With all due respect to the Everly Brothers, that song could be the campaign music for Emilio Vicente, a junior at the University of North Carolina who is running for student body president. He is Latino, he is gay, he is undocumented and is he fighting for the rights of immigrants everywhere. Today mama read me Frank Bruni’s article about Emilio’s amazing life, and I would love you to read it too, if you have the time. It’s short and sweet and there’s not much sweet in the news lately.
I hope so much this kid wins. It would be a victory for immigrants everywhere, and the hurdles this young man has had to leap are just amazing.
If you think about it, we are all immigrants in some way or another. My Tuxedo family wasn’t just born around the corner. I’m sure we had origins somewhere that is not where I am living now, and if anyone knows where we came from, please let me know, too.
But Emilio, with a private scholarship at Chapel Hill, an illegal immigrant father who brought his mother and him to the States, and enough energy for several people, has not seen his parents for seven years due to an accident his father had in the US and so returned to Guatemala.
Our Mr. Obama made it easier for immigrants who were contributing to the country to be legally employed and obtain a two-year reprieve in order to continue working. And his stalled Dream Act needs support from Republicans and Democrats alike to welcome kids and adults who wish to be a working part of their adopted country.
Emilio says that his many campus involvements are a way of ‘paying back’ to America what it has done for him.
How many Emilios might be out there, if given a chance? And wasn’t America founded by those fleeing persecution?
Food for thought.
I’m putting up my paw for Emilio when voting day comes!!
That’s a vote-paw. It just LOOKS like I’m sleeping…
There. Is that better?
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