For Authors_For Subscribers_For Librarians_For SocietiesFor Advertisers

Home | About Us | Contact Us | Site Map | FAQs

journal home
 
Services for Readers
Services for authors
Customer Services


July 2004, Volume 2, Number 2, Pages 210-230
Table of contents   Previous  Article  Next   PDF
Article
"Wise Up!" Undocumented Latino Youth, Mexican-American Legislators, and the Struggle for Higher Education Access
Hinda Seif1

1University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

The successful struggle for California's Assembly Bill 540 (AB 540), which waives out-of-state tuition for undocumented California youth who attend public higher education institutions, challenges two assumptions: that legislators only serve citizen voters and that legislative activists are adult citizens. It points to the significance of youth and educational struggles in 20th century Latino politics, which has responded to demographic and political change by incorporating undocumented youth. The author discusses the historical trajectory of Latino educational struggles through the experiences of legislative professionals from working class backgrounds. She introduces a Los Angeles-based youth group called Get Smart!* that organized in support of AB 540 and includes undocumented members. The fight for AB 540 united Latino citizen professionals with undocumented youth and suggests channels to confront the global tragedy of the undocumented raised on the borderlands of the nation-state.

*This organizational name is a pseudonym to protect the confidentiality of its members.

Latino Studies (2004) 2, 210-230. doi:10.1057/palgrave.lst.8600080

Keywords

undocumented migration; education; Proposition 187; California; adolescence; legislative politics

Table of contents   Previous  Article  Next   PDF