Interview with Brandon Guzman
Brandon Guzman is a senior at UCLA who is majoring in Chicana/o Studies and International Development Studies. He will be attending UCLA School of Law in the fall.

TCLA: Can you talk about your experience as a high school and college student here in California?

Brandon Guzman: I went to high school in Northern California in a town called Fairfield. It is a military and commuter town half-way between Sacramento and San Francisco and its population is predominantly white. Fortunately, in the 4th grade, I was tracked into the honors program. I was one of two Latinos in the program. All throughout high school I was involved in year-round sports and took college-preparatory classes. When it came time to applying, I was in the Educational Talent Search program, which helped me with the application process. I applied to Stanford, UC Davis, and UCLA. I didn’t get accepted into Stanford and when I came to visit UCLA, I faced hard news.

I immigrated with my family in 1986. Growing up with a majority of white students, I felt some reproaches but never understood the whole concept of racism because it was never discussed at home. Before I moved to Fairfield, I lived in a farming community for four years. I think, as a child, I did feel like an outsider who was intruding on other people's territory and sometimes thought that other people had a right to treat me differently. What I tried to do was to prove myself. When I took honors courses I tried to do better than anyone else so that I could say that I belonged there. As time went on, I made friends and somewhat forgot about my “illegal status." When I applied to college I checked off the California resident box. Once I was admitted to UCLA, they kept sending me letters that they needed more proof of residency even though I had sent them all that I had, such as, school transcripts, bills to the house, and letters from the managers. Well, on scholars' day, I met with Alfred Herrera, who worked at the admissions office at the time, and he told me, “Brandon, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but what they are asking for is your green card.” He made sure that I knew that UCLA was not going to rescind my application because I did not have a green card but that they were going to withdraw my financial aid. Not only were they going to take the money that had been offered to me, but tuition was going to jump from in-state tuition to, not only out-of-state tuition, but international tuition—from $4,300 to $18,000 a year! My parents, combined, do not make that much even now. I just told myself that I wasn’t going to go to college.

To me, college meant a four-year university and now the only option that I had was to attend a community college. This was emotionally draining and it was difficult to face. I ended up working for six months. However, I kept talking to my mom about my situation. She felt horrible for me for not having my green card and she blamed herself for the situation that I was in. It wasn’t her fault—it is the way the system works. We reached a compromise that if I returned to school and attended a community college, she would double her efforts to try and get our green cards. I was working 40-60 hours a week and attending school full-time at night. A couple of years later, I ended up meeting all of the requirements to transfer. By the time I came back to UCLA, I had gotten my green card.

This is where it became apparent that language is a barrier. I was the oldest in my family and the interpreter for them. We had filed our documents a long time ago. When we got here in 1986 the Immigrant Reform Act was passed, and my father applied to the family amnesty program. My father had been working here through the bracero programs since the 1970s. We had actually qualified since 1991, but since all of the paper work was in legal jargon, in English, and I was only 11, my translation was inaccurate. I thought that we had to leave the country and then come back to get our documentation. It made my family fearful because we didn’t have enough money to pay for an attorney. We let it go, but then had to face the situation again when I applied to college. We had to re-apply and borrow a lot more money because our documents had expired and the laws had changed. The problem with immigration lawyers sometimes is that you have those that just want to make money and others who really want to help. In 1989, my mom paid $500 to talk to an attorney for an hour and nothing was accomplished. Through friends, however, we found a paralegal that willingly helped us without charging us a certain amount. I got my green card in January of 1999, reapplied to UCLA, and began in Winter 2000. I was the first person in my entire family to graduate from high school and go to college. It was an accomplishment but I felt that I had lost some time.

TCLA: What message do you want to send out about this Bill?

BG: It seems that students can participate in American society to a certain extent but are still looked down upon. Even though students have participated in society, they are still seen and treated as completely foreign. This has to change. If AB 540 had been around when I was admitted originally, it may have been a little easier. But not only do we need in-state tuition, but we need financial aid! We are the working people, helping the economy, and we are not just wasting our time. It is only fair. How does the state want to sustain its economy if it doesn’t want to educate its people? They may not be naturalized citizens, but they are citizens because they are human and live here.

TCLA: What is your advice to other students that are having difficulty with funding and access to resources and information?

BG: No matter how hard it gets, do not give up. A lot of times I felt like giving up. Originally, I had thought, “Forget school. If they don’t want me, then I don’t need them either!” That was because I am stubborn and was very disillusioned. I definitely recommend continuing the communication between the students and parents. Family support helps significantly. The main question is “Why are you here?” We are not here to take over, to take up space or live off the government. We are here to live our dreams and enrich society. Go out there and fight the fight. If students are running into this situation now that the laws are tightening, especially after September 11th, it may get worse or harder, but soon enough things will pick up and get better. If we keep working in solidarity, things will positively change.

TCLA: What are your future plans and what do you hope will change to help other students that face the same obstacles you have overcome?

BG: We should not focus on our differences because they are the ones that are pointed out by others and keep us from succeeding. If we can keep our beautiful culture alive, we can accomplish many things. In our indigenous past, we treasure education and are a spiritual people. The first thing we need to do is learn about our history and capture culture, and I am in the process of creating a web-site, called Macehuales Inc., which means “the people” in Nahuatl. It might seem like there are differences between groups but we have a lot in common, as well as, powerful causes and goals. Personally, I am trying to keep moving forward. I will be graduating from UCLA and will be attending UCLA School of Law in the Fall. I’d like to specialize in both Critical Race Studies and Corporate Law Specialization. I am trying to see how the legal institutions have been created that use race as a factor and how it has affected the current situation here in our country. We need to look into how we can deconstruct these institutions to allow more opportunities for people. The fighting gets tough and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel gets dim, but you have to keep on going because that tunnel has an end.