{"id":1726,"date":"2012-07-03T18:24:11","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T18:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2012\/07\/03\/the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows\/"},"modified":"2012-07-03T18:24:11","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T18:24:11","slug":"the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dreamers step out of the shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Contreras dreams about opening up her own restaurant someday. The 19-year-old from East Moline knows that she has some stiff competition.<\/p>\n

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Finding a way to beat the Chile Negro at El Mariachi in Moline, one of her favorite places, won\u2019t be easy. She is confident and will soon complete her associate degree in business management and marketing from Black Hawk College. She\u2019s not so confident about her legal status.<\/p>

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\u201cI was born in Durango City; it\u2019s in Mexico,\u201d says Contreras.<\/p>\n

Her parents brought Maria and her brother and sister to the United States with a tourist visa in 2002. They moved from Chicago to Moline and never looked back. The future is still full of questions for the family, but President Obama\u2019s June 15 announcement on immigration policy, known as deferred action, brings a glimmer of hope. Contreras will likely qualify for temporary legal status open to undocumented youth meeting specific criteria and could be eligible for a work permit.<\/p>\n

She started to realize the implications of her undocumented status as she was graduating from United Township High School in 2010. \u201cThe opportunities and scholarships and all that stuff were being a problem,\u201d says Contreras. \u201cI couldn\u2019t sign up for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is scary [not having legal status] because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen next,\u201d she continues. \u201c\u2026 Or if next year you\u2019re still going to be here or if you go to school what you\u2019re going to do with it, or if everything\u2019s just going to be a waste.\u201d<\/p>

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The deferred action announcement will only provide a temporary fix for Contreras\u2019 legal status, but she recognizes that it\u2019s a step in the right direction. She looks forward to being able to work and get a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re not getting the green card or the papers or what we always wanted\u2026 we\u2019re still getting some hope,\u201d she explains. \u201cI saw it as an opportunity for me to actually be someone in life and be able to make my dream come true.\u201d<\/p>

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If Contreras hopes to open up a restaurant one day, she\u2019ll need a more permanent solution to her undocumented legal status. She hopes that some version of the perennial DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act will pass. She\u2019d like to get on with the rest of her life.<\/p>\n

Another bonus of full citizenship that Contreras would love to take advantage of, is the ability to travel back to Mexico to visit relatives there.<\/p>

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\u201cI haven\u2019t been to Mexico since we moved here,\u201d says Contreras. \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to see my Grandma. My grandpa died before I could see him. So, that would be a big thing too\u2026 It would mean everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the time being, Contreras will focus on finishing school and hopes to take advantage of the opportunities that her deferred action status will allow.<\/p>

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\u201cNow we can have faith in something,\u201d she says about temporary legal status. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we can get started with.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least for now, the Chile Negro at El Mariachi is safe from any more competition. \u25a0<\/p>\n

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Maria Contreras dreams about opening up her own restaurant someday. The 19-year-old from East Moline knows that she has some stiff competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}