I am joining this march because I stand against everything that Donald Trump has said and done. Mocking people with disabilities hurt me to my core, because I have been disabled since birth; being left to be made fun of for being different, or not good enough. My mom worked a lot when I was a child, so she left me to be cared for by a Hispanic family who accepted me as their own. I called the woman Mamí, and the husband papí, and her 4 boys were my brothers. Even though they were not blood related, I felt a sense of belonging that I was being deprived of as a child. When I was in 4th grade, my world came crashing down on me. My mamí an illegal immigrant, was scared to be deported to Mexico because California was starting to cut down on immigration laws with their new governor. They chose to move to Florida with family, meaning that the family that I knew was moving 3,000 miles away. The blatant racism in California was too much for them to handle. In Davis, as my papí was walking home from work, he was tackled to the ground by the local police officers and heavily questioned for a crime that he didn’t commit. I watched them work hard and struggle for what they could do for their family, and at one point papí was a migrant worker working in the fields to provide for his family.
When Donald trump became our president, I was scared for my family. The first thing that I did was call Mamí, and she told me she wasn’t going anywhere. She is now a legal immigrant in the united states. The next day, I went and protested with my friend in downtown Oakland, and it gave me the sense of peace and pride that I needed at the time, that my generation and many other generations are fighting this. Unfortunately, my physical disabilities kept me from going far with the march, but I was still there advocating for women, Hispanics, gay people, and people with disabilities. I wish I could physically be there tomorrow, but it gives me comfort that people aren’t just accepting this as their reality. To women everywhere, fight. Fight hard. Fight for what you stand for and what you believe in.