Groups offer solace, support

Lisceth Cruz has helped UC Davis students through all kinds of trauma – none hurting more than the undocumented Latina who came to her three years ago on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"She said she was stopped by police near campus and told, 'You're illegal, now go back to Mexico,' " said Cruz, now coordinator of Davis' growing number of Latino programs. "She had to be taken to the hospital but couldn't be treated because she had no insurance – she had to get help from the community."

Today, immigrant students struggling with depression – or those who fear being deported or kicked out of school because they can't afford tuition – can turn to SPEAK, a new Latino club at Davis dedicated to helping undocumented students.

"The number of members has doubled since we started addressing this issue that was very taboo on campus," said 21-year-old Miriam Delgado.

SPEAK – Scholars Promoting Education, Awareness and Knowledge – reflects a wave of Latino activism that's broken over the Davis campus. More than 30 clubs, organizations, fraternities and sororities – 10 more than five years ago – are fighting diabetes and domestic violence, tutoring Latino classmates and teaching classes on college preparation.

"Three clubs aren't going to change the world, so each group homes in on a problem – women, children, high school students – and assesses what's needed and works together to raise money for it," Cruz said.

Delgado, a senior from Mexico, majoring in Spanish and Chicano studies, said she's never seen the campus "this active and socially conscious. There are new groups of students asking, 'How come we're not helping or supporting each other?' "

Among Davis' roughly 30,000 students there are 3,183 Latinos, most of Mexican ancestry. That's 700 more than in 2002, when Cruz started.

"We're starting to see the children of people who were Chicano activists in the '60s," Cruz said.

Those activists pushed for Chicano studies programs like the one at UC Davis that helped Cruz survive when she arrived as a lonely transfer student.

"I was working full time for an insurance broker and taking 24 units," said Cruz, an immigrant from Mexico City. "I felt a sense of 'otherness' and not belonging in so many ways until I found these organizations. I wouldn't be here without this sense of familia that surrounded me throughout my education."

Cruz said the organizations help newcomers stay in school.

"For every 100 Latino students in kindergarten, about 15 will make it to college and seven or eight will graduate," she said.

Cruz helped establish the La Raza Pre-Law Student Association, which has grown from five to 30 members in five years. "We've helped 11 go on to law school and eight get into Ph.D. programs," Cruz said.

With support comes "a big sense of responsibility," she said. Students cleaned houses, washed cars and held fundraisers to establish "Dream Scholarships" for undocumented students, more than $15,000 so far, Cruz said.

Members of the Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, which opened two years ago, helped raise the money.

Chapter President Karen Tostado, 21, said most of the sisters know undocumented students who couldn't afford to go to college because they weren't eligible for financial aid.

"It's really heartbreaking," she said. "We all know undocumented students that have to work three to four jobs. A lot of times, they can't afford it anymore, so they just drop out."

Undocumented students admitted to public colleges or universities on merit are allowed to pay in-state tuition under Assembly Bill 540, passed in 2002.

A high school athlete from La Puente who got into Davis with a 3.5 grade point average, Delgado said the support SPEAK provides students – both financial and emotional – is critical, given the anti-immigrant sentiment in California. Last spring, Davis College Republicans organized a game of "Capture the Illegal Immigrant" in the quad.

"They made it a joke," Delgado said. "I was upset, but I know they weren't aware of what people live through to come here."

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