{"id":1738,"date":"2012-07-18T19:18:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T19:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2012\/07\/18\/the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows-limberths-story\/"},"modified":"2012-07-18T19:18:52","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T19:18:52","slug":"the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows-limberths-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/the-dreamers-step-out-of-the-shadows-limberths-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dreamers Step out of the Shadows \u2013 Limberth\u2019s story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Limberth Ponce opens up the door to his parents\u2019 garage, flips on the lights and connects a punching bag from the ceiling to the floor. He takes<\/p>\n

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a couple of playful swings at it and glances around at the stacked chairs and scattered tools. The 21-year-old Moline High School graduate still lives with his mom and dad in Rock Island while attending Black Hawk College and waiting tables at a restaurant. He also coaches five and six-year-olds at the Moline Soccer Club. The garage is his personal space, his training gym- in addition to another garage in Moline where he works with his trainer Jeff Perez.<\/p>

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This spring, Ponce won the Chicago Golden Gloves 165-pound title match, which qualified him to contend for a national title. But, a technicality kept him from advancing: he was born in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of small and I don’t remember everything that happened,\u201d says Ponce about entering the United States. \u201cI turned 9 on the way here… I didn’t have a birthday party that year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limberth was put in a car with some people he didn\u2019t know and told to pretend to sleep in the back while they went through a border checkpoint. His parents came by another route and they met up at a gas station after crossing the border. They headed to Moline to be close to his mother\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it was a little rough because I didn’t understand everything,\u201d explains Ponce. He was held back a year in school, repeating third grade with a teacher who spoke Spanish. Although being held back may have felt bad at the time, he now thinks it wasn\u2019t a bad move.<\/p>

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\u201cI had an average life actually\u2026\u201d admits Ponce. \u201cAfter fifth grade I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

He played soccer and started boxing at age 11, gradually adjusting to his new home. Boxing didn\u2019t seem like a natural fit at first, but he kept working and got stronger.<\/p>

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\u201cI wasn’t good, I was a little chubby kid,\u201d remembers Ponce. \u201cI used to get beat up all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days he gets beat up in the ring a lot less, but that doesn\u2019t mean he has it easy. He struggles to negotiate his future without documented legal status.<\/p>

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\u201cI guess when you’re younger you don’t really think about it,\u201d says Ponce. \u201cBut when you’re older and have to do things yourself, it’s a big deal and you realize what’s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I can do greater things,\u201d Ponce continues. \u201cI’m not sure exactly what, but I know I would have less problems doing what I want to do- like going to college.\u201d<\/p>

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Ponce plans to take advantage of the recently announced deferred action immigration policy and get a legal work permit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get a better job,\u201d says Ponce. \u201cLike the one I have right now… it kept me through high school and everything, but I think it’s time to move on\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the new policy on June 15 and will begin accepting \u201cdeferred action requests\u201d within sixty days of that announcement. For Ponce, and the thousands of others like him, there are still many unanswered questions, but so far deferred action is inspiring some hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan for the next semester is just to box and go to school,\u201d says Ponce. \u201cAfter school, depending on the degree I get- work and have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [the deferred action policy] will help me, like going through school- maybe get financial aid so I can save money,\u201d says Ponce. \u201c\u2026Not have to worry about getting pulled over, not have to worry about getting harassed by anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t remember too much about Mexico- other than that he was born in Acapulco, where he used to hang out on the beach with tourists. For him, the Quad Cities is home. And for now, he\u2019ll keep boxing- he hopes to enter the professional circuit in the fall after filling out his amateur resume with a few more tournaments this summer. He\u2019ll continue to work as much as he can, saving money to pay for school and allowing him to continue mentoring young soccer players. He\u2019ll continue to dream about the future, waiting until he can cross the legal hurdles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to live a normal life,\u201d says Ponce. \u201cThis will make a big difference for me and for a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Limberth Ponce opens up the door to his parents\u2019 garage, flips on the lights and connects a punching bag from the ceiling to the floor. He takes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"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\/1738"}],"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=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}