Mural In San Francisco Addresses Plight Of Excluded DREAMers

Today a mural in San Francisco, CA was set to be unveiled that addresses the plight of immigrants in general, and their children often caught in the middle as the result of immigration policy in particular. The project is part of 67 Sueños, a group we wrote about previously, named for the 67% of undocumented youth who would not benefit from the DREAM Act in its current form.

Pablo Paredes helped organize the group and the mural and said the youth involved in the group assisted in conceiving, executing and planning for the unveiling today. He said the concept for the mural was taken from interviews with many of the youth, they learned how to paint murals to get the work done, and will continue to be involved with the group and the ideals expressed in the mural moving forward.

The group’s website also launched today and the long-term goal of the group is to change the conversation around the lives led by these young people, but also organize around the immigrant rights movement to include youth who “don’t fit the exceptionalist narrative by going to college,” but contribute to their communities in other ways, Paredes told News Taco.

“The mural itself is a major storytelling project in keeping with what we do. We wove in a lot of stories that are relevant to our 67% critique,” Paredes told us.

For example, three figures in the mural include José Antonio Gutiérrez, the first person to die in the most recent Iraq war, who was an immigrant. Then there’s María Isabel Vásquez, a 17 year-old farmworker who died of heat exhaustion while pregnant when she wasn’t allowed a break. Finally there’s Manuel Jamines, a Guatemalan day laborer shot and killed by police, likely because he didn’t speak English or Spanish.

Then there are images of people finding their way out of the shadows, Paredes said, including a young woman with a camera, one with a bullhorn, the idea of resistance and hope and progress.

“A big statement across the top of the mural in big, bold text is that ‘No human being is illegal y cada uno tiene un sueño,’ and that’s bilingual on purpose. Migrant youth navigate two worlds, they bounce back and forth, and both should be admitted,” he said.