ABSTRACT
The narrative inquiry begins with Chapter 3 and what can be constituted as one of the first public undocumented life narratives: the testimonies of Martine Mwanj Kalaw, Marie Nazareth Gonzalez, and Tam Tran during a Congressional Hearing titled “Comprehensive Immigration Reform: The Future of Undocumented Immigrant Students” on May 18, 2007. While individual cases of disclosing one’s undocumented status publicly were documented as early as 2002, this event is notable as the three undocumented students spoke directly and in public to the very establishment that had power over the DREAM Act bill—the U.S. government. Being Congressional witnesses, they each presented a succinct account of their lives thus far and why they should not be excluded from the American community, grounding their claims largely on frameworks of meritocracy, exceptionalism and worthiness. As such, the testimonies are read as exemplary narratives of what is called the generic DREAMer narrative: Largely based on the narrative the pro-DREAM Act politicians had spun for eligible candidates, it reinforces the strategic binary of desirable vs. undesirable immigrant through the narrative’s characterization of the undocumented youth as an exceptional student worthy of citizenship, and thus at the same time inhibits potential criticism to the predominant conception of immigration in the United States.
