In 1988 when Yosimar Reyes was three, his family brought him from Mexico to San Jose. Though undocumented, he felt at home in the city’s Kollmar neighborhood and especially in his apartment complex, where the majority of residents were immigrants. “I loved the communal feeling of the apartments and my friends at school,” he said. “I felt like I belonged.” Reyes studied hard and went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University.
It wasn’t until after college that he truly began to understand the impact of his status. Without work authorization, Reyes was forced to work off the books and ended up on a computer product assembly line. “The work conditions were terrible,” he said. “Supervisors would treat you like a child. They don’t see you as equal.”
Everything changed for the better in 2012, when at 25, Reyes became eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He was hired as a librarian at his alma mater and earned a living wage. “It gave me access to upward mobility,” he says.
Today, Reyes makes his living as a poet, storyteller and advocate. The one-man show he wrote, titled “Prieto” (Mexican slang for “dark”), is currently touring across the country. He’s concerned about the status of DACA in the courts. But more broadly, he wants Americans to appreciate the unseen factory workers fueling the tech industry’s success. They have little economic power, he says. Even neighbors in his old apartment building have been forced to move because of rising rents.
Reyes welcomes the county’s support for nonprofits that mentor and educate immigrant youth. But he thinks Santa Clara can do more to help its immigrant workers—especially undocumented ones—share in the prosperity they’ve helped create. “Everyone needs opportunity to access upper mobility. The future of Silicon Valley depends on it,” he says.
