Lou Weaver, 41, is a female-to-male transgender who has been living as a male for the past four years and has been taking testosterone, the male hormone, for the past three. Just like many other transgender, he has decided that he will not live in the shadows or feel ashamed about who he is. Weaver, the president of the board of directors for the Transgender Foundation of America, is passionate about speaking for transgender issues and fighting for transgender rights. Weaver sits on many transgender panels, has helped bring change to the University of Houston and has assisted in the addition of gender identity to HCC’s non-discrimination clause.

Originally from Colorado, Weaver has been living in Houston for eight years and is a student at UH, where he is majoring in public relations with a minor in political science. At the age of 21, he survived a car accident, which left him unable to pursue higher education for a few years. He lives with his girlfriend and their beloved cat and dog. He would like to continue to pursue a career in shedding light on transgender issues; his other goal is to someday work in public relations for the Houston Dynamo.

Weaver spoke to The Venture about his mission and identity.

When did you realize that you were transgendered?

LW: I always knew I was different.  When I was younger, I only had male friends; I followed my older brother around all the time. I wore his hand-me-downs. I never wanted to wear “girlie” things. I also knew I liked girls, so I thought I was a lesbian. I didn’t even know the term “transgender.” I had heard of drag queens but never of anyone who was a female-to-male identified person.

In my late 20s, I met a group of drag kings, female-to-male impersonators, and I knew that I needed to join them. I did, and it was amazing. It was like letting my inner male out, but I still didn’t know I was trans.  I didn’t have that  vocabulary. I started identifying  as a “boi,” kind of more than a butch lesbian. One of my friends’ kids said it was for “boy on the inside.” It made so much sense.     

I used that for a long time, then I met someone here in Houston who saw me for who I was and he introduced me to the local transgender community. I felt like I had come home. Things starting making more sense, and I was able to start on my journey of transitioning. That was in 2008.

What is the biggest goal you hope to accomplish through your activism?

LW: Education – I hope to de-mystify gender variance. I believe that people hate and fear what they don’t understand. I want the public to understand I’m not that different from them.

What organizations are you a member of and what is your role?

LW: I am on the planning committee of the Texas Transgender Non-Discrimination Summit, the fourth annual summit will be held in July at UH-CL. Last year it was held at UH Main.

I have helped organize the past two Transgender Day of Remembrances, both at UH Main.  This is a national event that acknowledges those that have lost their lives due to violence against gender non-conforming individuals.

Every April, the Houston Transgender Unity Committee hosts the Unity Banquet. I have helped coordinate volunteers for the past three years. Last year, I was more heavily involved – as I will be this year. It is the largest single-night transgender event in the nation. It is a fundraising event, it helps pay for our participation in pride events and helps fund scholarships for transgender students seeking higher education.

Is there any legislation you would like put in place that affects the transgender community specifically?

LW: Yes, I would like to see an inclusive non-discrimination clause for employment and housing. I would like to see insurance coverage for transgender care, and for those that need surgeries to not be questioned about the validity of the surgeries. Some guys need hysterectomies.

Also, I think there should be standard legislation for people to get their names and gender markers legally changed on state identification cards and on birth certificates. Another important thing is marriage; people should be allowed to marry whomever they love, regardless of gender.

What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about transgender society?

LW: That there is something very weird about us, and that we are mentally unstable.

As my grandpa used to say ¿Como te vas a casar si no sabes cocinar? (Who will want to marry you if you don’t know how to cook?) A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Not really, but it sure helps!
 

This rendition of Salsa Huevona, literally lazy salsa, requires a tad bit more time with the knife than most other recipes. Usually a cook will dice the pepper about the same size as the other ingredients, which is fine if you’re using a very mild pepper or if ya don’t mind randomly chomping down on a huge chunk of heat .
 

But when using habañeros, I would suggest finely mincing them with garlic (mom always told me the garlic cuts the sting and tempers the ensuing stomach ache) so that the oils immediately infuse the salsa with piquant and savory flavor.
 

This little trick also gives the salsa consistent kick with every bite.

 
Salsa Huevona
Ingredients
3 (3 c.) medium tomatoes (heirloom, vine ripe or roma)
1 bunch (1 c.) green onion
1/2 (1 c.) red onion
1 c. chopped cilantro
1 habañero (mild), two if you like it hot!
2 cloves garlic
1 lime
1/2 Tbs. salt

Wash and dry your ingredients. Chop each of the tomatoes into approximately 1 cm. chunks.

Chop the bunch of green onions 1 inch above rooted ends, discard the roots and cut stems at half inch intervals. Chop the red onion about the same size as the green onion. Chop the cilantro.

Place all ingredients in a large bowl with the juice of one lime.
Finely dice the habañero and garlic so that it is almost paste-like. Sprinkle with 1/2 Tbs. salt. Add to the large bowl and gently but thoroughly toss ingredients together. Chill for 1/2 hour.

 
Serve with freshly fried corn tortilla chips, store will do, but homemade is always better. This salsa is also delicious added to scrambled eggs.
You know us. If you don’t, you should. We love making new friends and making them food. So when you see something you like, send us a message. We’ll make it a party.

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“I’m Puerto Rican – I’d be great at selling drugs.”

This is of course incredibly offensive and demeaning to Puerto Ricans since it implies that a criminal activity caused by racial discrimination in terms of educational and job opportunity is an essential trait of an ethnoracial group from an island still held as a colony of the American Broadcasting Company. While not as egregious as the Seinfeld Puerto Rican flag episode, which literally desecrated our desire for self-determination as a people, this takes us back to the days of our across the board characterization as knife-wielding spics.

That being said, “Work It” is an equal-opportunity offender, a kind of lowbrow Mad magazine cheap-shot fest that seems like a desperate attempt to attract supporters of ex-candidates Michelle Bachman and Herman Cain bored by the Republican primary race. In the hopes that the rest of the 99% will share in our Boricua Indignation, here are the Top 10 Offensive Things About “Work It.”

10. Amaury Nolasco, whose job at a taco shop is supposed to be funny, looks horrible as a woman.

9. While women have nudged to over 50% of the workforce, they earn on average 20% less than men do. “Work It” traffics in the myth of a “man-cession” where women are portrayed as winners of the Great Recession.

8. Women in the office are portrayed as hysterical idiots who largely communicate in high-pitched shrieks.

7. Transgendered people are implied to be freaks with shameful secrets.

6. The loss of health insurance by a large swath of Americans is a thigh-slapping punch line to a joke about prostrate exams.

5. Pushing high profits for mega-pharma drug companies is shown as a desirable career track.

4. Ben Koldyke is a really horrible looking woman.

3. For men to imagine themselves as women is so shockingly horrible it’s supposed to be funny.

2. The rape scene in “The Accused” is invoked as part of a joke about a prostrate screening.

1. The Great Recession, and its ravaging of the middle, working, and lower classes, is a huge joke that is essential to the premise of “Work It.”

This November, fans of both visual and literary arts welcome a unique exhibition to the Bay Area. University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Art Gallery will present photography by Van Edwards with poetry by his son Joshua Edwards.

Titled “Campeche,” the name of pirate Jean Lafitte’s colony on Galveston Island, the exhibition will be on display Nov. 14 through Jan. 13, 2012.

First conceived as a book of poetry and photographs and published by Noemi Press earlier this year, Van Edwards and Joshua Edwards describe “Campeche” as a meditation on life by the sea, natural forces and the future.

It is also a dialog between a father and a son, and an ode to disappearance.

“I’m absolutely thrilled about ‘Campeche’ at UH-Clear Lake. The gallery allows the project to take on a new life beyond the limits of the book, adding a sense of time, space and scale that really opens up its collaborative aspect,” says Joshua Edwards. “To have my poems displayed with my father’s incredible photographs, so near to where I grew up, is an astonishing opportunit.”

“We tell stories and sing songs to give meaning to our lives,” explains Van Edwards, who has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the university. “With a camera, I chose light and shadows in time and space to improvise – like a jazz musician – on the song of life. The less there is of me, the more there is of this enchanted world.”

Admission is free, and complimentary parking is available. For more information, call the gallery, 281-283-3376, or visit

http://hsh.uhcl.edu/Art_Gallery.

by Jeffrey Bowen

Each year, the celebration that begins with Thanksgiving Day and runs through New Year’s Day is a time for counting our blessings, demonstrating our love and humanity towards one another, praying for world peace, and putting an end to the inhumanities visited upon our fellow human beings. These are times for reflection and the search for spiritual peace.

However, in recent years immigration has reflected less than positive sentiments among many of our fellow U.S. Americans. There are those who cite the growing negative influence Latinos are having on “their” society, “their” economy and “their” culture. These attitudes prompt me to share the many contributions Latinos are making to our nation’s economic, social and cultural evolution.

The cuetlaxochitl plant, known as a poinsettias in the U.S., can grow up to 10 feet tall and was used by pre-Colombian Aztecs. One legend says the poinsettia symbolizes the blood of those sacrificed to the sun to renew its strength.
Photo Courtesy: bakirita.blog.com

This icon of the holiday season was once part of the botanical gardens that existed throughout the pre-Colombian Aztec Empire. In that era, flowers and plants were cultivated for their beauty, as well as for medicinal and aesthetic purposes. The Mechicas (whose culture is the foundation of the Aztec civilization) used the cuetlaxochitl to cure fevers and to dye clothing and artifacts.

Today, as a result of Spanish influence and Christian teachings, most Latinos know the plant as the flor de la nochebuena (flower of the Holy Night). This is because it leaves turn into a flame-red color during the Christmas season.

In the United States, this Mexican native has a different history and name; here its history began with Joel Robert Poinsett, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico in the 1820s. He reportedly visited a church while in Mexico in which the parishioners had adorned the Nativity scene with local exotic red plants that produced a very elegant and uncommon appearance. The Ambassador was so impressed with its foliage that he had cuttings of the plant transported across the border to his South Carolina hothouses, from which he commercially introduced the Mexican transplant to U.S. retailers and consumers.

The poinsettia has become one of the most recognized icons of the holiday season in the USA. Yet, the cuetlaxochitl is still associated with Christmas throughout Mexico and Latin America – as well as in a substantial number of Latino homes throughout the United States. Who could have imagined that a shrubby, pre-Colombian plant with reddish leaves (that really aren’t flowers) would someday become the second most popular colorful plant sold in the entire country, trailing only the rose?

The avocado (aguacate), chile pepper (chile), chocolate (chocolate), corn (maíze), peanut (cacahuate), potato (papa), tomato (tomate), along with the ubiquitous taco, tequila and tortilla – are among the many other imports from Latin America that have been readily adopted by a substantial number of U.S. households as a way of enriching the quality of their lives. If such indigenous transplants can be so easily welcomed and adopted by U.S. Americans, why are we (as several recently enacted state laws clearly demonstrate) so adamantly opposed to allowing the people who discovered, cultivated and refined many of these valued resources to contribute to our nation’s bounty?

As we begin to countdown the shopping days left before Christmas, let’s think about the real meaning of the holiday season and what it is we should be celebrating. When you look at the assortment of poinsettias with which you decorate your homes during the holidays, remember they are one of many transplants that are enhancing the quality of our lives.

True, Latinos did not cross the Atlantic Ocean on seafaring vessels; their ancestors were residents of the modern North American continent long before the British set foot on it. True, they did not design the political and social systems of the USA, but they – like many of the natural transplants from their respective motherlands – have contributed to the health, wealth and cultural evolution of this great nation.

On behalf of the 44 million native-born and naturalized U.S. Latino citizens – and the estimated 10-to-12 million undocumented immigrants – we extend to you a ¡Feliz navidad y prospero año nuevo!

By: Jim Estrada

Commentary from National Institute for Latino Policy

Opinions expressed in these articles are not intended to represent The Venture editorial policy and do not necessarily reflect the views of our staff, board of directors or supporters.

______________

Jim Estrada is the founder of Estrada Communications Group of Austin, TX. The former TV journalist and corporate executive is an expert in marketing and public relations. He attended San Diego State University, Boston College, and The Harvard School of Business and currently serves on the board of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the Advisory Council of the University of Texas Libraries and co-chairs development efforts for the VOCES Oral History Project, a project of the UT School of Journalism. His complete collections of essays can be read at: http://jimestrada.posterous.com. He can be contacted at jim@estradausa.com.

In his latest anti-Taíno diatribe entitled “The Myth of Taíno Survival in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean,” Haslip-Viera reveals that contemporary Taíno continue to strike a nerve in his “status quo” vision of who and what a “Puerto Rican, Dominican, or Cuban” should be. As the 2010 U.S. Census data reveals, however, his conservative view is jarringly contrasted to how a significant number Caribbean people,, particularly “Puerto Ricans,” see themselves. [1]

Taino community members at a Grito de Caguana anniversary Photo Courtesy: United Confideration of Taino People

Haslip-Viera’s article promotes the position that Taíno advocates are using DNA studies to claim “a pure indigenous pedigree.” As the current President of the United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP), I submit that his assessment of Taíno affirmation is, to use his own words, “patently absurd.” I challenge Haslip-Viera to produce a single document issued by the UCTP that makes such a claim.

The UCTP is well-aware of the interactions between Caribbean communities before and after 1492. However, like our ancestors, the Confederation does not subscribe to the racist “blood quantum” ideology Haslip-Viera is attempting to impose on the Taíno. The concept of a “degree of Indian blood” was set in place not by Indigenous Peoples but by those whose ultimate goal was to terminate “Tribes.” [2]

It is the position of the UCTP that the issue of self-identity should be discussed within the context of the universal right to self-determination. From this perspective, the question becomes “so what if contemporary Taíno are ‘mixed’?” Generally speaking, a majority of the citizens of U.S. federally recognized American Indian Tribal Nations, Native Alaskan communities, and Native Hawaiians are also of “mixed” ancestry. This does not stop them from affirming and promoting their ancestral heritage or speaking out for the recognition of their collective rights.

In the case of Puerto Rico, Haslip-Viera still seems surprised that the “media made a big deal” about “DNA studies” revealing that a significant portion of Puerto Rico’s population is descended from the region’s pre-Hispanic First Nations. Why this news continues to be a “big deal” is that the standard nationalistic and academic discourse holds that Puerto Ricans are a “cultural” mix of three “races” but that the island’s Indigenous Peoples were basically wiped out within the first 36 years of the conquest.[3]

What Haslip-Viera fails to accept or even acknowledge is that colonial history concerning the “Native issue” has often been misreported, misinterpreted, and or misrepresented.[4] Indeed, contemporary scholars who cite inconsistencies and errors in the interpretation of the historical record are ignored or ostracized. Corresponding oral tradition throughout the region is also ignored or ridiculed within the educational system and in the media. [5]

In the case of the Taíno, Haslip-Viera views oral tradition as an irrelevant form of community and national history. Fortunately, the world community does not share his view. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO), for example, notes that “[o]ral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive.” [6]

It should be further noted that Taíno descendants do not require the approval of Dr. Haslip-Viera or others to be Taíno. This position is also affirmed by the world community as per the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Taíno people across the islands and in the Diaspora recognize themselves, each other, and are being increasingly recognized by other Indigenous Peoples.[7] DNA science simply affirms what our elders have been saying all along — we are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Caribbean islands and we are still here.

By: Roberto “Mukaro” Borrero

Commentary from National Institute for Latino Policy

Opinions expressed in these articles are not intended to represent The Venture editorial policy and do not necessarily reflect the views of our staff, board of directors or supporters.

__________

Roberto “Múkaro” Borrero is the current President of the United Confederation of Taíno People, the Chairman of the NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and an alternative Board Member of the International Indian Treaty Council. He is a contributing author to Taíno Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics, edited by Gabriel Haslip- Viera(2001). He can be contacted at mukaro@uctp.org.

Endnotes

1. Over 35,000 Puerto Ricans identified themselves as “American Indian” in Puerto Rico in the U.S. Census. See “Census Sheds Light on Boricua Identity”, The Voice of the Taíno People, Vol. 14., Issue 3, July – Sept. 2011, p.1.

2.See Forbes, Jack D., The Blood Grows Thinner, 2000. Last visited 12/07/2011.

3. After Figueroa, Loida. History of Puerto Rico, 1974, p. 74

4. Figueroa, Loida, ibid.

5. See the scholarly works of Juan Manuel Delgado of the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe y de la Universidad Interamericana de Arecibo.

6. See Oral traditions and expressions including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage. Website last visited on 12/07/2011, click here.

7. See “UCTP Treaties, Recognition, and Awards.”

UH students crowd into the Cougar Den. Fire Hazard?

Remember 2009’s Calhoun Lofts debate? You will recall our university’s stance: constructing Calhoun Lofts would serve an influx of students aching to live on campus. Opposers contested – correctly, we now see – that the lofts were an exorbitant expense, that not only would the lofts be partially occupied, but the building property would better serve the campus as a parking lot.

The university went ahead and constructed the multi-million-dollar lofts.

Now, two years later: UH is suffering from an unprecedented scarcity of parking spaces.

I use the Calhoun Lofts debate to segue into a larger problem: UH’s blindness to the fact that it is a commuter school.  As long as the cost of on-campus living overshadows the cost of commuting, UH will remain this way.

Recall how the Calhoun Lofts were originally built only for graduate students were finally just made available to undergraduates. While they have served some students, the Calhoun Lofts have burdened UH’s overwhelming majority – commuters.

Indeed, our university lives hypocritically: it complains about the lack of on-campus residents but survives on commuter money.

As a third-year student here, I can say with authority that campus crowdedness has never been worse.

You see it everywhere – parking lots, shuttles, eating spaces, computer labs. While this means that, yes, UH has become an in-demand university, it signifies a terrible truth: it is stuffed beyond capacity – beyond capability. Our campus was simply not designed to hold this many people. UH can build, rebuild and renovate all it wants, but our space remains finite.

Sadly, this is not what people like a university president want to hear. The president would rather hear about expansion and record enrollments, as if these things alone signify an “elite” university.

Rather, what makes a university “elite” is its attentiveness to its students, its efforts to make their college experiences as rich and stress-free as possible. The logic is simple: the more students you have, the less attention you can give to individuals.

The university refuses to consider the disastrous effects that parking, food lines and crowded computer labs have on our in-class performance.

This all begs the pivotal question: “Why would our amazing university allow itself to over-enroll, to over-expand, to over-populate?”  Money.

Why else would our university sell more parking permits than there are actual parking spaces? Why else would our university charge $100 for a parking permit that costs less than a buck to make? Why else would our university consistently raise tuition and fees in the face of economic plight? Money.

Unfortunately, for us students, the solution to our problem of over-population – lowering the enrollment cap – is not revenue-friendly. The university has clearly decided that our daily hardships mean little compared to higher revenue.

Compare the enrollment differences between UH and the “public ivies” that it tries so hard to emulate: North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Virginia, Berkeley, et al.

What President Khator and regents remain blind to is that UH’s essence is both incompatible and incomparable to a public ivy’s. Besides being residential campuses, public ivies do not allow themselves to balloon to UH’s size. Public ivies know that, in the end, this hurts their students. Accordingly, they put their students above their revenue.

The good news?

It is not too late for UH to roll back its enrollment cap to a more practical number. This would be great for multiple reasons: [1] smaller class sizes will result in stronger student performance – because of more individual attention; [2] students will  have more time to be students – that is, more time to study instead of dealing with the delays of over-population; [3] since students will not have to plan on arriving early for parking, they’ll be able to study and rest more on the nights before classes, which will result in better attentiveness and performance; [4] and of course, a lower cap on enrollment would raise the quality of students admitted to UH.

These are only some tangible benefits. Reform is still possible. Until then, UH’s belly grows fatter and fatter – and the belt is about to pop.

By: Edward Garza

Edward Garza is third-year English student at the University of Houston – Main campus. Want to voice your opinion? Email editorinchief@uhelgato.com with your OP/ED.

Homosexuality and same-sex marriage contribute to the breakdown of the family unit and violate the natural structure of marriage established by God.

One doesn’t have to be an evangelical Christian to recognize that gay marriage should not be legally sanctioned in Texas or any other state in this country.

An article in the Weekly Standard described how the advent of authorized gay unions in Scandinavian countries is destroying the institution of marriage, where half of today’s children are born out of wedlock.

It is impossible to deny that gay marriage causes the decay of families.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Social scientists have been warning that if this fractured family problem continues, there will be many kids with several “moms” and “dads,” six or eight “grandparents” and dozens of “half-siblings.”

Is there a problem with the decay of families and a fractured family unit?

Yes, psychologists contend that a union between a man and woman in which both spouses serve as good gender role models is the best environment in which to raise well-adjusted children.

Sadly, the breakdown of the family unit is not the only problem.

Civil rights activists who are in favor of same-sex marriage argue that no one has the right to vote on someone else’s marriage or interfere with someone else’s happiness.

If legal marriage between homosexuals continues to expand to other states, the family will consist of little more than someone’s interpretation of “rights”.

Allowing homosexuals to marry will open the door for those who think they have the “civil right” to get married to more than one person because that makes them “happy” and “doesn’t hurt anybody”.

Same-sex marriage will spread quickly to other states if Texas were to authorize gay marriage because of its standing as one of the most conservative states in the union.

It is important to clarify that to be against same-sex marriage is not hatred or discrimination towards homosexuals. It is the refusal to accept their immoral attitudes and actions.

If the Bible, history, psychology and nature all argue for marriage being between a man and a woman—why is there such a controversy today?

By: Kate Rodriguez

Opposing viewpoint:
  Gay marriage in Texas: A way to a more fair democracy

 
Opinions expressed in these articles are not intended to represent The Venture editorial policy and do not necessarily reflect the views of our staff, board of directors or supporters.

If the University of Houston wishes to maintain its Tier One status, it must join the other 500 universities in our nation by establishing a smoke free campus.

The current policy merely of prohibiting smoking within a 25-foot radius from any entrance has proven itself impractical and ineffective.

Are police expected to patrol the premises with measuring tape to discover those who may have forgotten that they were standing too closely to the building? Aren’t ashtrays conveniently located just 5 feet from entrances? Let’s be realistic. Laws limiting smoking will never effectively address this issue as would completely eliminating it.

The U.S. Surgeon General, the nation’s leading spokesperson on public health, has continuously reported that there is absolutely no level of safe exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS).

SHS has been classified as a “known human carcinogen” by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization. It contains a minimum of 172 toxic substances, including three regulated outdoor air pollutants, 33 hazardous air pollutants, 47 chemicals restricted as hazardous waste and 67 known carcinogens.

Every day we make an effort to limit our exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays by wearing protective clothing and sun block. When we have our x-rays taken, we wear protective lead jackets to prevent the radiation from permeating our bodies.

If we express such ardent concern when our health is endangered in these situations, then why don’t we make the same effort to protect ourselves from carcinogenic SHS?

Oddly, the large majority of nonsmokers feel as if smokers posses the unalienable right to smoke wherever they wish regardless of the fact they are indirectly jeopardizing the health of their fellow students, faculty and staff.  Each time we inhale the toxic substances consisting of but not limited to rat poisons, pesticides and carbon monoxide, the heart suffers immediate harmful effects and the risk of lung cancer increases.

Many willing to submit themselves to hazardous consequences, have suggested designated smoking areas. This resolution will only concentrate the toxic substances.

Eradicating an environment that permits smoking will assist those battling nicotine addictions and will inevitably improve their health. Another perk includes the reduction of exposing their loved ones to the poisons, as SHS exposure can cause ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma in children.  They could even save the thousands of dollars each year normally spent on cigarettes, alleviating the amount of loans needed for tuition and fees at the university. Furthermore, we would be advancing the agenda of GreenUH. Let’s do this the easy way and make UH smoke free. It’s time that we exercise our right to life.

Let’s prove that we genuinely care for the well-being of our faculty, students, staff and environment.

By: Josie Cesar

The following personal story is from an undocumented student, a Dreamer, whom attends college in Houston and is finally speaking out to help others in her situation.

After a long year of fighting against cancer, my mom finally won the battle despite what the doctors said. She now has to undergo treatment for the rest of her life, but we can happily say that she’s cancer free.

My mom wanted to start a new life and experience something different to forget about the devastating illness that imprisoned her for a year. My parents decided that we should live in the U.S. for two years. That would be enough time for my siblings and I to learn English and for my mom to fully recover.

My family and I arrived here on tourist visas in 2005. I enrolled in Houston for my freshman year of high school. It was a very difficult yet interesting year in my life in which I learned a new language, met new people and learned about different cultures.

By the end of my sophomore year, I received recognition for being a honor roll student and for having perfect attendance. My mother was very healthy and everything was fine, but the two years that my family had planned to stay here had ended. My siblings and I were used to living here and we loved school; we didn’t want to leave. My parents realized that in this country we would receive a better education so they decided to prolong our stay.

During my junior year, I became part of the National Honor Roll; I proudly say that my name and my picture are in the National Honor Roll Book of 2008.

In 2009, I applied to the University of Houston while being in the top five of my class with a 4.0 GPA. I was automatically accepted and I also became a member of a program for students in academic achievement.

Now, at the age of 19, I am in my sophomore year of college and I have many plans for the future. Since I was brought here as a child, my plans and goals are in this country. However, there is a problem, I came here on a tourist visa and I’m “illegal”. This is starting to interfere with my dreams and goals. There are many things that I lack: a license, a good job, the opportunity of applying to scholarships or internships because of my legal status, complete freedom and many others. That is why I’ve become a Dreamer.

The DREAM Act will change my life by giving me the opportunity to obtain the things that I want and to be able to give more to this country. I’ve given my best to this country and I want to continue that way.