Photos and article by Jessica Harden
Migrating Shells and Political Latinx United for Movement and Action in Society hosted the fifth annual Dream Gala on April 14 with the theme “Fruits of Our Labor.”
The Dream Gala started as a fundraiser event for the Dream Fund, which aids undocumented students with emergency funding, legal fees and other financial areas that many undocumented students are blocked from receiving.
“[My mother] had the audacity to dream,” keynote speaker Jamie Martin Ko Atilano said.
The alumni, author, and activist told the audience that their mother came to America from the Philippines with only $200. They were separated from her for a few years and went to live with their “Titos and Titas,” comparing their blended family and community to the Madrigal family in Encanto.
“Community is a sword against adversity that we face in life, such as the discrimination, the biases and the challenges that come with our status,” Atilano said. “[It] also becomes a suit of armor that protects us and allows us to celebrate the fruits of our labor that we’re celebrating today.”
Atilano concluded their speech by honoring the importance of intersectionality in identity as they are an immigrant from the Philippines, a first-generation college student and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The celebration also included a raffle, performances from the K-Pop dance group GGWB, the Chinese cultural dance team Tianyi Dance Team and tables of food.
“We deal with a lot of very serious subject matter throughout the year with protesting, petitioning and educating the community on different issues,” said Amy Rivera, PLUMAS president and senior criminology and criminal justice, and government and politics double major with a minor in U.S. Latino studies. “The Dream Gala is really a celebration, a break from all of the trauma and pain that we talk about. [We] just focus on the accomplishments of the immigrant community.”
Shavanah Ali, senior government and politics major and president of Migrating Shells , said she helped found the organization a little over a year ago.
“We realized that there’s a lack of student organizations that centered on immigrant and undocumented students,” Ali said. “We created Migrating Shells to be a safe space and for peer-to-peer support for our immigration impacted students.”
Cristian Ortiz, vice president of Migrating Shells and junior public policy major, said the main goal of the event is for the immigrant community to feel like they have school support because they are a vulnerable population with obstacles that many other students do not share.
“The immigrant diaspora in the University of Maryland is vibrant, they’re full of hustle,” Ortiz said. “You know, we are here and we’re expanding so much in our own right. We’re finding our own voices and making ourselves stand out, not just assimilating. We are taking pride in our origins and leading forward.”
Photos from the event:
