Immigration journey of journalist Jose Antonio Vargas is the American dream
Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has a California elementary school named in his honor, embodies what we hold dear in the pursuit of the American dream.
He’s a hardworking writer, filmmaker and producer who came to this country from the Philippines, grew up in California and fell in love with words and writers such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou.
He made something of himself, and he made his family proud.
His is a life of fame and glory, with one exception — he’s living in the U.S. without documentation. That makes him one the nation’s estimated 12 million who live in the shadows — born elsewhere and, some would say, with no rights to the American dream.
Vargas recently spoke at the University of Houston College of Education’s First Lecture, sharing the story of his journey and inspiring faculty, staff and students to continue shaping the true narrative of the immigrant experience. Immigrants are firmly planted in the fabric of this country, not only Latinos but also Black, Asian and white people. Nearly 800 people attended the event.
“I would not have had a career in journalism if I didn’t have teachers who wanted to teach and mentors who didn’t ask me for green cards or passports,” he said. “Teachers and educators are in many ways bridges to that cultural reckoning that needs to happen.”
Vargas’ first book, “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” was published in 2018. His second, “White Is Not a Country,” will be out next year. He also is founder of Define American, a nonprofit organization focused on humanizing immigrant stories.
With a raw vulnerability, he revealed his immigration status in a New York Times Magazine essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” in 2011. It catapulted him from the shadows to his position as a voice for immigrants lacking permanent legal status; he became an indemand speaker on immigration issues.
“Jose is redefining what it means to be American,” said Ruth López, assistant professor in UH’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and El Salvador. “He’s redefining the narrative that we are an integral part of the history of the country, should be treated as human beings and like we belong.”
Vargas’ mother, who hoped for a better life for her son, gave him a jacket and ushered him off to board a plane in 1993 when he was just 12. He was sent to live in the San Francisco Bay Area with her parents, who were naturalized citizens. He didn’t know until about age 16, when he tried to get a driver’s license, that his green card — his proof he belonged here — was fake.
“I was a ‘Dreamer,’ but I was born three months too early for DACA,” he said, referring to the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals program, which allowed immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children to live and work in the U.S. These children are often called “Dreamers.”
The pursuit of U.S. citizenship has been elusive. Vargas is still trying.
“You’ve got to love America. I’m not here legally, but there’s this school named after me,” he said.
The school, Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary in Mountain View, Calif., was named in his honor in 2019. Vargas was 38 at the time. He thought it was a joke when he was approached with the idea. It wasn’t.
“I realized that I am a product of all these teachers,” he said. “The way I speak and write are because of the education system I was given. In a way, having a school named after me is the symbol of what happens when a student gets the support he or she needs.”
And support, Vargas said, is what is now needed most for our teachers, especially in Texas, where books by some of his favorite authors are being banned and history is being censored.
“Texas, for me, represents, in many ways, the battle for the soul of the country, given the historical amnesia that Texans themselves have about their state,” he said. “The fact that we’re banning books, the fact that we’re not wanting to teach history, to me is such a denial of who we are as a country. Educators have, in many ways, been the first responders against being in denial.”
Texas is also where his American dream nearly ended in 2014.
He was attending an immigration rights event and was arrested and detained in McAllen, where there is a 100-mile border zone in which the federal government has the power to conduct searches without warrants, although the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects people from random and arbitrary searches.
He was held for eight hours and released, but his ongoing fight to stay in the country and champion for immigrants in the country illegally has been arduous. Vargas admits he’s pondered in years past the idea of self-deporting back to the Philippines. In those moments, he refers back to his favorite Black authors, who often wrote about being fearless under impossible circumstances.
“Because of reading about and being exposed to the history of Black people in this country, I believed that if Black people could survive what they had to survive, why can’t I? If I wasn’t exposed to Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou as early as I was, I’m not sure I would have given myself permission to write or to exist. They were the green card. They were the passport.”
Though optimistic, Vargas doesn’t believe the issues regarding immigrants lacking permanent legal status will get any better any time soon. Educators are the key, he said.
The history of this country is shaped by very people who have had to insist on the right to be in this country. It’s a history worth telling and retelling.