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December 1, 2014
THINK LIKE US
Mercury staffers pick the most memorable moments of 2014 >
Veteran's wall visit campus
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STILL DREAMING
UTD siblings reflect on living as undocumented immigrants in United States
Public pays tribute to Vietnam vets at traveling memorial replica, mobile center
CHRIS LIN | CONTRIBUTOR
Observers stood in still silence as the honor guard from a local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter performed the gun salute.
REBECCA TULL Contributor
A half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. was on display from Nov. 19-22 in front of the McDermott Library. The 250-foot exhibit, called The Wall That Heals, includes both the wall inscribed with more than 58,000 names and a mobile education center. An official opening ceremony for the wall took place on Nov. 21. The event had standing room only as veterans, their family members, supporters and students listened to Vietnam veterans describe their experiences in the conflict and the difficulties of transitioning back into civilian life. U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, the honorary guest of the event, began by reminding guests of the reality of the wall and the men and women whose memory the wall bears. “Events and memorials like this are important,” Johnson said. “They remind us of one very important fact: Freedom is not free. There is a cost. The cost is first paid by veterans and their families.” Accounts of the Vietnam War followed Johnson’s address. Veterans spoke of their comrades in battle and friends who were lost in combat. George Fair, dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and a Vietnam veteran, spoke of the lasting memories of his fellow soldiers.
“I will never forget the men who served with me, whose names are on the wall,” he said. These moments of commemoration and reflection are the reasons given by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in its mission statement for building the original memorial. The replica, in particular, serves this purpose. “I think it’s a good commemoration of it,” Fair said. “A lot of people have worked hard to try to commemorate the situation that took place in Vietnam.” The people who labored to honor those who fought in Vietnam also desired the commencement of conversations about the war. Through such conversations, people are able to make a distinction between the war and the men and women who fought in the war. “The fact of the war has come out and it was not a hugely popular war, so it’s never going to be a hugely popular war,” Fair said. “Our country decided it had a priority, so the people who fought the war were just following orders and following the priorities that our country set for them.” Angus McColl, vice president of Corporate Relations and organizer of the event, dispelled the idea that those who fought were primarily drafted and unhappy with the prospect of service. “There are about 3 million
→ SEE WALL, PAGE 12
INSIDE LIFE&ARTS British singer FKA twigs stops by Dallas for a spectacular performance
SPORTS Men's and women's assistant basketball coaches journey from playing to coaching
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YANG XI | CONTRIBUTOR
UTD alumna and employee Abigail Cortes (left) and her brother Elio Zapote (right) went from undocumented immigrants to DREAMers, leaving many worries behind as they continue forging their paths in the country they've lived in for nearly two decades. ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE Web Editor
It was Election Day in 2008 and Abigail Cortes and her mom were watching the election results. Both were upset that Cortes’ brother, Elio Zapote, had wanted to visit a friend at UTD that night instead of watching the results with them. Sometime that Tuesday evening the phone rang, and Cortes picked up. Zapote’s friend was frantic on the other end. “They’ve got him. They’ve got him,” the friend yelled. All of a sudden, their lives came to a standstill. UTD Police had stopped Zapote because a light on his license plate was out. When he couldn’t show a driver’s license, the officers arrested and detained him in the Richardson jail. Two days later, he was being fingerprinted at an Immigration and Customs
Enforcement detention center. Sitting in the ICE detention center, as officials fingerprinted him and asked him how and when he had crossed over the border, all Zapote could think of was how he didn’t want to be torn away from his family. He thought about what he would do if he found himself in Mexico without any idea of what to do there. “That’s when they said I was going to get deported,” Zapote said. He said that experience was perhaps the most traumatic experience in his life. “For something as stupid as a light, my freedom was taken away literally,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about it, and it’s frustrating that so many people have to go through this.” *** Zapote, now an accounting senior at UTD, and Cortes, program coordinator in the Office of Diversity, illegally crossed over the Mexico border in 1997 with
their mother. Zapote, who was 11 years old at the time, remembers when his mother decided to move. Their father had a family of his own, and there was nothing left for his mother and them in their little town. It was better for all of them to move north where there were more opportunities. “My mom didn’t know what she was getting into,” Cortes said. Cortes doesn’t remember much, except that they’d had to stay in Mexico City with an aunt for three days. Six-year-old Cortes had wondered if north meant Mexico City. On the third night, they traveled to the border. Cortes was upset that she had to chop off her long hair that ran down to her waist, because she was to pass off as a boy, she said. They were crossing over as a family, but the two children crossed over before their mother, Zapote said. They lost touch with their
mother for a whole day at the border before they finally found her and traveled to San Antonio and then to Dallas. The first six months were really hard on the family, Zapote said, and he had resented the move back then. Their mother was working two jobs, they didn’t know anybody and he had to care for his sister. They would go to school and struggle because there were only two other Hispanic children. “The whole language barrier was a major factor in us trying to make a living,” Zapote said. “Little by little we learned the language, and we pulled through.” Now, he can’t imagine being deported to Mexico, a country he hasn’t been back to in 18 years. When Zapote got arrested, Cortes and her mother realized just how powerless they were against the law. At the time, Cortes was interning for an
→ SEE DREAMERS, PAGE 12
Response to immigrant reform tepid Immigrant rights groups believe President's executive order weak, might not last ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEEE Web Editor
President Obama’s executive action on immigration reform announced on Nov. 20 has received mixed reactions from members of the Hispanic community. His reforms are not historic or very different from what many presidents of either party have passed before him, said Cristina Garcia, deputy state director for young adults for Texas’ League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC. “I’m not extremely happy with it,” she said. “I think the President played it very safe politically, but that’s exactly what it is — politics.” The reforms, once implemented, are expected to affect close to five million undocumented immigrants nationwide.
Close to 120,000 undocumented immigrants in the North Texas area alone are expected to reap the benefits, said Edward Sanchez, president of the North Texas Dream Team, an organization that helps undocumented
their purchasing power in the real estate, retail and auto industries, he said. Jobs that this group occupies would remain unoccupied otherwise, said Vice President of UTD LULAC Danielle Edmonds.
I'm not extremely happy with it ... I think the President played it very safe politically, but that's exactly what it is — politics. — Cristina Garcia, Texas LULAC immigrants process applications for legalization. Once the reforms are put in place, undocumented workers will be able to enter the work force legally, have social security numbers and contribute positively to their economy with
The order expands the pool of those children who will benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to anyone who entered the country before Jan. 1, 2010, which provides a safeguard against deportation to more people.
Still, many questions remain unanswered, particularly until the order becomes a law and is set in stone, Edmonds said. “Several families I know are not getting their hopes up too much,” she said. The reform does not impact parents of DREAMers. DREAMers, or undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children and received deferred action, made up the majority of activists that pushed for some kind of safeguard against deportation for their parents, Garcia said. However, the announced order did not provide any such guarantee, allowing for deferred action against deportation only for parents of citizens. Eligibility, even for parents of citizens, depends on several other
→ SEE REFORM, PAGE 12