sustaining hope in community

By Andres Cosio and Miguel Sanchez 

The city of San Jose, California, is culturally diverse and draws people from different backgrounds seeking better opportunities. 

The Latino community of San Jose has been very impacted as of recently, with the new arrival of the trump administration. Waves of fear have begun to flow as there have been many people who fear deportation, as the administration has announced mass deportation.

Nick Orozco, a 24-year-old college student, works at ConXion in San Jose, an organization that specializes in supporting the Latino community. They offer many opportunities, such as Escuela Popular, a bilingual, community-based center and school where kids and adults who need their diplomas can study. 

ConXion has a day work center where a wide range of services are provided, like daily meals, showers, and job placement assistance.

In his time working, Orozco has experienced what it's like to work with youth students, including middle and high school students. His goal currently is to support students in areas such as education, mental health, and overall personal development. 

Orozco: (It’s a pretty cool experience, being able to help out the youth one way or another, whether it be middle schoolers or high schoolers, get to help them achieve their dreams or achieve their goals of graduating)- Orozco.

He works on the east side of San Jose, where the Latino community is very diverse and big, and it is filled with migrants from multiple countries. And with the rising presence of ICE in San Jose, many of ConXion’s members of the youth have not shown up due to ICE.

Orozco: “Where I work, it has affected me for a while. Many youth were not coming to the program or even coming to school as they were fearful of ICE and the immigration issues, but nowadays, since it has calmed down a bit, it hasn't been as bad,”- Orozco.

Despite helping and providing for the community, Orozco has seen how his community has been treated and affected by ICE. As Ice becomes a huge threat to the Latino community, it forces immigrant families to live in fear and hide from the world.

However, despite the activity of ICE, Orozco has not stopped and has still focused on helping the youth and families in the Latino community. He has also stated how he felt it was like before ICE became something to worry about, how people used to be more active and out.

Orozco: (I would definitely say it was more fun, you definitely saw more people out on the street walking around, or going to parks and stuff like that, but then nowadays you rarely see people go out, you rarely see people out living their lives normally)

Although in good and bad light, there is much that continues to stir up his community, whether that be the good or bad, in many cases, like what is currently happening with all the struggling businesses. 

With the rise of fear in people for the possible presence of ICE, the silver lining within the situation has been the ability of the community to come together to speak out. For example, schools within the San Jose area have decided to host walkouts, most notably Overfelt, Silver Creek, Independence, Andrew Hill, Lincoln, and Yerba Buena high schools. Being able to see children within the community who willingly decided to miss out on their education to send a clear message that ICE isn’t wanted in the community shows that even the voices that can’t be heard are heard by those who have strong voices.

ConXion, on the other hand, as a community pillar, has managed to keep its resources and community outreach going even after a few scares within the community, showing that although times get rough, helping one another won’t stop, no matter the obstacle.