Theory and practice in the everyday
“I found a place of sanctuary in ‘theorizing’, in making sense out of what was happening. I found a place where I could imagine possible futures”— bell hooks
America claims to be the land of opportunity were anyone who works hard can achieve the overly romanticized American Dream. The “Dream” of being able to work your way up to the top. In the mid 1900’s the American Dream was coined and it was mainly targeted to the white middle class America.The “Dream” entailed of having a white picket fence with a stay at home mom,a working dad, and two kids. Hence, many immigrants who were predominately from struggling countries have bought into this gimmick and have left their homelands to pursue a better future. My parents were one of the many who left their home and family in order to give me a better future. Like many immigrants who came here illegally my parents were faced with the harsh reality that the American Dream was not intended for them. They were uneducated, undocumented and Hispanic, these three characteristics did not qualify them to achieve or even have access to the American Dream. Even with these limitations my parents were willing to forge access to the American Dream and that was through their hard work. My parents, who are are nearly almost 50 years old are stuck working minimum wage in hard laborious jobs which include, factory jobs, cleaning houses, and gardening. These jobs are all considered under the table jobs. Which for those that don’t know it means that my parents are never always paid for the work they have done. As undocumented immigrants they are left vulnerable to being exploited and degraded. This is the America that parents were exposed to and not once did I ever witness them complain. They used these experiences as learning experiences and as tools to help them maneuver in American society. Bell hooks explains how she managed to create theory through her pain and later put it to practice. She also emphases how theory and practice can be attained despite lack of education because theory and practice can be found all around you. Similarly to what bell hooks said my parents used their way of living and experiences as a basis to their theory. With this new found theory it became their new way of living, it became a means to a future. They acknowledged that they were not welcomed in this capitalistic, patriarchal and predominately white America. Their mere existence was a threat to this illusion of a perfect American utopia. Their will to survive became their form of resistance to the America that is constantly trying to bring them down. I’ve adapted my parents theory and practice to my own experiences as an undocumented immigrant. Yet, unlike my parents I’ve gain access to many of the resources entitled to American citizens since I qualify as a DACA student.
DACA stands for;Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,this was essentially for immigrants who entered the country as minors, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. Essentially this was created by the Obama administration as almost a reward for those “good” immigrants who managed to assimilate well to American society, it was a slice of the American Dream.
In a sense it work as encouragement to those immigrants who became productive individuals in society. It allowed for us undocumented immigrants to keep working pass the pain and injustice in order to become a productive, an object in which the state can manipulate and exploit even further. DACA has become a form of discipline in which the state can survey your every move and at any moment if they see fit can take away everything you have worked for. As seen in the recent case with DACA recipient Juan Manuel Montes who has been deported and forced to leave his whole life behind. Yet, the state seems to be misunderstanding that this violence against our bodies will not make us into docile bodies but into revolutionary, empowering bodies. We will use our parents pain of being exploited, the daily verbal and physical violence that they are exposed to, and our own hardships of being an undocumented student to create our own theory and practice. Because what I have learned form my parents theory is that we can never stay docile you have to act in order to see any change. My parents who came from another country with minimum education have managed to create their own theory that will live on through multiple generations. They have become the seeds to the revolution, to the constant fight to gain human rights in a country who only sees us as mere objects to be exploited.
