Putting a human face to a controversial issue is more difficult when that face is your own. NSNC keynote speaker José Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American, will share his story and the power of narrative at the NSNC’s Will Rogers Humanitarian Award banquet on Friday, June 8, 2018.
Vargas is a 37-year-old journalist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose career includes a Pulitzer Prize and other noteworthy awards. Despite his accomplishments, he kept a secret for 15 years. In a 2011 award-winning essay for The New York Times , he revealed that he is an undocumented immigrant. Vargas has said, “I am an American. I just don’t have the right papers.”
In 2011, Vargas founded Define American to promote the human rights
of immigrants through a positive, national dialogue about immigration reform. For his tireless work to humanize immigration’s complex issues, he graced the cover of Time Magazine that year. Vargas was instrumental in bringing about the DREAM Act, which halted the deportation of undocumented immigrants, age 30 and under, who were brought to the U.S. as children. Ironically, when the law took effect, Vargas had just turned 31 and did not qualify.
This fall, his book “Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen” (HarperCollins) will debut. Vargas launched #EmergingUS in 2015, to explore race and “evolving American identity” through video and commentary. His Emmy-nominated special on MTV, “White People,” explored what it means to be young and white in a demographically changing America. In 2014, his own story also was featured in “Documented: A film by an undocumented American,” presented by CNN Films.
His efforts transformed the national conversation, including the words used. Media usage of the dehumanizing terms “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” are no longer used by The Associated Press, now replaced with the word “undocumented.”
Born in the Philippines in 1981, Vargas was 12 years old when he came to live with his grandparents in California. At the age of 16, he discovered he was undocumented when he tried to get a driver’s license. Through a private scholarship, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in political science and Black Studies. His career as a journalist began in 2004. Fearful of deportation, he kept his status a secret until 2011.
As a young reporter with The Washington Post, Vargas combined his social media skills and an ability to create powerful narrative. In 2007, through Facebook, Vargas contacted victims and witnesses of the Virginia Tech shootings, and wrote three articles as a member of the investigative team:
“Students make connections at a time of disconnect,”
“Pop, pop, pop. Students down, doors barred, leaps to safety,” and,
“That was the desk I chose to die under.”
His contributing work led to a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for “Breaking News Coverage” for The Washington Post.
Vargas encourages a facts-based conversation about immigration through a deeper understanding of what defines being an American. Is it patriotism or paperwork?
Find out more: https://defineamerican.com
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Suzette Standring writes and teaches writing, and has broadened her career to include NSNC Executive Director.
