Javier Hernandez, 23, a member and leader of the UndocuQueer Movement in the United States. He wrote this introduction about himself:
Javier Hernandez is an UndocuQueer community activist from Durango, Mexico that was raised in Southern California. Being a part of two marginalized and politically controversial social groups, Javier offers a unique perspective to our current day political and social climate. Through his education and grassroots organizing Javier has embraced his identities as 'Unashamed and Unafraid' and understands that organizing has no boundaries and can transcend through various communities.
Javier Hernandez is an UndocuQueer community activist from Durango, Mexico that was raised in Southern California. Being a part of two marginalized and politically controversial social groups, Javier offers a unique perspective to our current day political and social climate. Through his education and grassroots organizing Javier has embraced his identities as 'Unashamed and Unafraid' and understands that organizing has no boundaries and can transcend through various communities.
¿Puedes describir un poco el movimiento UndocuQueer?
JH: UndocuQueer es la identidad de un numero muy grande de jóvenes que han estado activos en el moviendo LGBT y el movimiento del DREAM Act y la reforma migratoria. Fue hay que encontramos que nuestros movimientos no eran movimientos distintos y mucho menos separados. El propósito de UndocuQueer es para crear conciencia que en nuestros movimientos la xenofobia y homofobia no tienen lugar, y también fomentar relaciones entre las dos comunidades. ¿Cuando viniste a CC para hablar sobre tu trabajo en el movimiento, tu describiste I.C.E. y el Dream Act. Puedes describir estos para los lectores de Fred Martinez is Punk? JH: I.C.E. es la agencia que ahora esta removiendo a personas indocumentadas de los Estados Unidos. Las leyes migratorias de remover a immigrantes están siendo aplicadas por ICE, durante la presidencia del Presidente Obama, mas de 1.6 millones de immigrantes han sido removidos del paiz. El DREAM Act es una legislación que legalizaria a mas de 1.8 millones de jóvenes indocumentados que llegaron a este paiz antes de la edad de 16 años, estudien en la universidad, o se alisten para servir en las fuerzas armadas del los Estados Unidos. En el 2010 el DREAM Act fallo por solo 5 votos en el Senado. ¿Cuando empezaste tu trabajo con el movimiento Undocuqueer? ¿Como? JH: En el 2008 cuando empece a estudiar en el colegio, me convertí miembro de un grupo en el colegio que trabajaba para traer mas conciencia sobre la difícil situación de los jóvenes indocumentados. Al mismo tiempo era parte de un grupo que se enfocaba en avanzar la igualdad para gente LGBT, y muchos éramos miembros de ambos grupos. Fue como que se prendió un foco de una idea, que varios dijimos, que nuestros movimientos se cruzan por varias razones. Empezamos a tener mas conversaciones de como ambos grupos podrían trabajar juntos para crear mas entendimiento de dos comunidades que han sido atacadas por décadas. ¿Empezó el movimiento enfocándose en uno grupo más que el otro? (Por ejemplo, los indocumentados primero, y entonces los indocumentados quienes se identifican como "queer." ¿O vice versa?) JH: El movimiento de la reforma migratoria y el DREAM Act era un movimiento dirigido por hombres y mujeres heterosexuales y la mayoría eran ciudadanos. En varias ocasiones ellos ponían en duda que UndocuQueer era algo que podría cambiar nuestro movimiento o hacerlo mas fuerte. Varias veces "líderes" nos ordenaban que teníamos que esconder nuestra identidad queer porque no daba el mensaje que ellos querían promover. Ahora decimos que nuestra identidad "UndocuQueer" tiene que ver todo con inmigración y con los derechos LGBT. ¿Cual fue tu primer proyecto en el movimiento UndocuQueer? JH: Cuando decidimos seguir adelante, a pesar de que muchos nos trataban de desalentar, fui dada la tarea de crear una presentación que captara las maneras en que nuestros movimientos cruzaban. Fue muy difícil, porque no tenia nada en que basarme. Con la ayuda de una amiga y amigo, creamos la primer presentación "UndocuQueer" pero en ese momento le llamamos "LGBTIQ and Immigrant Rights Movement: The Intersections of Two Movements." Los dos espacios donde presentamos primero fue en Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS) y en LAMBDA de Mt. San Antonio College. Fue una experiencia muy angustiante porque no sabíamos como ivan a reaccionar nuestros grupos, ni sabíamos que preguntas tuvieran. Pero para nuestro asombro, después de esas presentaciones ambos grupos crecieron en afiliación. A varias semanas tuvimos jóvenes que salieron de "closet" y dijeron que eran LGBT y también varios jóvenes que ya estaban fuera como LGBT dijeron que eran indocumentados. Fue una experiencia muy hermosa para nosotros ver como varios jóvenes avían encontrado el poder para decir su indemnidad "UndocuQueer." ¿Como empezaste a incluir las cuestiones de sexualidad, sexo, y genero en la conversación sobre los indocumentados? JH: Lo que sigo haciendo, y siempre sigo haciendo es preguntar como legislación y campañas son inclusivas de todas las personas indocumentadas. Fue muy difícil al principio romper las paredes de machismo y conservatismo, pero nunca paramos de hacer las preguntas que muchos avían evitado. ¿Es difícil de incluir los intereses de los indocumentados que se identifican como "queer" en el movimiento existente de los indocumentados? JH: En este momento, después de tanto trabajo ya es mas fácil incluir nuestros intereses en el movimiento hacia el DREAM Act o la reforma migratoria. En el 2010 después de pedir por mas de dos años que legisladores como Luis Guttierez de Illinois incluyeran el "Uniting American Families Act" como parte de la reforma migratoria que por fin incluyeron esa legislación en la reforma migratoria amplia. Pero a el principio ellos nos ignoraban, no veían que lo que pedíamos era todo parte de el mismo movimiento. ¿Específicamente, encuentras dificultades de relacionadote con la comunidad de los indocumentados o la comunidad "queer"? ¿Por qué? JH: Yo en lo personal encuentro mas difícil relacionarme con la comunidad queer. Lo que he sentido es que en este momento la comunidad queer pide "igualdad en el matrimonio" y desafortunadamente han olvidado otros aspectos importantes de nuestras vidas. Entiendo que el matrimonio es muy importante para la igualdad, pero esa campaña es dirigida por la mayoría hombres gay y anglosajones. Olvidamos que los crímenes de odio todavía exciten y mas hacia transgeneros, nuestros jóvenes siguen cometiendo suicidio, muchos jóvenes son expulsados de sus casas, pero la mayoría del dinero que esta hiendo a "equality" es para el matrimonio entre parejas del mismo sexo. ¿Encuentras algunos prejuicios en cada comunidad? Si es así, cuales son estos prejuicios? JH: Si,estos prejuicios hay en ambas comunidades. Cuando hablamos de la comunidad LGBT en espacios inmigrantes, muchas veces escuchamos comentarios muy machistas y homofobicos, pero esto es porque muchos latinos crecimos adoctrinados a pensar que ser homosexual es algo malo. En la comunidad LGBT escuchamos el argumento que, "Si eres ilegal, no tienes derechos en este paiz." Eso también viene de esta sociedad que ha dicho que somos criminales por estar aqui sin documentos. Pienso que entre los jóvenes indígenas y queer, hay un problema porque sus comunidades indígenas o "tradicional" no entienden el deseo de incluirse en comunidades LGBTQ porque estas comunidades son muy "white." ¿Trabajando con UndocuQueer, encuentras gente que te critica por identificarse con un grupo más que el otro? JH: Siempre encontramos criticas, porque eres muy queer o porque no eres queer. Varias veces jóvenes que son LGBT no se identifican como UndocuQueer porque dicen que su tienen una conexión mas profunda con una identidad. Hay veces que jóvenes queer se enojan si somos muy queer, porque dicen que eso no ayuda a nuestro mensaje de pasar el DREAM Act. Hay muchos queers que soy muy tradicional, y ellos creen que si no son tan "queer," la comunidad los aceptará. ¿Tu sientes que es peligroso identificarse con uno grupo más que el otro? ¿Cual es tu respuesta a este tipo de critica? JH:Yo no siento que sea peligroso indentificarse con un grupo mas que otro, yo pienso que es muy natural eso. Vivimos en una sociedad que nos dice que es malo y que es bueno, y mucho hemos deconstruido lo que la sociedad dice. Pero si yo me identifico mas con my grupo indocumentado es también porque toda mi vida la he vivido alrededor de gente indocumentada. Otros se encuentran con gente queer, y eso también es bueno. Mirando al tumblr de Julio Salgado noté el uso de "Undocumented & Unafraid" en su arte del movimiento UndocuQueer? ¿Cual piensas que es la importancia de decir esto? Cual es el papel del miedo en el movimiento? JH: Es muy importante poder decir, "Undocumented & Unafraid," tomamos eso como algo muy pequeño, pero cuando toda tu vida has vivido con miedo, y dices esas palabras, en realidad cambia tu vida. He presenciado cuando por primera ves alguien dice que "Undocumented & Unafraid" muchos tienen lagrimas cayendo de sus ojos, porque ellos pensaban que el ser indocumentados era también vivir con miedo. El papel de miedo en nuestro movimiento es no más para que continuemos viviendo con miedo y vivamos en las sombras. El gobierno se ha encargado de sembrar el miedo en nuestras comunidad para no pedir lo que es justo. ¿Quienes son las personas que inspiran a ti y a otros en el movimiento UndocuQueer? JH: Mucho de mi inspiración viene de mi familia, en particular mi madre. Ella vino a los Estados Unidos a una edad muy joven a trabajar, regreso a Mexico y se caso y fue donde nacimos en Mexico, pero decidió regresar con nosotros para darnos lo que no nos podia dar en Mexico. Ella siempre trabajo 2-3 trabajos para que tubieramos todo lo que necesitábamos. Pero otras personas que me inspiran son Sylvia Rae Rivera y Bayard Rustin dos personas que influenciaron mucho de el cambio que tenemos ahora pero no se les dio mucho reconocimiento. Por otros, no puedo hablar, pero se que muchos también son inspirados por sus familias y personas como Sylvia y Bayard. ¿Como avisarías a otra gente que trata de empezar un movimiento como este? Por ejemplo, tienes algunos consejos y sugerencias para los jóvenes indígenas y queer? JH: Mi consejo seria que siempre cuando hablas de algo que no es de la norma, muchos se incomodan, pero eso no es malo. Tenemos que tener esas conversaciones que sigan incomodando, porque si no hacemos eso, nunca vamos a romper eso lazos que nos tienen atados. Como decimos, "Tenemos que jotear las cosas un poco debes en cuando." |
Can you describe a little bit about the Undocuqueer Movement?
JH: UndocuQueer is the identity of a great number of people that have been active in the LGBT movement and the movement for the DREAM Act and immigration reform. We found that our movements weren't distinct movements and were actually much less separated. The purpose of UndocQueer is to create consciousness that xenophobia and homophobia don't have a place in our movements, and also to promote and encourage connections between the two communities. When you came to CC to talk about your work in the movement, you described I.C.E. and the DREAM Act. Can you describe these for the readers of Fred Martinez is Punk? JH: I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is the agency that is removing undocumented persons from the United States. Immigration laws for removing immigrants are being carried out by ICE; during the Obama presidency, more than 1.6 million immigrants have been removed from the country. The DREAM Act is a piece of legislation that would legalize more than 1.8 million undocumented youth who arrived in this country before the age of 16, study at a university, or are enlisted to serve in the armed forces. In 2010, the DREAM Act failed in the Senate by only five votes. When did you begin your work with the UndocuQueer Movement? And how? JH: In 2008, when I began college, I became a member of a group at the college that worked to bring more awareness about the difficult situation of undocumented youth. At the same time, I was part of a group that focused on advancing equality for LGBT people, and many of us were members of both groups. This is when the light bulb went off, that many of us had talked about how our movements intersected for many reasons. We began to have more conversations about how both groups could work together to create better understanding of how the two communities had been attacked for decades. Did the movement begin by focusing on one group more than the other? (Like, on undocumented people first, and then on undocumented people who identified themselves as queer? Or vice versa?) JH: The movement for immigration reform and the DREAM Act was a movement led by heterosexual men and women and the majority of them were citizens. On many occasions, they doubted that UndocuQueer was something that could change our movement or make it stronger. Many times, leaders ordered us that we had to conceal our queer identity because it wasn't sending the message that they wanted to promote. Now we say that our "UndocuQueer" identity has everything to do with immigration and with LGBT rights. What was your first project in the UndoQueer movement? JH: When we decided to move forward, in spite of the fact that many tried to slow us down, I was given the task of creating a presentation that would capture the ways in which our movements intersected. It was very difficult, because I didn't have anything to base myself on. With the help of two friends, we created the first "UndocuQueer" presentation but at that point we called it "LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer) and Immigrant Rights Movement: The Intersections of Two Movements." The first two places we presented were at Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS) and at LAMBDA (the Gay-Straight Alliance) of Mt. San Antonio College. It was a very distressing situation because we didn't know how our groups would react, or what questions they would have. But, to our surprise, after these presentations both groups grew in affiliation. In a few weeks, we had young people that were "coming out of the closet" and saying that they were LGBT and many young people that were already out as LGBT saying that they were also undocumented. It was a really beautiful experience for us to see lots of young people finding the strength to speak out about their "UndocuQueer" identities. How did you begin to include questions about sexuality, sex, and gender into the conversation about undocumented people? JH: What I began doing, and always continue to do is ask how legislation and campaigns are inclusive of all undocumented people. It was very difficult at the beginning to break the walls of machismo and conservativism, but we never stop asking the questions that many others have avoided. Is it difficult to include the interests of undocumented people that identify as queer in the existing movement of undocumented people? JH: At this moment, after a lot of work it's already easier to include our interests in the movement since the DREAM Act or migration reform. After two years of asking legislators like Luis Guttierez of Illinois to include the "Uniting American Families Act" as part of immigration reform, they finally included this legislation in expanded migration reform in 2012. But at the beginning, these people ignored us, they didn't see that what we were asking for was all part of the same movement. Do you find difficulties in relating with the undocumented community or the queer community? Why? JH: I, personally, find it more difficult to relate to the queer community. What has made me feel that way is that right now, the queer community is asking for "equality in marriage" and unfortunately has forgotten other important aspects of our lives. I understand that marriage is very important for equality, but this campaign is led for the most part by gay white men. We forget that hate crimes still exist and usually against transgendered people, our young people continue to commit suicide, many young people are kicked out of their houses, but the majority of money that is being put toward "equality" is for gay marriage. Do you find prejudices in each community? If so, what are they? JH: Yes, there are prejudices in both communities. When we talk about the LGBT community in immigrant spaces, many times we listen to very macho and homophobic comments, but this is because many Latinos grew up learning to think that being gay is something bad. In the LGBT community, we hear the argument that "If you're illegal, you don't have rights in this country." That also comes from this society that has said that we are criminals for being here without documents. I think that among young queer Native people there is a problem because their Indigenous or "traditional" communities don't understand their desire to include themselves in LGBTQ communities because these communities are very white. Working with UndocuQueer, do you find people who criticize you for identifying with one group more than the other? JH: We always find criticisms, because you are either very queer or because you aren't queer. Many times, young people who are LGBT do not identify as UndocuQueer because they say that they have a more profound connection with one identity than another. There are times when young queer people [in the movement] get mad if we are very queer, because they say that that doesn't help our message of passing the DREAM Act. There are many queer people that are very traditional, and those who think that if they aren't as queer, the community will accept them. Do you feel that it's dangerous to identify with one group more than another? What is your response to this type of criticism? JH: I don't feel that it's dangerous to identify with one group more than another, I think that's very natural. We live in a society that tells us what is bad and what is good, and many of us have deconstructed what society says. But, if I identify myself more with my undocumented group it's also because all of my life, I have lived around undocumented people. Others find themselves with queer people, and that's good, too. Looking at Julio Salgado's tumblr, I noticed the use of "Undocumented & Unafraid" in his art for the UndocuQueer Movement. What do you think is the importance of saying that? What do you think the role of fear is in the movement? JH: It's very important to be able to say "Undocumented and Unafraid," we take that for granted, but when you've lived your whole life in fear, and you say those words, it really changes your life. I was there the first time someone said "Undocumented and Unafraid" and many people had tears falling from their eyes, because they thought that being undocumented was the same as living with fear. The role of fear in our movement is for us to no longer continue living in fear and living in the shadows. The government has been responsible for planting fear in our community, but not responsible for questioning if that is or isn't just. Who are the people that inspire you and others in the UndocuQueer movement? JH: Much of my inspiration comes from my family, in particular my mother. She came to the U.S. at a very young age to work, returned to Mexico and got married and that was where we were born, but she decided to return with us in order to give us what she couldn't in Mexico. She always worked 2 to 3 jobs to get us everything that we needed. But other people who inspire me are Sylvia Rae Rivera and Bayard Rustin, two people who influenced a lot of the change that we have now, but who are not very well recognized. I can't speak for other people, but I know that many others are also inspired by their families and people like Sylvia and Bayard. How would you advise other people who are trying to start movements like this one? For example, do you have advice or suggestions for queer Indigenous youth? JH: My advice would be that whenever you talk about something outside of the norm, lots of people will feel uncomfortable, but that's not a bad thing. We have to have those conversations that result in discomfort, because if we don't do that, we are never going to break these ropes that tie us down. Like we say, "We have to queerify things every once in a while." |