Growing up, our parents become our role models and they guide us down the right paths. Our parent wants to see us, their children, succeed in life and become the greatest we can ever be. They sacrifice everything so we don’t have to go through the same struggles they did growing up. It’s always us before them.

Many parents immigrate to the United States and they bring their children with them. No parent would leave their child behind. If they do it is always with a family member. Even then they are constantly worried about their upcoming and how they won’t be there for them. They come to the United States to provide a better life for their loved ones. This is due high poverty levels they live in or the extreme violence they experience.

When my parents migrated to the United States, their plan was to earn and save money to build themselves a home back in México. This meant leaving me behind but all they wanted was to give me a better future. I grew up with my amazing grandparents who raised me as their own child, yet I missed my parents. Due to certain circumstances, I had to come to the United States. It was a decision that broke hearts, and as a child, I didn’t want to leave a placed that I called home.

My parents knew that they were undocumented since they first stepped foot on this side of the border and that I would too be undocumented if I came here. This didn’t stop us from reuniting and becoming a family again. My parents have worked very hard throughout all these years; these meant taking extra shifts and working on holidays. All they have ever wanted was to give my sisters and me, a better life.

I learned what it meant to be undocumented because I learned my rights. Regardless of our immigration status, my parents and I deserved dignity and respect. My parents always tell me “it doesn’t matter if they don’t give us papers, as long as they give you”. This always leaves me speechless because they don’t care if they aren’t given a pathway to citizenship, all they care is that I am given that pathway. But I tell them that it doesn’t feel right because they have suffered more than I have. They are worthy too. There are times that they blamed themselves for the undocumented struggles I go through, but it’s not their fault. I want them to understand that as long as I have them by my side that’s all I need to go through this. They deserved so much more.

My parents will forever be my greatest of allies. Mom and dad, you have taught to be preserved and to not let my status stop me from reaching my dreams. I am a dreamer because no matter how big my dreams and goals are, you’ve both support every step I have taken. I love you so much.

I am a dreamer, not a DREAMer. The DREAMer identity is always the young, educated, and thriving student who wants to help the country grow. But what about our parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors? They are dreamers just like us, they deserved dignity and respect too. This DREAMer identity has been fabricated by politicians and the media who want to place us in a category.

Mom and dad, you and others like you are the original dreamers. You guys left your country behind, your heritage, your family, and the life you had. You have sacrificed so much, and your sacrifices will never go unknown. Before they were mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, street vendors, household workers and jornaleros; they were humans. They are humans with dreams and goals of their own. They are the original dreamers.