The Weekly Dispatch
Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.
Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration, labor, and economics reporter.
Well, it’s finally that time of the year. Memorial Day is behind us, June Gloom is hovering somewhere on the horizon, and many students this week are celebrating their final hours of class before they’re released for summer break.
The last ringing of the bell will mark the end of an especially challenging year for immigrant families in the Bay Area. Students’ year began against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign in Los Angeles, intensifying regional anxieties about when, and if, a similar series of indiscriminate and unpredictable raids could be headed to the Bay.
In October, the federal government appeared to provide an answer: The Trump administration threatened to conduct an enforcement surge in the Bay Area, deploying more than 100 federal agents to the Coast Guard base in Alameda before abruptly calling the operation off. Even though the promised crackdown never materialized, its aftershocks reverberated. Immigrant communities across the Bay Area responded to the threatened surge by limiting their public exposure, skipping work, medical appointments, and even school.
Anxieties rose the following month after ICE agents were spotted in and around two East Bay schools. The first incident took place near Hoover Elementary School in West Oakland; in the second, ICE agents walked onto the campus of Cherryland Elementary School in Hayward, reportedly asking staff about a former student before they were turned away. These sightings occurred shortly before the Trump administration launched its enforcement blitz in Minneapolis, resulting in the arrests of thousands of immigrants and a handful of enforcement operations near and on school grounds.
As fears mounted about possible ICE raids in the Bay Area, our newsroom heard from multiple parents who expressed concern about their children’s safety. “My nerves are on edge for my sons who have to go out to work,” an immigrant subscriber living in Union City shared with us via SMS. Another subscriber, based in Fremont, worried about a teenage son’s daily walk home from school. “In the event that my son is stopped by an ICE agent, what can he do?” they asked.
Educators have noted a similar trend. I recently spoke to Jessie Papalia, a teacher in the Oakland Unified School District who works with newcomer students. She described how the political climate has affected her work. “My master’s is in reading instruction. Over the last 18 months, I have had to learn a ton about immigration law” she said. Parents, during one-on-ones, “obviously want to hear about the academic updates of their kids, but mostly what they’re bringing to us are questions about their safety and their children’s safety,” Papalia explained.
Yet even as safe spaces for immigrants contract in the Trump era, young people are still finding environments in which they can feel seen and supported. One example we’d like to highlight this week is an Oakland-based program that is helping to nurture the identity of Indigenous teens, reconnecting them with their language, culture, and history.
The effort, which my colleagues Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez and Hiram Alejandro Durán covered last week, is led by Union Maya, a local community organization focused on preserving the cultural identity of the Maya Mam community in the Bay Area. The region is home to a well-established Maya Mam diaspora that is one of the largest outside of Guatemala, with more than 1,700 newcomer students in the Oakland Unified School District identifying Mam as their primary language spoken at home.
Resource of the week
Tumil El Tímpano is a weekly Mam-language video series produced by El Tímpano and promoted by Radio B’alam. The videos provide news and resources for Mam speakers in the Bay Area.
Do you or someone you know work with Mam-speaking immigrants who could benefit from this resource? Share the videos with them and let them know they can subscribe to receive weekly notifications about new episodes by texting “TUMIL” to (510) 800-8305.
Union Maya aims to celebrate this heritage, providing language classes and traditional weaving workshops to Maya Mam youth at a cultural center in East Oakland. The initiative offers a rare third space for these teens to feel at home in their cultural identity.
Participants said they have found a new sense of belonging in the upstart project. “When you’re in a place like this where everybody is Mayan, they don’t look at you in a weird way or make you feel uncomfortable,” Alicia Pablo, an 18-year-old participant, told my colleagues. “Instead they make you feel like, ‘Oh, this is where I belong.’”
Last week, the program marked the end of the school year with a special commemoration: a ceremony honoring Maya Mam students who ended the year with a 3.7 GPA or higher. Recipients donned brightly colored traditional huipiles, celebrating the milestone with family members, certificates, and of course, tamales and cake.
“I stand before you wearing my traditional clothing to showcase my culture and to express how proud and grateful I am to [Union Maya] for helping me grow and for keeping me connected to my roots,” one of the honor roll recipients, Yeimy Aguilar Sales, told my colleagues. I encourage you to take a look at the story and photos, which captured this one-of-a-kind celebration in Oakland.
That’s all for now. Happy summer break to those who observe, and I’ll see you next week.
—Erica Hellerstein
Ear to the Ground
Hi, I’m Vanessa Flores, El Tímpano’s community reporter. El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,500 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. In the last couple of years, we have created and distributed resource guides for our parents in Alameda County and Contra Costa County that include a list of summer programs for youth. In response, parents have shared additional resource needs for themselves and their families during the summer breaks. Here are some of their responses:
Do you know of any jobs for seniors?
–Oakland resident
I am looking for free events or parks for children with disabilities.
–San Pablo resident
I am looking for sports for 14-year-old girls.
–San Leandro resident
I would like [information] about swimming programs for my children.
–Hayward resident
My son is 10 years old, and he is interested in swimming lessons, soccer, and art. Could you please help us find a program for him?
–Oakland resident
—Vanessa Flores
From the El Tímpano Newsroom
This week, El Tímpano’s Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez and Hiram Durán bring you a photo essay and story about what Union Maya’s honor roll ceremony meant to the families and students who celebrated the occasion.
A first of its kind honor roll ceremony for Oakland’s Maya Mam students
California
National
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