DAILY LOBO new mexico
tuesday March 4, 2014
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Undocumented insight
Ardee Napolitano / Daily Lobo UNM student Vanely Salinas studies in the lobby of UNM’s El Centro de la Raza on Thursday. Salinas, an undocumented student who receives the Legislative Lottery Scholarship, said the scholarship is an integral financial source for minority students like her.
by Antonio Sanchez news@dailylobo.com @AntonioReporter
Student Vanely Salinas said she never had the opportunity to ask her mother for help with her homework. Salinas, an undocumented student who has plans on being the first in her family to graduate from college, said her mother stopped attending school after second grade. “A lot of kids have their parents to help them do their homework, but a lot of kids like me don’t,” she said. “Our family’s not educated. They have sacrificed a lot for me to get educated. If it wasn’t for the Lottery Scholarship, I wouldn’t be here.” Salinas is a mentor at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School, through the Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) New Mexico program. She said she works at ENLACE to encourage students throughout the state to become interested in higher education. Salinas gave the Daily Lobo permission to publish her immigration status. She said
she is concerned about the recent rise in required credit hours for students to be eligible for the Lottery Scholarship. “When I was in high school, I was warned against taking five classes because it would jeopardize my academic success,” she said. “You get the hang of it, and I’ve taken five classes for the longest time, but that first semester is the hardest. It really tests you. To right away throw them in the deep end will leave a lot of students overwhelmed.” On Feb. 20, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 347, which increased the credit hour requirement of the Legislative Lottery Scholarship at four-year institutions from 12 to 15 credit hours. In a study published by New Mexico State University before Senate Bill 347 was passed, 69 percent of eligible minority students in the state would be negatively affected by an increase in credit hours. Senior program manager of El Centro de la Raza Jorge Garcia said that although he understands the purpose for raising the credit hour requirement, the student feedback he’s heard suggests more problems than solutions. Garcia said that many students,
minority or otherwise, were not represented by the passed bill. “There was an issue from within the student government here at UNM that they were speaking on behalf of the students, but then there was this overwhelming response that the students didn’t feel they were speaking in their behalf when it came to this issue,” he said. Garcia said he disagreed with President Frank’s recent State of the University address Friday, saying that Frank’s speech focused on financial goals as opposed to goals for students. “It seems to me that we’re meeting the needs of the University and not the other way around,” he said. “If education is a way to equalize inequalities, we’re making it harder for some students coming from low-income communities to have the same opportunities.” Although Salinas is concerned about the raise in required credit hours, she said she is still working to encourage the students she mentors to pursue a college education through the help of the Lottery Scholarship.
She said she is trying to raise awareness of the fact that undocumented students can apply for the scholarship. “For me, talking about being undocumented is not a big deal,” she said. “For a lot of my students, they’re really shy about it, saying ‘I don’t know if I should be saying anything.’ It’s just a matter of getting their trust, to say ‘Yeah, I am undocumented, and I want to go to school.’” Senate Bill 582, which was passed in 2005, states that “public post-secondary educational institutions shall not deny admissions based on immigration status,” and that “all qualified residents of New Mexico are eligible for in-state tuition as well as state-funded financial aid, regardless of immigration status.” Salinas plans on graduating next fall with a degree in media arts. She said that she hopes to continue to reach out and tell her story through film. “I want to tell our stories in a way that everyone can understand,” she said. “Everyone can sit down and watch a movie, regardless of what their ethnicity is. Not everyone is going to pick up a Chicano studies book.”
Silver City celebrates blacklisted ‘50s film Russell Contreras Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 1954 movie about a real-life miners’ strike that was blacklisted during the Red Scare is being celebrated in New Mexico as the 60th anniversary
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 118
issue 109
of the film approaches. “Salt of the Earth” was blacklisted in the U.S. during Cold War retribution against communist filmmakers and gained an underground following more than a decade later when it was finally shown. The story was told through the eyes of a female character
named Esperanza as Mexican-American miners barred by federal law from striking against a zinc company were replaced on the picket lines by their wives. It became a feminist and Chicano Studies classic, and it was the subject of conferences over race, miner
Gabrielle Torres
Tensions rise
see Page 2
see Page 5
safety and the role of women in the workforce. The town of Silver City is scheduled to hold “Salt of the Earth Day” on March 14. The union representing deputies from the same sheriff ’s office that once tried to break the strike and run over female strikers is sponsoring
a screening and a bus tour of the mining site depicted in the film. “I think there is a lot of atoning going on,” said Miles Conway, an organizer with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18
see Salt PAGE 3
TODAY
64 |37