New Scholarship for Dream Act Students

From Left to Right: Filiberto Gonzalez, CSUN Student, CSUN DREAM Center Coordinator Dario Fernandez, and CSUN Student

The day after the presidential election, my heart was heavy, as if a loved one had died. In the days and weeks that followed, I could not stop thinking about the people for whom its outcome was not simply a political debate, but rather, a serious threat.

While I do not know many undocumented people, I do know their struggle. I have seen people who were once undocumented and lived in constant fear go on to become naturalized U.S. citizens and live out their full potential as professionals in teaching, business, and the law. I also know that parents who are undocumented have the same hopes and dreams for their children as I do for mine.

Ultimately, like many of you, I decided to resist the forthcoming Trump administration and honor my ancestors by building a just future for all.

To this end, I have created the Elia Torres Scholarship Fund at my alma mater, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), now the largest public university in California, for undocumented students with special consideration for students who were raised by a single parent or were unaccompanied minors. We will award the first scholarship in Spring 2017. The scholarship will build on the legacy of AB 540, authored by the late-Assemblyman Marco A. Firebaugh in 2001, and is open to all undergraduate and graduate students who do not qualify for federal financial aid due to their undocumented status.

I named this scholarship in honor of the most fearless person I have ever known, my mother Elia Torres. Thanks to the need for agriculture workers in Salinas, California, my mother and her siblings were provided fast entry into the U.S. from Mexico in the late 1960s. While she did not have to worry about her legal status, she was a single mother at a time when it was still very uncommon. Often, she would face ridicule by those around her who would wonder aloud how could she handle, let alone raise, two boys are her own. The multiple challenges she faced notwithstanding, she raised my brother and me in Salinas – as well as cared for her mother until she passed away in 1988 and her disabled brother until his passing in 2013 – on a modest salary. As teenagers, my brother and I wanted to stay out late with older boys who were getting into trouble; true to form, my mother found us in the streets and shamed us before demanding we get in the car. It worked – we did not go back, and would go on to become the first in our extended family to graduate from college.

The Elia Torres Scholarship Fund is a tribute to my mother and her indomitable spirit, as well as a call to action to fellow CSUN alumni and all people of conscience to do something meaningful in defense of vulnerable populations. Let us echo the words heard around the world for generations during times like these: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

If you would like to join me, please make a donation to the fund in any amount. Go to https://givenow.csun.edu, and add “Elia Torres Scholarship” under ‘Special Instructions.’

Lastly, my best wishes to you and yours for a happy holiday season.

Yours In Service, Filiberto Gonzalez

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