Juventud FACETA (2010 – 2017)
Juventud FACETA (JF) is an Immigrant Latino/a leadership youth group created in 2001 from the organization of Amigos Multicultural Services Center (AMIGOS MSC). JF ages range from fourteen years old to twenty-four year olds, but have also had members join as young as thirteen, and the youngest member to work with us being ten years old. JF main focus is to build our inner leadership, connect us with our culture, build stronger family ties, contribute to our Latinx community, and also focus on Immigrant Rights/ Human Rights.
I joined JF when I was seventeen years old on February 2010, and have been involved since then. I also had the honor to join the AMIGOS MSC board as well, which is made up of half adults and half youth. JF not only helps individuals grow their inner leader and use it to do great things in the community of Eugene/Springfield, but it also helps us learn to use our voice, and how to think critically. JF taught me a lot of how being a leader for my community creates a powerful change, and sends a strong message to adults that youth also have a voice. We have led the chants in Take Back The Night March, we have volunteered in the Asian Celebration, and have also been adopted into the Winnemem Wintu Tribe as Water Warriors. JF focus touches on everything from Human, Immigrant, and Environmental Rights to ourselves and how we can build our leader.
Patricia Cortez taught us so much I was not aware of, because of her and JF I was able to stand up for my rights and my people who are in the struggle for social change. I was raised in a gang infested city in California, and all I was taught was to survive then. With JF I learned to change my way of thinking, and its not about survival anymore it is about education, and how we can educate individuals to build their inner leader to make change for the betterment of everyone. My inner leader came to build strong as Bear spirit. In 2011 I was nominated by Mayor Kitty Piercy for the National Immigrant Youth Leadership Award, and I did not win it, but it was an honor for someone to nominate me. I do this work not to be recognized. I do it for the betterment of my community, and my people who are in the shadows.
Social justice change does not come in one day it takes years of dedication and movements. Social change starts with us. Today I stand as a powerful Indigenous leader. I am Undocumented and Unafraid in this country with its man-made borders. I am proud of my Mexican culture. I am Trilingual- Spanish, English, and Spanglish . I am a decent from the Aztec Empire who’s goal was to conquer and destroy, but my goal is to unite, educate, and build. I am a Human being.
15th Annual MEChA Regional Conference
MEChA De Lane Community College (MEChA De LCC) (2011 – 2013) (2015 – Present)
MEChA Aztlan Del Noreste Regional Representative (MEChA Oregon Region) (2017 – 2018)
I first came into contact with the national organization of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan) in March 2010 when I was 17 years old in my senior year of high school. I was already involved with Juventud FACETA and the chapter of MEChA from University of Oregon invited us to the National MEChA Conference in Seattle, WA in the University of Washington. I was exposed to so much history that I was never taught in my K-12 years of school. Not only did the workshops teach me a lot about Latinx people and how they have contributed to this nation, but also taught us how to respect ourselves and value our culture. The “X” after Latinx or Chicanx is for more gender inclusiveness and fluidity amongst our human race.
I have been involved in MEChA spaces for the past seven years and have learned to integrate my leadership skills from Juventud FACETA with this organizations leadership as well. I became involved with MEChA de Lane Community College (MEChA De LCC) in 2011 when Lane Community College – Latino Student Union (LSU) members founded its MEChA chapter and I was invited by one of the MEChA members to join. I later helped write the by-laws of the chapter and helped build the structure as a collective with other LCC members. MEChA de LCC has been active for the past 6 years, and continues to be.
The 15th Annual Regional Conference was hosted by MEChA De LCC this year of 2017, and took our chapter (MEChA De LCC) almost a year of playing with the support of many LCC faculties such as Jim Garcia, Tina Lymath, Rosa Maria Buñuelos-Uribe, Greg Evans, and James Florendo. Our chapter integrated an Indigenous way of view and life for our conference. Our workshops ranged from Sex Education, Enviromental Justice, Standing Rock, and many other workshops focusing on social justice change. Our keynotes speakers had knowledge to share and a strong message for many of us. Ramon Ramirez President and founding member of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), or the Northwest Tree planters and Farmworkers United. Located in Woodburn, PCUN is Oregon’s farmworker union and the largest Latino organization in the state. Patricia Cortez who is the co-founder of Juventud FACETA, a leadership development program for Latino immigrant youth who focus on Human, Immigrant, and Environmental Rights based in Eugene, OR. Overall the conference was a complete success, and great knowledge was acquired and shared by many who attended.
For the past four years I have been nominated for the Regional Representative for the MEChA Aztlán del Noroeste Region (State of Oregon) three times. I had to respectfully decline because of other priorities in my life, and other leadership roles I was involved with. This year when we hosted the 15th Annual Regional Conference, I was once again nominated, and this time I knew it was time to accept the nomination. Today I stand as the 2017-2018 MEChA Aztlán del Noroeste Regional Representative.
Clean DREAM Act (December 2017) and State of the Union (January 2018)
Clean DREAM Act
I am one of the almost 12,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in the state of Oregon and one of the 800,000 in the country. DACA is an executive order implemented by President Obama in 2012. It was created to benefit UNDOCUMENTED people such as myself to be able to work, go to school, have a safe guard against deportation, and as well something as simple to even obtain a license in the state of Oregon.
In December 2017 I was invited by Oregon DACA Coalition and United We Dream to attend a push to pass the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a bill that would give someone like myself a pathway to Legal Residency (Green Card) and then a pathway to Citizenship. Today with current immigration laws there is no pathway to legal residency and for the past eighteen years I have remained in a constant fear of one day being deported to a country I do not know. This is the country I call and know as home. In the constitution of the United States of America it says somewhere along the lines of, “Congress is the only entity that can grant Citizenship”. The DREAM Act is a bill that will need to pass through the U.S. Congress, the closest we achieved is when it passed the Senate in 2013, but failed in the House. Today 800,000 DACA recipients, and the remaining of 11 million undocumented community remain without a solution. I will continue to strive, and fight for a change in Immigration Law, we must put pressure on Congress to create a pathway to legalization of the Undocumented community.
State of the Union 2018
State of the Union 2018: Meet the 6 Oregon DREAMers Article
In January 2018, I was again contacted by Oregon DACA Coalition and honored to be the guest of Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon’s 4th Congressional District for the 2018 United States – State of the Union (SOTU) along with 5 others from Oregon. We were about two dozen in attendance from all over the United States lower 48. It was a huge honor to be present at an event where someone like myself would not have imagine. By being physically present we tell the President of the United States, “We are present, have been present, and ARE HERE TO STAY!”. I was able to meet so many DACA recipients doing great things, and making so much change around the country, I felt so much emotions knowing we are standing strong against an administration that does not support us. DACA is only a temporary solution, and many of us believe we need a permanent solution until then…we remain UNDOCUMENTED and UNAFRAID.
Jesus Narvaez Blog 
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