Ernest “Undocubae” Rocha Speaks About Owning Your Narrative
Owning your narrative and forming your own identity. This is what Santa Monica College (SMC) students came to learn when they filed into the Lecture Hall on Thursday, Oct 17. Some of them are undocumented students. Many of them have friends who are undocumented. Most of them have parents or grandparents that immigrated to the United States. The bilingual chatter died down as Ernesto Rocha, the keynote speaker of the Undocumented Student Week of Action, took the stage.
Ernesto Rocha is an activist, organizer, motivational speaker, and UCLA graduate. Rocha is also known as “Undocubae”, which stands for Undocumented Before and After the Election. He adopted this name after the 2016 elections to state that he still had the same status, regardless of the political change. Merely three days after the election, tweets streamed in from Trump-supporters, saying, “Come and get him ICE. Obama can’t help him now.” In spite of opposition and threats, Rocha did not keep quiet, choosing instead to give a TEDx Talk titled “I am NOT My Status: An Undocumented Immigrant’s Perspective.”
Rocha recounted his journey to the United States. He described how his mother became a single mother to six young children after his father passed away when he was two years old. She took him and his siblings across the U.S. border in what Rocha called “a long camping trip, but without the Patagonia gear.” After three days of walking, swimming, being chased by dogs, and run-ins with border patrol agents, they arrived in the United States.
Rocha’s story deeply moved Karla Herrera, one of the organizers of the event on behalf of the IDEAS club — a support group for undocumented students.
“I was crying the whole time,” Herrera said. “When he started talking about how his family migrated to the U.S., that’s when I started tearing up...I think it’s a little similar to my own family’s story as well.”
Rocha’s story continued as he adjusted to his new life in the United States, attended school, and made friends. After graduating high school, he received a scholarship for UCLA.
“This is it, right? You get into a good school, all your hard work is going to pay off!” he said. “Well, tell that to the undocumented, queer, poor folks.”
For years, he woke up at 4 a.m. to take several buses to try to get to school on the other side of the city. He would sleep in the library, couchsurf, and shower at the university’s gym. He worked three jobs to help his mother sustain herself, while struggling to keep his grades up.
“I was exhausted, tired, stressed, and coming out as gay.” he said. “All of a sudden, you have a C minus.”
After several semesters, he received a letter from UCLA informing him that his scholarship had been revoked because he had not recorded on paper that he was undocumented. He needed to pay several thousand dollars that week in order to stay in school. He went around campus with a converted mayonnaise jar asking for donations. He raised the needed amount, and paid his tuition with the coins and small bills given by his friends and classmates.
“I still have that mayonnaise jar as a reminder that I needed to tell UCLA that I was going to stay,” says Rocha.
Despite the efforts to collect his tuition, Rocha had to drop out of college when his brother was deported. His family was kicked out of the little apartment they were living in, and they had run out of money.
One of the SMC students who attended the event stated that she can relate to Rocha's story. An undocumented Communication Studies major in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, Jennifer said that “The struggle is money … If you don’t have a work permit, you can’t work, or if someone gives you the opportunity to work, they will pay you what they want to pay you.”
Rocha’s mental health further declined after his family’s struggle. He described how he broke down and spiraled into excessive drinking. The turning point came when he decided to let go of everything that kept him in a negative cycle. He learned to find his freedom and his identity in himself instead of his status. This is the message he now wants to give to other people, including the students in the audience.
SMC student Kevin Martinez thought this to be very inspiring, stating. “He makes you feel like you have to be better and work better for future generations.”