ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the argument made in Chapter 3 to one of the very first written collections of undocumented life stories: The collaborative student publication Underground Undergrads: UCLA Undocumented Immigrant Students Speak Out, published in 2008 in cooperation with the UCLA Labor Center. While challenging the negative depiction of themselves as “illegal aliens” is still considered highly significant in the publication, the three life narratives by Veronica Valdez, John Carlo, and Antonio Alvarez at the same time moved away from the by-then established narrative of the DREAMer, and instead identified with the broader label of being “undocumented.” This, in turn, enabled the narrative portrayals to include new facets, such as a sense of collectiveness, familial significance and group empowerment. Even though the narratives still showcase variations of the by-then legible and common DREAMer narrative, they also contained elements that provide opportunities for careful readers to adopt a more critical perspective on the oppressive force of (historical) immigration procedures, such as detentions, family separation and forced migrations.
