Neither Here Nor There (work in progress)
By way of the California DREAM Act, Blanca, a 19-year old Mexican immigrant from Querétaro who was brought to the United States as a child by her two undocumented parents in 2001, is part of a new generation of young, undocumented immigrants, or DREAMers, that has been given an opportunity by the California government to integrate into society by way of qualifying for in-state tuition and financial aid opportunities within the public university system.
Raised primarily in Bakersfield by her two parents, a gardner and an agricultural worker, Blanca is now attending UC Berkeley in hopes of one day becoming a doctor. While her roots are planted in her family and her Mexican community back home, Blanca is now stepping into new territories with opportunities to grow, integrate, and move upwards. While Blanca is safe from deportation, as she qualified for relief from deportation in 2011 due to a presidential executive order known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), as well as her 9 year old sister who was born in California, the future is uncertain for their parents.
Although "DREAMers", undocumented youth who were brought to the United States as children by their parents, have been a hot topic in the media, their undocumented families and communities are often unspoken of, essentially combing over their sacrifices and hard work. With no comprehensive immigration reform in sight yet on a national scale, her parents, along with 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, are left in the shadows waiting for a solution one day to appear.
It is estimated that every year, 90,000 parents of within mixed-status families are deported, fragmenting families and placing youth in emotionally traumatic and vulnerable situations. While there is hope in Blanca’s situation, her family lives under a vulnerable state of existence that could potentially destroy their American dream, their family, and the roots they have planted by settling in the United States.
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I have been shooting this project for the greater part of 2013. While I am based as a freelance photographer and cinematographer in New York City, shooting for various outlets and working on daily assignments, I have this part of me that always wants to be back in California with Blanca and her family. I travel to see them every couple months to check on them and to continue documenting their lives. When I started this project Blanca was just beginning to get to know Berkeley and her surroundings on campus. She has since begun to come into her own. She has this inexplicable love for her family, and my goal has always been to try and show that bond through an intimate portrait of the family and her community in Bakersfield, CA. My aim is to take this quiet story and present it as a symbol for what so many mixed-status families are living through. While California is indeed a safe haven for many undocumented immigrants, unlike so many other states with harsh, unwelcoming laws, the fear of deportation and an uncertain future still looms. I want to continue to document their story as the country is debating and hopefully moving closer to passing comprehensive immigration reform in 2014, and to contextualize their story within the greater framework of what it means to be rooted and undocumented in the United States.
