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I use two identities that are supposed to make me weak and empower myself. As an undocumented person, I am seen as a criminal. As a queer person, I am seen as somebody who is going to go to hell. So how do you turn that [around]? For me, through the art, I turn that [around] by showing ourselves in dignified ways that embrace the terms that make us feel like we are less than human. At the end of the day, they are just words that do not define us as human beings. (Julio Salgado)
In early 2011, I was supervising an undergraduate research assistant from Chicago, a young woman who grew up in a Mexican immigrant family and had close friends and relatives who were undocumented. She was helping me to study immigrant youth activism, especially their activist groups, websites, and blogs. One day, she came in breathless and very excited to show me a new series of videos available on YouTube that were being circulated among her friends. These short "Undocumented and Awkward" clips depicted the daily lives, dilemmas, and contradictions of being a member of the undocumented 1.5 generation with both drama and humor. Non-professional and undocumented actors enacted the mundane scenarios that they faced in their lives, from the awkward situation of dating a US citizen and trying to explain why they can't drive, to dealing with homophobic comments at an immigrant rights youth meeting. These videos quickly captured the attention and imagination of young undocumented immigrants and their peers, and spread virally through networks and communities.
I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing a co-founder of the Dreamers Adrift collective that produced these videos, "artivist" Julio Salgado. Salgado visited the University of Illinois at Springfield to lead a discussion about coming out as LGBTQ and undocumented for the 2013 Day of Silence, a youth-run national day of action to protest the silencing of LGBTQ people. Salgado is involved in multiple initiatives and has a growing national profile. This includes appearing on the 25 June 2012 cover of Time Magazine along with other undocumented activists, being named Latino Voz of the Year by Cuéntame Latino network, and numerous exhibits of his art. Yet like many young undocumented activists,...