Everythings political_Episode 02_v0.4
[00:00:00] Junius Williams: If you had to give a shout out to the people at the wall, what would you say to them? 
[00:00:08] Leslie Lopez: That I think they're so, so brave and so courageous to be doing that. No, like whatever reason that they have for doing so, I think it's so brave and something that I don't think I would have the guts for.
[00:00:30] Junius Williams: Hello, this is Everything's Political, and I'm your host, Junious Williams, my co host. Francesca Larson from Mosaic Strategies. And today we're going to be talking about, is the U. S. immigration system fair to all seekers for asylum, or we could shortcut it and say, where do you stand? And these young ladies say, well, I don't know anything particular about a wall because uh, both of them live here, but they have parents who did not.
[00:01:08] Junius Williams: And so I'm going to introduce you to, uh, Leslie Lopez. Hello. And to Brianna Batista. Hello. So, Francesca, we're going to be talking about this. Yes. Uh, this is a timely topic because, uh, everybody. In America has heard the word immigration and immigration policy at least, uh, 15 times a day. Uh, our elected officials argue about it, uh, your next door neighbor might argue about it, people walking downtown Newark.
[00:01:45] Junius Williams: You certainly will not see who you used to see 25, 30 years ago, certainly not 50 years ago when I got here. That's why we wanted to find out what these young people think, as you know. This time, we are focusing On the question, if everything's political, what do young people think? And this is certainly a politically hot topic.
[00:02:11] Junius Williams: So, how you doing? 
[00:02:13] Brianna Batista: I'm well, 
[00:02:13] Junius Williams: how are you? Fine, thank you. Where do you work? 
[00:02:17] Brianna Batista: We both work at La Casa Don Pedro in Newark. Um, we're both senior counselors. So that's how you got here. 
[00:02:27] Junius Williams: Yes. How about 
[00:02:28] Leslie Lopez: you? What do you do? I'm also a senior counselor. So I it's part of the after school program where we basically take care we pick up kids from their respective schools and we take them to the building and we kind of We help them with their homework.
[00:02:47] Leslie Lopez: We do activities with them as their parents come pick them up 
[00:02:53] Brianna Batista: We also give them, um, um, their meal. But there's a lot of different, uh, departments at La Casa. Like many, there's a lot. I think there's like everything at La Casa. Such as? There's, there's this other building for, Um, classes like for English classes, there's a whole building for English class as well as there's they host a lot of farmers markets, which we went, we worked out one of the farmers markets.
[00:03:26] Brianna Batista: I think I like the farmers market because there's a lot of like, I think everyone. It goes there, and they have activities for kids as well. 
[00:03:36] Leslie Lopez: That's 
[00:03:36] Brianna Batista: very nice. Um, yeah. 
[00:03:38] Junius Williams: I'm going to start out by asking you about your parents, because you both were born in the United States. Correct? Yes. So, Brianna, where did your parents 
[00:03:51] Brianna Batista: come from?
[00:03:52] Brianna Batista: My parents came from Peru. And they came here at different times, about like a two year difference, but they both came from Peru. 
[00:03:59] Junius Williams: Mm hmm. And how about you, Leslie? 
[00:04:02] Leslie Lopez: Um, so my mom, my dad, and my brother were all born in Mexico. My dad moved here first, and my mom followed afterwards with my older brother. 
[00:04:14] Junius Williams: Why did your parents 
[00:04:17] Brianna Batista: My mom, her reasons were for top reasons, always saying that she came for her mom because her family was very poor and improve at the time.
[00:04:28] Brianna Batista: In the 80s, there was a lot of terrorism. So there wasn't safe in Peru. Um, food was scarce. There wasn't that people had to make lines for food. And there were times where you would make the line and then you wouldn't get any food, just stuff, stuff like that. She was always scared of living there, so she came here.
[00:04:49] Brianna Batista: And my dad, because of the terrorism, he couldn't, what could take two years for him to finish school, it was already seven years and he had still many years. to go since he always had to cancel class, since class was always canceled and the terrorist group would go into their classrooms. So that was also, that was his reason why also he came to America.
[00:05:15] Brianna Batista: How 
[00:05:15] Junius Williams: hard was it to get here? 
[00:05:17] Brianna Batista: There, when they tell me their story that I sometimes can't believe. Cause when I see my mom, she's very nervous and, um, anxious that. Like, like bugs will scare her, so whenever she would tell me her story of how she came, what she went through, I sometimes can't believe, like, that she was able to go through all of that.
[00:05:40] Brianna Batista: And my dad as well, their stories. That's taken, it took them so long to get here, and they've gone through so many, so much like violence when they were coming. 
[00:05:53] Francesca Larson: When did they start telling you the story? When did you, how old were you when you fully started to understand? 
[00:06:00] Brianna Batista: When, well, growing up when I was little, I, everyone around me, they were Hispanic, so I never really thought about, um, Like, how they came here, I kind of just, everyone was Hispanic around me, so I never questioned it until I went to school.
[00:06:19] Brianna Batista: And some, I, I like, realized that some kids, their parents aren't immigrants. So I asked my parents how they came here. And they, that's when they would, they wouldn't, they didn't tell me their whole story at first. When I got older is when they started to tell me more. But they start off by telling me that they weren't from here.
[00:06:40] Junius Williams: And where are you in 
[00:06:42] Brianna Batista: school? I go to Rutgers University. I'm a 
[00:06:45] Junius Williams: sophomore. What are you going to, what are you going to be when you, quote unquote, grow up? 
[00:06:50] Brianna Batista: I hope I'll be living lavish with my dogs. And having dinner parties with my friends. And have an impact and be able to help my family. What kind of 
[00:07:07] Francesca Larson: food are you serving at these dinner parties?
[00:07:09] Brianna Batista: Oh, I don't know. Like, Thanksgiving parties, or Christmas parties. Just, everyone brings whatever they want to bring, or I'll just make whatever they want me to make. 
[00:07:21] Junius Williams: What about you, Leslie? What's your parent's story? 
[00:07:26] Leslie Lopez: My parents, uh, they're really sensitive about the topic, so they haven't really fully opened up to me about it.
[00:07:33] Leslie Lopez: But from what they've told me, uh, they didn't really live in a very rich neighborhood. They lived a little bit in a poorer neighborhood. So, like, uh, food and, like, income, like, it was very low for them, and my parents had my brother at a very young age. My mom was just 18 when she had him, so it was more difficult for her because she had to leave school, and she didn't have as much help to help raise my brother.
[00:08:05] Leslie Lopez: So my dad He wanted a better future for my brother. He wanted him to grow up to be something more than he could himself be He didn't want him to live a life like that. So that's why he decided to move here and then Originally, he wanted to move here and earn money so he could send back to them But my mom, she, she didn't like that, so she was like, no, I'm going to go with you.
[00:08:34] Leslie Lopez: So she packed her bags, she took my brother and she moved here to follow him. And yeah. I feel like that's a very 
[00:08:42] Francesca Larson: common story and a common challenge of does a family stay together. Um, as they immigrate to find, uh, more opportunities or more stability, um, it's very interesting that your mom made the decision to, to come.
[00:09:04] Francesca Larson: It sounds like that might be probably something that's carried through in who you are as well. 
[00:09:10] Leslie Lopez: She's very courageous. I admire her for that. 
[00:09:15] Junius Williams: Sounds like my grandmother on my father's side. Oh really? Uh, families from Danville, Virginia. And, uh, things were hard for black people in Danville, Virginia. Well, things were hard for black people all over, still are.
[00:09:31] Junius Williams: But especially at that time. And she told my grandfather, uh, I'm going to New Jersey. And he said, uh, well, I don't want to go to New Jersey. She said, well, do you go or not? I'm going to New Jersey. Uh, well, he eventually came to New Jersey, and they lived in Atlantic City. A step up for everybody, I believe.
[00:09:52] Junius Williams: That's where my, my father grew up. I asked you about this program called DACA, which was made for young people. whose parents came illegally, but they've been here for most of their lives, or just about all of their lives. And so there was a window and an opportunity for them to get there. But, uh, as I, as I've found, and I keep reaching down here for this paper because I want to get the right title on it, but there was an article in the L.
[00:10:19] Junius Williams: A. Times that I went over with you. Immigration policies leave lives in limbo. And from that news article, what did you discover? And is there some application that you know about? I 
[00:10:34] Leslie Lopez: knew about it, uh, when I read the article. I, I thought it was so unfortunate that there were sister, twin sisters, how one sister was able to, You know, be a part of DACA, and then the other sister wasn't unfortunately being able to, even if she sent the application one day afterwards, like, that's so Unfortunate, like, that would break my heart, like, it's just one day, like, you were so close, yet, like, you don't get the opportunities that your sister does.
[00:11:03] Leslie Lopez: Um, I thought it was so sad, like, her sister was able to have a life that she could have also had, but she wasn't able to. And I just, I don't, I just think it's so unfortunate for the other sister. 
[00:11:18] Junius Williams: What are you missing out on if you don't get that piece of paper that says you're documented? 
[00:11:28] Leslie Lopez: I think you lose a lot of opportunities, like education, work.
[00:11:34] Leslie Lopez: I think with DACA, let's say you want to go to a better college. A lot of people, they don't have the money to go to these colleges. And so some of the scholarships that are available, they're not available to people who don't, who don't have that kind of protection. So they lose out on a lot of opportunities and offers that other kids their age have.
[00:11:55] Leslie Lopez: So I think that's one thing as well. So, 
[00:11:58] Junius Williams: you mean that if you come here with your parents and you're two years old, and you only know America, you can't get the opportunities that America offers? Is that what they're saying? Mm hmm.
[00:12:20] Junius Williams: You nodding your head? 
[00:12:21] Brianna Batista: Yeah, I'm just thinking of, like, just that one piece of paper. makes such a difference, and they both come from the same household, yet only one of them got all the benefits, and the other is still struggling. 
[00:12:36] Junius Williams: She couldn't get a job. All the jobs that she gets are kind of low paying, maybe even under the table, cash instead of a check, no social security number.
[00:12:49] Junius Williams: Mm hmm. 
[00:12:51] Francesca Larson: What is always interesting to me in these moments is we're talking about paper, and paper that is needed to define personhood, it seems, that in order to be a person, in order to be seen as a full person, you have to have this piece of paper, and I think about my family and, um, the different stories of immigration and also how folks came to the U.
[00:13:18] Francesca Larson: S., um, under force, that Um, personhood is still very much part of that story, is at what point do we start to see everybody as people? Um, and I'm wondering, as you all think about immigration, especially as folks who are, I will admit a little bit younger than I am. I used to be the young person in the room.
[00:13:43] Francesca Larson: I am no longer the young person in the room. Um, we don't have the same kind of geography boundaries anymore. You can message and call somebody anywhere in the world at any point in time, but all of a sudden you cross. You cross the border, you go, uh, find a way around a wall and now we have these very clear boundaries of these are the opportunities you have while you're here.
[00:14:11] Francesca Larson: What do you all think about that? What do you think about this idea that your rights, your opportunities change depending on where you live in the world or what paper you have? Does that make us less of people? Do, is it right? What? What do you think the future looks like 
[00:14:31] Brianna Batista: there? I think, um, that it's sad that just a piece of paper has so much meaning, or just has so much respect, while a person doesn't have that same respect.
[00:14:44] Brianna Batista: And It's just, I, whenever I think about other people who don't have their papers, it, it's like, there's a lot of, I forgot how to say it, like, the Say 
[00:14:58] Francesca Larson: it how it feels right, and then we can figure it out. Okay, 
[00:15:01] Brianna Batista: um, that, I just think it's crazy how paper has so much meaning, that one paper. That's, I don't know how much to say.
[00:15:10] Francesca Larson: Yeah, it, it is interesting because like, do you have more power, are you more of a person here if you have that paper versus somebody else? I don't know. Does it? From your experience in being in spaces where folks are documented, some folks are documented and some folks aren't documented, does it, does it feel like the opportunities aren't the same or does it feel like the folks kind of see that difference 
[00:15:44] Brianna Batista: between folks?
[00:15:45] Brianna Batista: I think people can definitely see the difference. Someone can have so much more knowledge yet that paper Holds them to a disadvantage, and someone else who, let's say, was born here just has their papers. They don't have the same, they just have more advantages than other people. Even though everyone is still very intelligent and they, everyone has that ambition to do something.
[00:16:18] Junius Williams: Well, we're talking about unfairness because apparently some people don't have as much trouble getting that paper. Uh, it depends upon where they come from in the world. There was a poll in that L. A. Times article that we've been referring to. And the poll taken showed that, uh, only a few people who were of Latino descent Thought that the immigration policy was fair for the whole seeking asylum, but, uh, 90% of the Europeans think it's fair.
[00:16:51] Junius Williams: Do you, have you detected a, a difference in the policy of who gets in and who can't come in? 
[00:17:00] Leslie Lopez: I think the process of coming to America is a lot. harder now. Like, in one of the articles, it was saying how, like, almost, I think, 1 percent of people that come in, like, are able to come in. I think that's, um, unbelievable that only 1 percent of people were able to come in.
[00:17:22] Junius Williams: But it seems that people from, um, Europe are much more represented in that 1%, if that's the figure that it is, as opposed to people Who come from south of the American border. What's up with that? There's a story to be told. 
[00:17:45] Brianna Batista: Well, I know from when my family, and from when I go to see my family in Peru, it's, I've been to Peru and I've also been to Spain, and the difference there, it's, when I go to Peru it's a lot more unsafe than it is in Spain.
[00:18:02] Brianna Batista: So I think that, Maybe in Europe, they don't see how dangerous it is. Like, it's not as, it's not the same level of danger as it is in South America or Central America. In Europe, I felt a lot safer. than how I know other families are in Central America or South America. 
[00:18:27] Junius Williams: Your parents, I think you told me your mother, has her own business.
[00:18:32] Junius Williams: Yeah. How did she become a businesswoman? 
[00:18:36] Brianna Batista: When, she would always tell me that her, like, the desperation was so strong. That's, that was her biggest drive. And also, always thinking of her mom and her two nephews back in Peru. When she came. Um, she started working two jobs, and one of them being at a nail salon.
[00:18:57] Brianna Batista: And she eventually was getting more customers, and then she had my brother. And after she had my brother, my parents were like, oh, we should do something, um, more. Like, because they, the money that they had wasn't enough. So then my mom opened her own business. And I, I basically grew up in that nail salon, and everyone in that nail salon.
[00:19:23] Brianna Batista: They were also immigrants. So I, I grew up with them and their children as well. 
[00:19:32] Junius Williams: So your mother now has her own nail 
[00:19:34] Brianna Batista: salon business. Yeah, she's had the nail salon. I think 27 years. 
[00:19:42] Francesca Larson: I'm wondering how you find a way to, to talk about who you are and your identity, um, in a way that feels right for you without also sharing everything about your family, too.
[00:19:57] Brianna Batista: I, I try to talk more about the qualities that I have that my parents gave me, not as much as what They are like what we've gone through, which also like what we've gone through is a big part of who I am But yeah, I mostly talk about the qualities and things I've learned from My mom, my dad, my aunt, who were big role models in my life growing up.
[00:20:25] Brianna Batista: That's, I usually talk about that What are some of those qualities, do you think? Well, I grew up with mostly women. Love that. Yeah. In the nail salon. Yeah, in the nail salon. Such a great spot. I, I just grew up with mostly women, so I think the biggest thing they gave me was confidence and to always recognize that I, that like who I am, not, I think growing up, like my brothers, they, Didn't have the same like if we were to talk about it.
[00:21:00] Brianna Batista: I think my brothers would say oh like my dad The influence that he had on them was not the same as what my aunt and my grandma and my mom had with me. 
[00:21:14] Francesca Larson: The, the confidence that you're talking about. And also, it sounds like within the salon, maybe a sense of community that was built. And when you were talking about how, where you grew up, that, um, it, it felt like a community.
[00:21:31] Francesca Larson: It didn't feel like anybody was different 
[00:21:34] Brianna Batista: until you went to school. Yeah, when I went to school, that's when I I realized that it's a lot different, mostly because of teachers and not as much the students. 
[00:21:46] Francesca Larson: What were, and I'm sorry, now I'm curious about what the teachers said.
[00:21:55] Brianna Batista: Well, my teachers and like the faculty were Not immigrants, but the students, mostly all the students were first generation and a few of them I'm a were pot. We're probably immigrants as well Mm hmm, so that I feel like sometimes it felt like they had some kind of power over us not power, but maybe they Had a stereotype.
[00:22:21] Brianna Batista: Mm hmm, which was sad because we were so little and we're in school Like we didn't know any better 
[00:22:29] Francesca Larson: Yeah, that maybe this stigma that's surrounding and the stereotypes that are surrounding our conversations about immigration right now in this country are impacting kids in a classroom and the way that teachers view them and going back to that conversation of who gets to be real people, who gets to be full people.
[00:22:50] Francesca Larson: Um, I think about that with my kids all the time, too. I'm sorry, Junius. 
[00:22:53] Junius Williams: There's a, there's another topic that we talked about a little, a bit a little earlier, and this comes from two articles in the New York Times, uh, immigration families, uh, separated At the border, uh, in some cases, there's one case, this lady had her child and she got him, got the child back, uh, and I'm not so sure about the second one, but, uh, talk a little bit about that.
[00:23:21] Junius Williams: Leslie, let's start with you. 
[00:23:23] Leslie Lopez: Um, do you want me to tell, like, what happened to them? Well, you can, 
[00:23:27] Junius Williams: yeah, you can go over the facts in the case. 
[00:23:30] Leslie Lopez: Okay, um. 
[00:23:32] Francesca Larson: Do you guys know that Junius is also a lawyer? 
[00:23:35] Leslie Lopez: Yes. Yes. Yeah. We did a little research. Um, so basically this mother, she lived in Honduras, I believe, right? And she was living with her I think it was two children and she had a recently, well, she was pregnant during the time.
[00:23:56] Leslie Lopez: And there's these gangs that were coming to her house and her neighborhood basically, um, threatening her, telling her like, you either leave tomorrow or you'll see what. Will happen and she knows the kinds of like she knows that if she's she's there in the house by tomorrow She knows what would happen to her.
[00:24:16] Leslie Lopez: So she Like I've packed her bags everything that she owned. She only had around 80 in her name so her husband and her kids They left, and while I think they were in Mexico, they were in Puebla, uh, they were on this, I think it was this train, and these immigration officers, they came in, and they noticed that they came in, so the mother and her children, they kind of hid behind a bush, while the dad and the newborn child, she had the baby, so the newborn child, um She saw them running away in the opposite direction.
[00:24:56] Leslie Lopez: And so at that point she didn't, um, she didn't know what happened to them. So when She was at the border, I believe. Um, they were kind of rejecting her, telling her, like, no, you can't come in, or this and that, and when she asked, like, oh, when can I see my daughter, like, I want to know, like, who's taking care of her, like, is she okay?
[00:25:21] Leslie Lopez: Um, and they kind of were, like, saying, like, you can see her in a few months, you just have to pick, uh, fill out these forms. Kind of dismissing her. Uh, And it wasn't after a while that she was like, okay, I have to do something like, so I think she threatened to go to the press to talk about it until they finally agreed to let her see her baby.
[00:25:45] Leslie Lopez: And so what happened to the father that was that he was originally deported from the United States. And since he was trying to go back a second time, they had to send him to jail. And so. They ripped the child away from his arms and took her to like a shelter while the dad, um, went to jail. And the mother said that when she finally was able to see her child, like it was a, it was a hard time because she, she looked malnourished.
[00:26:16] Leslie Lopez: She had lice in her hair and everything. Like she just didn't look like she was properly treated. Um, and she said that it took a while for her to connect with her again because she was ripped away from her for, for such a young age. That she didn't even recognize her, and that she would be screaming for her dad, like, every night.
[00:26:35] Leslie Lopez: Um, when she had her. 
[00:26:39] Junius Williams: Yeah, I can see it. It kind of got 
[00:26:41] Leslie Lopez: to you. Yeah, when I was reading it, I was like, wow, like, that's so sad. Like, having a piece of you taken away from you, like, I can only, I can't even imagine what she was going through. Especially since she had, like, two other kids that she had to take care of.
[00:26:58] Leslie Lopez: Um, I can only imagine she had to be strong enough for those kids. Um, 
[00:27:05] Junius Williams: People don't see that. Because the news only flashes on numbers and there's all kinds of stories about who's coming across the border, as told by folks like ex president Trump, um, the human side of immigration. Why are people coming here?
[00:27:30] Brianna Batista: Well, they're coming here because it's so unsafe in, back in their home country and Because of money, they don't have money, and the danger of most, that most countries have gangs, that danger, that, like, when they're so desperate to, because of that. They don't have that safety, they come, they want to come here.
[00:27:56] Junius Williams: Do you think that United States policy towards XYZ company, country has something to do with that? All the money that goes for guns, let's say to Honduras or to Mexico, supposedly to involve, to engage in a war on drugs, do you think all of that has something to do with, uh, how people are treated and why they want to leave?
[00:28:23] Leslie Lopez: Well, 
[00:28:23] Brianna Batista: it just promotes more violence, there, more money for guns, more money for drugs. It's just, that would make the country even more unsafe. I agree, 
[00:28:36] Leslie Lopez: I think funding these kinds of, like, weapons and drugs, it just creates, um, a toxic environment. And I think it helps promote why people are starting to immigrate here, or, um, it just makes it unsafe for them.
[00:28:56] Leslie Lopez: In their own countries. 
[00:28:59] Junius Williams: Both of you are United States citizens. You got the paper. Yeah. But how do people treat you? 
[00:29:08] Brianna Batista: Uh, sometimes they have a stereotype or, or they just second guess. I remember once I was in school and, They would confuse me with ESL, like, one person confused me with an ESL kid. Tell us what ESL is.
[00:29:24] Brianna Batista: ESL is a program that I think all schools have for students who don't speak English. English Second Language, that's where they learn to speak English or they take their courses with someone who speaks Spanish. Um, I remember I would hear stuff about the ESL kids, like other students. Who's parents weren't immigrants.
[00:29:46] Brianna Batista: They would always have a stereotype towards ESL students and I remember I heard once something about how like it was like it was always during lunchtime that they would say stuff about ESL kids and I just thought it wasn't fair because like we all go to the same school. It wasn't necessary for them to say stuff 
[00:30:13] Leslie Lopez: I think growing up I didn't really see How much my ethnicity or my skin color affects me because I was I grew up in a very predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, so everybody around me was just like me, looked just like me.
[00:30:32] Leslie Lopez: Um, and my family never really talked to me about those kinds of things, so I never really noticed how much it affects me as a person. Um, It wasn't until I got to high school that I realized, like, oh, wow, like, I am different and not in a bad way, but in a good, like, I'm different, obviously. Um, my Let me talk about Kearney 
[00:31:01] Junius Williams: High School, 
[00:31:02] Brianna Batista: right?
[00:31:02] Brianna Batista: Yeah, Kearney 
[00:31:03] Leslie Lopez: High School. Um, my mom told me something when I was in high school that I didn't even notice. Uh So, uh, before I moved to New Jersey, I lived in Pennsylvania for two years. Uh, I moved like halfway into third grade and my whole fourth grade. Um, my brother, he went to high school at that time.
[00:31:27] Leslie Lopez: And in Pennsylvania, like, there wasn't a lot of, like, Hispanic people who lived there. It was more predominantly white. Um, so my mother told me that my During that time that we lived there. My brother was having a very difficult time settling in and Adopting to that environment and that he would get into constant fights with other kids because they would bully him about Where he came from like his skin color how he looked and I didn't realize how Much it affected my brother Compared to me.
[00:32:06] Leslie Lopez: I thought it was like, I was like, wow, like I didn't, I didn't even know that like, um, and I realized now how big, um, these stereotypes that are put onto us and other people of ethnicities and colors, skin tone, how much it affects them and how it's still relevant today. Mm hmm. Um, yeah.
[00:32:32] Junius Williams: So is it only. White people who have these stereotypes, or, uh, what's your relationship with black people? At Rutgers, at Kearney, or what's your history been? 
[00:32:44] Brianna Batista: Well, in Kearney, it wasn't, it was mostly Hispanic people there, and in Newark, I Like, my relationship that I have 
[00:32:56] Junius Williams: with Black people. So I was just wondering about your personal relationships.
[00:32:59] Junius Williams: Has that been colored by the fact that, that uh, your parents are immigrants and probably people think you are too?
[00:33:09] Brianna Batista: I don't think, like, it, it was. Sometimes it was even Hispanic people that had something to say as well, which is funny because Their, their parents are immigrants, or it would be like their child that would say something. But I would just think, oh, like, they don't, like, why would they say that even though their parents are immigrants?
[00:33:29] Brianna Batista: So I don't think it really was a specific community. It was just who, what they believed in. 
[00:33:39] Junius Williams: One more question, Francesca. What do you got for me? Oh, I get one more question? You do, and then I got one. 
[00:33:47] Francesca Larson: All right. Um, so, We've talked about a couple of different things about being full people, um, about the way that we tell the stories of our families.
[00:34:00] Francesca Larson: And so as you think about, um, what does it look like to throw lavish dinner parties? Um, and I don't know, what's the, what are you looking forward to in the future? Um, and then I'll ask a question, but I don't know what it is, I'm going to get a chance to 
[00:34:17] Leslie Lopez: share. Um, I hope to have a successful career and make something out of myself, so I can hopefully make my parents proud and show that their sacrifices that they made were worth it.
[00:34:32] Leslie Lopez: That's what I hope to do. 
[00:34:34] Francesca Larson: Well, my follow up question was going to be, what's the story that you want to be able to tell about your families and immigrants? Anything, anything else that you want to be able to share in the future? The, the story that you would want to tell? your potential friends or kids or extended family in the future about what does it mean to be, um, from a, an immigrant family in the U.
[00:35:03] Francesca Larson: S. What is, what the power of that 
[00:35:05] Leslie Lopez: is? I think that coming as a first generation, um, person, I think that It's a big struggle because thankfully I had my older brother who was able to help me With like education and stuff like he was able to like tell me like, oh you should do this You should do that to help yourself But I think a lot of kids don't have that kind of role model and I think it's harder for People like they don't know the opportunities that they're able to get.
[00:35:43] Leslie Lopez: Like it's something that you have to search for. So, yeah, I think that what I tell my kids, I don't want 
[00:35:54] Francesca Larson: to put having kids on you, 
[00:35:55] Brianna Batista: so 
[00:35:55] Leslie Lopez: that's your choice. That they should be proud that Or they should be, um, how should I say this, that the things that they have, they should be proud and they should be, um, what's the word?
[00:36:16] Leslie Lopez: Like they should be happy that they have these privileges and that they're able to do something with it because other kids, they don't have the kind of things that they have. 
[00:36:25] Junius Williams: Yeah. So let me ask you another way. Do you think you have a future? Yes, 
[00:36:33] Leslie Lopez: I 
[00:36:33] Brianna Batista: do. What 
[00:36:34] Junius Williams: do you think it's going to be? 
[00:36:35] Brianna Batista: What my future is going to be, I think.
[00:36:38] Brianna Batista: I just see calmness, like a calm life, peace, and just not very loud life. I don't know. I don't, I just hope it's a lot of peace in my future, not fighting or feeling bad about myself. 
[00:37:00] Junius Williams: Both of you, if you had to give a shout out to the people at the wall. In, uh, Texas slash Mexico, what would you say to them?
[00:37:13] Leslie Lopez: Mmm, that I think they're so, so brave and so courageous to be doing that. No, like whatever reason that they have for doing so, I think it's so brave and something that I don't think I would have the guts for. Um, Like, just dropping everything behind you and just trying to be, to get into this new place, a new better place for you and for your family.
[00:37:42] Leslie Lopez: I think it's so brave of them to be able to do that and go, especially if they're first, like, they don't know any English. I feel like just by not knowing any English, you already have this, like, stereotype put onto you. So I think it's very brave of them to do that. 
[00:38:01] Brianna Batista: I would say don't give up. I, like, you'll make it here.
[00:38:06] Brianna Batista: There's a lot of inspirational immigrants here. I think everyone, every parent, every immigrant parent here is inspirational, and whenever they feel bad, or my parents, they would tell me whenever they would feel bad or just, like, they were going through a hard time, they would just remember that, they would remember, like, their challenge that they went through and the difference.
[00:38:32] Brianna Batista: Of how they're living and how they would have been living if they stayed back at home. So I think they'll, just, they're very brave. Thank you. 
[00:38:43] Junius Williams: Thank you. for joining us. We enjoyed you, and you're going to be able to see this like everybody else on YouTube and on Spotify, and we'll talk to you the next time.
[00:38:58] Brianna Batista: Thank you. Thank you. 
[00:39:02] Junius Williams: Everything's Political Podcast is sponsored by the Center for Education and Juvenile Justice, and supported by the Terrell Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And listeners like you. It is produced by Mosaic Strategies and DreamPlay Media with theme music by Anthony Ant Jackson.
[00:39:26] Junius Williams: Like what you see in here? Then subscribe to Everything's Political Podcast on Spotify, YouTube, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Go ahead, push the red button. Thank you. See you next time and remember to stay political.