The University of Texas at San Antonio, or UTSA, is paying attention to their undocumented student population and helping them achieve higher education through their Dreamers Resource Center (00:17).
Then, Mission Indians in San Antonio were handed ownership of the city’s missions by the Spanish friars over two centuries ago. TPR’s Norma Martinez explores the narrative Native Americans are trying to reestablish in the Alamo City (13:44).
Dreamers Center A "Safe Place" For Undocumented Students
According to Texas law, undocumented students who have been living in the state for at least three years prior to receiving their high school diploma or GED are eligible for in-state tuition. But it’s not a policy that’s well-known to these students or their parents.
In 2018, UTSA established a Dreamers center to offer resources geared towards the obstacles all undocumented students face.
The center’s assistant director, Courtney Balderas-Jacob, UTSA professor Enrique Aleman, and UTSA alumna and Dreamer Andrea Ramos-Fernandez discuss the Center’s progress in the first year and its future plans.
We're Still Here' — 10,000 Years Of Native American History Re-Emerges
On March 5, 1731, Spanish friars essentially handed the keys to San Antonio’s missions to the Native American families who lived there. Just four days later, 56 residents from the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands landed in San Antonio, sent by Spain’s King Felipe the Fifth to establish the first official government in the province of Texas. And with that, thousands of years of Native American history in San Antonio began to disappear.
Norma Martinez, the host of Texas Public Radio’s “Fronteras,” attends a Founder’s Day celebration to better understand the ongoing effort to rewrite this lost narrative.
Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter @NormDog1 and Lauren Terrazas can be reached at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter @terrazas_lauren.
