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Starving for a DREAM : Interview with DREAM Faster Gabriel Martinez

June 2nd, 2010

Earlier this morning, I wrote about a 72 hour fast that was being supported by some local non-profits and NYC politicos for comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act.

But….

All my sources in D.C. tell me Comprehensive Immigration Reform is dead, so why all the fronting? Why the show for the media and why not support the students who have been risking deportation by putting their undocumented lives on the line through civil disobedience actions? Seems like there is a rift in the struggle. So today, instead of going downtown to where the politicians would be, I went to where the students were, 47th and 3rd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. There 9 young people are camped out in front of Senator Biometric Chuck Schumer’s office on an indefinite fast demanding that he stop bs’ing and get to stepping on the DREAM Act.

One of the Starving for a DREAM activists, Gabriel Martinez, was nice enough to allow me to sit with him on the sidewalk and speak with me as traffic rushed past.

I will be adding a transcript after the video later.

I will try to visit the fasters as often as I can. You can follow them on twitter : @Starved4Dream

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  • Elise Nakhnikian says on: June 2, 2010 at 7:47 pm

     

    “this country has been built up on the basis of fighting against oppression” — love it! I wish you “undocumented dreamers” the best of luck

  • Maegan La Mala says on: June 3, 2010 at 7:22 am

     

    He really is wonderfully wise and amazing. I will try to head out there today to check up on how the fasters are doing on day 3

  • rachel says on: June 5, 2010 at 11:41 pm

     

    hello mala,

    THANK YOU for all you do with the power of your pen to get the word out about this urgent issue. and greetings to everyone else who are companeros en la lucha.

    i just wanted to clarify that the 72-hour-fast, while joined by 3 councilmembers, was NOT taken over or led by politicians. they simply extended their support, which was appreciated.

    i participated in the 72-hour-fast and i can tell you that it was extremely grassroots in that it was initiated and led by people who are directly affected, and they composed the majority of the fasters. furthermore, many community members and organizations came to visit us during the 72-hour-fast, as beautiful extensions of solidarity and support.

    also, re: the courageous dreamers who continue to fast outside schumer’s office: we visited them, and they came to our dream act rally and some of us went to their vigil. we actually dedicated a whole day of our fasting to learning about and advocating for the dream act, and this day was led by the young people.

    so i say all of this to say that the description that there is a rift in the local movement doesn’t seem accurate. in fact, from my perspective, our local movement has never been more vibrant or united. and i hope we can all work together to nurture this new and necessary trend!

    peace and love,
    rachel

  • Maegan La Mala says on: June 6, 2010 at 12:11 pm

     

    Gracias Rachel for coming here and commenting. I should have been a little more nuanced in my piece. I actually know some of the peeps who participated in the 72 hour fast and I don’t think everyone who participated had messed up agendas so thank you for calling me on that. I still think there are rifts when it comes to strategy though, including if to continue pushing CIR first or DREAM as a stand alone and if one position hurts or sells out the other.