Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Liberación Juice honors hunger strikers' D.R.E.A.M.
- Victoria Bouloubasis
- Zulayka Santiago creates D.R.E.A.M. juice for local hunger strikers.
Wednesday marked the ninth day of a hunger strike for three young women fighting for their dream: a right to higher education and a path to citizenship. ( their blog)
The women are camping out near Sen. Kay Hagan's Raleigh office, refusing to eat until the senator co-sponsors the DREAM Act. The legislation would provide a pathway to citizenship for those whose parents brought them to the United States illegally when they were younger than 15 years old.
Moved by their efforts, Zulayka Santiago of Liberación Juice Station donated two gallons of fresh-made tonic to the girls last week.
"I put a lot of love into these,” Santiago told me. "I wanted to show solidarity." She added wishes of strength and resilience.
- Courtesy of Justin Valas for NC Dream Team
- Liberación Juice shows solidarity at Durham Farmers Market.
She named one of those tonics "D.R.E.A.M.", a nourishing combination of lemon balm, nettles, lemon verbena, lemongrass, orange blossom and agave nectar. In solidarity, Santiago served the inspired juice off her brightly colored bus at the Durham Farmers Market last Saturday.
This afternoon at the site, I noticed the girls still had an almost half-full glass gallon of their namesake tonic, left to be savored between their "meals" of Gatorade and Pedialyte.
"Zulayka's juice really soothes my tummy," one of the girls said.
A bipartisan bill, The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act offers undocumented youth meeting certain requirements a right to equal higher education and a conditional path to citizenship. It is currently backed by 39 senators, and was also backed by late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The hunger strikers, ages 25, 23 and 22, were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents and share a struggle with 1.5 million undocumented youth with no conditional path to citizenship. For more on the strike, read Bob Geary's Indy Citizen blog post.
Comments (3)
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Raphael,
You are a criminal. You are here illegally. Apply for citizenship and follow the legal process. You can DREAM all you want and your DREAMs will come through if you follow the rule of law. You state "...America needs to gives us a chance, we are Americans in every facet..." You might be an "American", because you come from North America. BUT you are NOT a citizen of the United States and therefore are a criminal.
How would you like it if I broke into your house, ate your food, used your medical benefits, used your money, and then complained when you wanted to kick me out of your house?
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I am astounded to see thousands of youth leaders taking up the challenge to better America, while the so called leaders ignore them. The DREAM Act is the first step to fixing our immigration system. Its is irrational to deny the talented youth of America their right to dream. They are smartest, dedicated and determined individuals in the nation.
They graduate high school with such promise, but its promise that’s all. Some are lucky and pursue a college education. Many become professionals, but they are reduced to hard labor in order to survive. Pick onions under the hot Arizonan sun, frame houses with mechanical engineering degrees. America' greatness was not founded on this. I listen every night on talk shows, don't they understand they are illegal. I ask them do you understand the harshness of reality outside the US. Don't you understand the adversity that DREAM students face?
We DREAMers as we call ourselves can't wait any longer for politicians to decide on our futures. Many of my friends have either moved back to their birth countries or were deported or on the process of deportation. America needs to gives us a chance, we are Americans in every facet. We are Americans; we know the language, the culture, the history, obey the laws, and embody everything great that forged the United States of America.
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