We all share the DREAM and, while we may all come from different backgrounds, there is much that keeps us connected. As I have shared before, I came to this country at a very young age.  I have also also shared, in 2006, I suffered an accident that left me handicapped. It hits you pretty hard, no pun intended, when life does that to you.

I never would have thought this would happen to me. I mean, as long as I can remember I have never even broken a bone! But it is what it is, sometimes you just have to toughen up and keep moving forward.

It’s difficult when you are both undocumented and disabled. As an undocumented American your chance at getting a job is severely limited.  Even more so when you are disabled.

I always thought someone else must be going through what I am going through, so I looked online. I started reading an article on a girl named Sherry. She lives in Chicago and works as a volunteer for Centro Avance, a Chicago based organization. This organization was holding a wheel chair and equipment drive Last December at a local mall.

I thought that was amazing, and I was then surprised to find that Sherry was in a situation like mine, probably even tougher. Sherry was born in Santiago, Chile on September 1, 1989. She was born with a hole in her spine. The name of her disability is spinal bifida. Her type is called meningocele. There are several types, but hers is considered the worst. Her disease was the reason her parents left their native country; they could not find the necessary medical assistance in Chile.

Sherry came to this country at the age of 3, and has had no other place to call home since. She received medical attention in the U.S. when she was a child, but after the age of eighteen she could no longer access medical care. She graduated high school and studied at a local community college for about two years until her financial aid noticed she was undocumented, soon after they cut her off.

Sherry became aware of her immigration issues as well as others through her church. She, as well as me and many others, are part of a mixed status family. She has three citizen siblings, while I myself have three. I am the oldest and the only one who is undocumented. We also share that we are not the only ones in our family with medical issues: both her father and my mother have heart issues. The only difference is she has another parent while I have no one except my mother.

After she joined her church and attended meetings, rallies and other actions, the Illinois Dream Act was passed. She later graduated from college with a major in Social Work and a minor in Political Science. I was amazed by her perseverence and at how, like the rest of the undocumented youth all over the country, she wants to ” survive.” Be it in Illinois, California, New York, or Arizona, we all want to survive.  For that, even after the Arizona Dream Act has passed, I will continue to work at becoming an aspect of change.