the move- ment’s general messaging strategy. This new generation of DREAMers employs storytelling trainings mastered in the earlier stage of the move- ment. An activist from the San Fernando Valley Dream Team recounted her training:

So they [Dream Team Los Angeles] have taught us a lot how to structure our stories. The story has to have a character and it has to have a challenge, then a choice, then the outcome. That’s kind of how you structure it. . . . You could have a thousand different versions of your story. . . . So, for example, I’ve told my story in many different ways because I’ve been practicing with myself how to make an impact on people. What they taught us also in the Dream Summer is also to have vulnerability when we tell our stories. If your level of vulnerability is low then you’re not going to have an impact on people; you have to have that emotional connect with people that don’t understand the movement or don’t understand the struggle. So, through this workshop I learnt how to tell my story from a point of view that it’s vulnerable for me. . . . So I kind of bring that emotional connect to people, like, who hasn’t felt that way in their lives? So “I overcame my insecurities; I overcame the fears. I’m still fighting for having dignity and individually, but now as a collective,

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the organizing has empowered my life and rescued me to become who I am today.” That’s what we do at stories.28

This DREAMer highlights three important points about storytelling: it is a process that is taught to activists through formal training sessions, but it is also something that DREAMers work on by themselves. The DREAMer notes that we can tell our stories in many ways, but not all stories will have the same level of impact on the public. This requires a process of self- disciplining (retelling stories to themselves many times) in which tangential utterances (noises) are silenced and a compelling message is carefully honed to maximize its resonance in the public sphere (voice). The aim is not to say “whatever comes out of your mouth” (noise) but only those things that that cohere with the message and discourse of the movement (voice). Moreover, creating resonance in the public sphere is enhanced when one uses emo- tions to create a connection between one’s self and the general public.29 The construction of an effective discourse not only depends on the right choice of words but also on the themes, intonations, and gestures intended to maximize the emotional impact of those words. Lastly, the process of storytelling is instrumental in forging the identity and subjectivity of indi- vidual activists. Refining one’s story repeatedly to oneself and to different publics ultimately results in a fusion of public and private selves. The above DREAMer recounted her story: “I overcame my insecurities; I overcame the fears. I’m still fighting for having dignity and individually, but now as a collective, the organizing has empowered my life and rescued me to become who I am today.” This is a story that is crafted for public consumption, but also one she believes and uses to structure her interpretation of herself and her life in the United States. The DREAMers’ internalization of the story—through recurrent tellings to different audiences and to one’s own self—covers the gaps between the movement discourse, the “mouth” of the activist, and the public sphere.

The workshops and trainings provided by DREAM organizations continue to be extremely important in harnessing emotional energies among the new generation of DREAMers. These have become crucial spaces where youths can come out and share their experiences with one another. The process of talking oftentimes creates a powerful level of emotional energy that opens up the “soul” of youths and allows for public

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stories to enter and shape the internal subjectivities of the undocumented youths. The emotional and trusting environments allow DREAMers to talk about themselves and align visions of their selves with the visions of the movement. “Yeah. I think, to be quite honest, the training at most retreats [is] geared towards storytelling because I feel when we do go to these trainings a lot of it is therapy session for a lot of people. Yeah, so, it’s a big part in the training. I feel like those who have done it every time, I think it’s kind of like medicine to them. It gives them support and new ideas. It allows them to open up and think things through more clearly.”30

The result of disciplining is that DREAMers come to know at an implicit level the line separating “acceptable” from “unacceptable” public speech. An activist with Dream Team Los Angeles emphasized the divide between what’s stated in public and what’s stated behind the scenes:

DREAMer: Everybody knows that is what we do, that’s what we are. I understand that’s how we’re going to present ourselves, because we can’t be out there promoting ourselves as coming from South Central and that we’re cholos or whatever.31

Interviewer: So the poster-child strategy is largely intact?

DREAMer: Well, we might deviate from group to group, but it’s up to everybody’s discretion about what you want to promote. But it’s almost unspoken. You don’t even need to think about it. Ev- erybody knows you promote a positive image.

Interviewer: So what about the chola illustration you talked about ear- lier?32

DREAMer: That was just more for us, within ourselves.33

Well-trained activists implicitly know that what comes out of their “mouths” must cohere with the “positive” image of the DREAMer. They also know the difference between what is expressed to the public and what is expressed to DREAMers in private (front-stage versus back-stage mes- saging). While certain identities (Queer, undocumented and unafraid) are now readily embraced and expressed in public, other identities associ- ated with inner-city culture (South Central, “cholos”) continue to be sup- pressed by the movement. These suppressed identities can be circulated and sometimes celebrated behind the scenes, but an “unspoken” rule restricts

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most well-trained DREAMers from expressing such stigmatized identi- ties, images, and utterances in public. This new generation of DREAM- ers has therefore celebrated the new discourses and messages within the movement, but they have continued to exert control over how they craft representations of themselves in the public sphere, carefully choosing to highlight certain attributes of this complex group while actively silencing others.

The high degree of disciplining exercised by the DREAMers has exacerbated tensions and disagreements over how DREAMers should represent themselves in public. In fall 2011, two DREAMers affiliated with NIYA (both from Los Angeles) arranged for their own arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Alabama. Their inten- tion was to infiltrate the detention center, support migrants in the pro- cess of removal proceedings, and gather information on the detention center and the conditions of the detainees. They also filmed their own arrest and posted it to the Internet. While many celebrated this action, the activists were also criticized by some leading DREAMers for the lack of preparation and undisciplined messaging. There was concern by some leading DREAMers that these actions could produce negative blowback for the movement. Frustrated with these criticisms, one of the arrestees posted the following response on his Facebook wall:

Posting: The only thing that upset me is people criticizing the way I talked to border patrol [captured in the film clip posted to the Internet]. They said I should have been more formal and articulate because I needed to represent dreamers. Those people are obviously idiots. 1. why should i try to impress homeland security. I’m trying to get detained not a fucking scholarship. 2. why should I change the way I speak. I’m from [a Latin American country] raised in the [ . . . ] projects in East LA.34 I’m hood and proud of it. 3. i was undercover. my action’s success was contingent on the fact that they thought i was a regular undocumented person, not an orga- nizer who had a specific goal to accomplish . . . 4. I do not believe that i should be the “good Immigrant” [ . . . ]to get respect and dignity. we need to be college graduates with no criminal records and be “american.”35

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His posting elicited ninety-two Facebook “likes” and twenty-six com- ments. Some of the comments included:

∙ YES YES YES YES!!! Those people are obviously too dumb to get the point! ♥

∙ hmmm, assimilation or fearlessness?—thanks for leading!

∙ I’ll give you a scholarship just for being a no nonsense sin pelos en la lengua36 from east los!37 thanks for standing up for your beliefs!

∙ And I bet those people saying that would not have the courage to do what you guys did. Tired of people telling me I have to be a model citizen to prove I’m a dreamer. I’m not trying to kiss ass to get my way into ameri- can citizenship. . . .

∙ You can’t please everyone. I remember when there was that video of me rap- pin’ in the car going around, and all these folks were talkin’ ‘ bout, “This is ok, but . . . why does he have to curse? He’s representing all of us.” All you can do is represent yourself and keep it as real as you can. Personally, I thought you didn’t say enough. =)

∙ ♥ i used to organize with the dream team as a youth and i experienced the same. Also the projects represent!

This exchange reveals several important aspects concerning the self-disciplined DR EA Mer: crafting a compelling and disciplined public representation of the DR EA Mer remains a top priority. This has resulted in continued efforts to highlight attributes that make them “good” Americans and selectively silencing conduct, utter- ances, and images that ref lect stigmatized attributes. The above arrestee was criticized because his conduct and speech represented an undocumented youth that was too working class, too inner city, too foreign, too unschooled, too criminal, and so on. The new gen- eration of DR EA Mers permits new themes to be expressed in the public sphere (Queer, unafraid) but ensures that certain stigmatized attributes remain out of public sight. Policing the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable conduct and speech continues to be a central concern of the new generation of DR EA Mers. The process of silencing problem utterances, conduct, and images involves in- tensive self-disciplining. This occurs in the micromanagement of

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conduct and speech during trainings, but it also occurs through online and off line communication between DR EA Mers. The criti- cisms of the arrestee’s behavior were communicated to him directly by other DR EA Mers and through chatter in online communica- tion spaces (blogs, Facebook, and so on). Several responses to the posting confirm similar experiences by other youth activists. In these instances, it was not immigrant rights associations govern- ing the public speech and conduct of the DR EA Mers (top down) but the DR EA Mers who were governing themselves (bottom up). Many DR EA Mers had internalized the rationale of presenting a good public image, and they assumed an active role in guarding the image of the group and movement. A rather intense effort has there- fore been made to minimize instances in which stray and deviant DR EA Mers just say whatever comes out of their mouths.

The self-disciplining process introduces important levels of resent- ment, disagreement, and conflicts within the ranks of the DREAM- ers. The arrestee expressed anger for criticism directed at his speech and viewed it as a way to silence an important part of his cultural identity. He argued that he should not be ashamed of where he came from and asserted pride for being Latin American and raised in Los Angeles’s inner city (“why should I change the way I speak. . . . I’m hood and proud of it”). He went on to argue that rights, respect, and dignity should be granted because he is human and not because he presented himself as a “good immigrant” or a culturally assimilated “American” (“I do not believe that i should be the ‘good Immigrant’ [ . . . ]to get respect and dignity”). This argument resonated with sev- eral commenters (“Tired of people telling me I have to be a model citizen to prove I’m a dreamer. I’m not trying to kiss ass to get my way into american citizenship.”).

In the past, when frustrations arose in response to disciplining, DREAMers directed their criticisms at national rights associations. These associations were accused of silencing the DREAMers and limit- ing their abilities to speak in public. The “rules of the game” continue to require a disciplined message, but now the DREAMers are in charge of the disciplining process. The grievances and resistances that inevitably result from disciplining have now been directed at fellow DREAMers

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and not the “social justice elite” or the “nonprofit industrial complex.” In spite of changes in the leadership, the representational cleavages that emerged in the earlier rounds of mobilization have therefore resurfaced in this new round, once again planting seeds of conflict and disagree- ment. The necessity of producing effective and compelling representa- tions in the public sphere is a process that requires constant monitoring and silencing of deviant conduct and utterances within the ranks. Who leads may aggravate such conflicts, but the leadership itself may not be the root cause, as the new leaders of the DREAM movement are finding out.

In 2010 and 2011, undocumented youths began to express their own voice, largely in response to conflicts with their traditional representa- tives in the immigrant rights movement. They have tried to strike a balance between a discourse that is both compelling to a hostile and conservative public and that also stresses the need for recognition as complex human beings. This has marked an important departure from the previous phase of the immigrant rights movement. Most main- stream immigrant rights associations viewed these campaigns as strug- gles to win legal-juridical rights of undocumented immigrants. Thus conceived, representing immigrants in ways that cohered most closely with the core national values was for them the most effective way to achieve this goal. By contrast, the new generation of activists came to believe that the struggle was indeed about gaining legal-juridical rights, but it was also about gaining recognition as political equals. The conflict between mainstream associations and undocumented youths helped generate different visions and discourses on rights and citizen- ship within the same movement. The struggle for this new generation of youth activists has been to reconcile these different and sometimes conflicting discourses.

While DREAMers have achieved autonomy, they continue to be saddled with the contradictions of the past in spite of the change in leadership. DREAMers are aware that winning support and legitimacy requires a compelling message that resonates with a xenophobic pub- lic. This encourages arguments that stress the exceptional qualities that make youths especially deserving of legality. But producing a discourse

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of the “good immigrant” requires silencing the more stigmatized parts of themselves. This process of silencing reinforces feelings of stigma associated with these “other” parts of their selves (that is, working-class habitus, inner city, and so on). Those who experience this silencing feel compelled to revive the radical critiques that have already been circulat- ing in the movement’s networks. They seize upon these lines of argument and express them with intense emotional energy in their own networks. They argue that equality should not be granted because of conformity to dominant national norms. Equal rights should be granted only on the basis that immigrants are human beings with inalienable rights. There is a consensus that a legitimate “voice” requires a positive image, but the consensus reaches its limits when the process of producing this voice results in silencing deviant identities, utterances, and conduct. The con- tradictory process of voice making (producing a public voice necessi- tates silencing multiple forms of otherness) therefore results in constantly resuscitating dissenting discourses within the same movement. While such a process results in bad blood and destructive factionalism, it also revives alternative ideas of equality and rights and holds the movement accountable to its own exclusionary tendencies.

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