IMMIGRANT...

With the presidential race and all it stirs up in our collective pasts as immigrants — because we are all immigrants, even if some of us go as far back as the Mayflower — we will realize that we are all living on borrowed land, and if we learn to live together, we can learn that we are all one, and no borders need divide us. 

Kristian (right) joined a number of other community activists of all ages in Las Vegas 

to street canvass for the Bernie Sanders campaign this past February.

Some of us came later too, not in the early migrations but in more recent relocations, and especially today, we are still arriving, because the forced exodus from other lands — due to politics, warfare, poverty, displacement, or what have you — are all legitimate. 

Humankind has always migrated, and today, on the Fourth of July, we should realize that we had a name that we were proud of, a melting pot of nations. 

Let us not forget that and truly be that nation, that melting pot! 

So I introduce you now to a wonderful young writer, activist, and human being who works relentlessly to make things more equal, for everyone. 

What is your definition of immigrant? 

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im·mi·grant

noun
a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Kristian volunteers with her younger sister's 2nd grade class,
reading in English & Spanish to them.

My parents are immigrants: they defied a border to earn their children's freedom.

Still, they could not change the fact that birthplace does not erase sins.
Their sacrifice is ingrained in the hue of my hands, the tongues I speak, the way I view the world.

I watched food for two feed seven. I witnessed miracles.
My family, my home, was permanently in the U.S. But this land still seemed strange.

Expecting liberty, my mind ached for the dignity that came with it.
I've mastered English, yet still the subject of insults. I know my history 
& yet my skin betrays me.

I am native by birth, foreign by birth.
I am an immigrant because I am the child of immigrants.
Invisible walls have no effect on the blood in my veins.

 

Visible walls have no effect on the blood in our veins.

Protesting Governor Abbott's anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies
in front of his mansion in Austin earlier this year.

 

We are immigrants.

We live in a land that needs our work but wants our silence.
& we are loud. 

I live loudly.

And of all I've seen and all we've learned,
silence will not do once you've tasted the sweetness of your own voice.

About the Author

Kristian Steffany Hernandez is a Dallas-native, graduating the Hockaday School in 2007 and attended SMU for her undergraduate career. She is an HR/Production Administrator for a construction company. The rest of her time is dedicated to service in the political and community realm. She is a Precinct Chair for Precinct 4009 in North Dallas and is currently active with a couple of campaigns. Kristian dedicates most of her free time as the Vice President of the North Texas Dream Team, in an effort to empower and inform the underrepresented. She is a strong proponent of Voltaire's declaration that "Every man is guilty of the good they did not do," though her feminist tendencies would modify that to include everyone.

Contact Information:

Kristian S. Hernandez
Vice President

kristian@northtexasdreamteam.org

The North Texas Dream Team before an action in Houston: protesting the 287g policy
implemented by Harris County & Sheriff Hickman.