{The Blue Banner}
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
HOLA hosts silent protest in support of DREAM Act
Members rally in support of undocumented students’right to education
Teresa Linn
TCLINN@UNCA.EDU
STAFF WRITER
UNC Asheville students support a
bill that would provide citizenship
and education for undocumented high
school graduates.
“I think this is very important,” said
undocumented transfer student Loi-
da Ginocchio-Silva. “We cannot be
a true community if members of our
community aren’t free and are expe
riencing injustice. I think that’s very
important for anyone to see.”
The Development, Relief and Educa
tion for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM
Act, was up for a vote in legislation
last week. Volker Frank, chair of the
sociology department, said the act is
important because of the bill’s specific
goals to help high school graduates
who came to the United States before
the age of 16.
“Minors are somewhat stuck,” Frank
said. “That’s a problem because they
go to school and they are, for all prac
tical purposes, just like U.S. citizens.
They have the language and the cul
ture. They could constitute a good
group that could be useful for the Unit
ed States as a country, as an economy
and as a society.”
Ginnochio-Silva, a member of UN-
CA’s Hispanic Outreach for Learning
Awareness, passed out information on
campus to promote the act. She also
organized a silent protest downtown
last Tuesday.
“I saw the urgency in doing it that
day because the whole bill was up for a
vote,” she said. “It wasn’t just HOLA.
There were other members from the
community. I have helped organize
similar marches, and I wanted to bring
that here to Asheville as well.”
UNC A student and HOLA mem
ber Amanda Tesh said her experience
in the protest was unique. She said
she walked around downtown with
other community members in caps and
gowns and handed out papers rolled up
See dream Page 81
iiki/'A j. j X . . Teresa Linn/staff writer
UNCA student and HOLA member Amanda Tesh, second from right, participates in a siient protest
through downtown that supported the DREAM Act, which provides access to education for undocument
ed students. Below, the students hold signs supporting students who were not born in the U.S.
“We cannot be
a true community
if members of our
community aren’t
free.”
- Loida Ginocchio-
Silva,
undocumented transfer
student