I grew up in newsrooms. I've been in newsrooms since I was 17 years old. Journalism has been like my church; it's been like my identity. Jose Antonio Vargas More Quotes by Jose Antonio Vargas More Quotes From Jose Antonio Vargas As a newcomer to America who learned to 'speak American' by watching movies, I firmly believe that to change the politics of immigration and citizenship, we must change culture - the way we portray undocumented people like me and our role in society. Jose Antonio Vargas me politics change culture You know, I'm one of millions of undocumented people in this country who are living kind of under the shadows. And in many ways, coming out, it was my way of - at the end of the day, I think we have to tell the truth about this immigration system. And because of that, I had to tell the truth about myself. Jose Antonio Vargas day myself you truth In Tagalog, we call undocumented people 'TNT,' which means tago ng tago, which means 'hiding and hiding.' So that's literally what undocumented means in Tagalog. And that kind of tells you how Filipinos think of this issue, and really any culture, right? Jose Antonio Vargas think you culture people Laws are getting passed in states like Alabama that basically would punish American citizens who are 'harboring' people. Since the federal government hasn't been able to muster or to get comprehensive immigration reform passed, states are taking it upon themselves to police and enforce laws. Jose Antonio Vargas immigration police government people When you're undocumented, you're supposed to keep your head down and be quiet and pay taxes, social security - even though people don't know that we do those things - and not say anything. Jose Antonio Vargas down know you people When I was a kid, I resented my grandparents not speaking the perfect English I wanted to speak. Jose Antonio Vargas grandparents kid speak perfect Since I got to this country when I was 12, I've been obsessed with this idea of whiteness and blackness because I realized I was neither. For me, it was so important to me to make a film that focused on whiteness because you wouldn't have blackness if you didn't have whiteness. Jose Antonio Vargas me you important country On the surface, I've created a good life. I've lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant. Jose Antonio Vargas i-am good american-dream life There were many factors as to why I decided to come out as being undocumented. One of them is because I look the way that I look; I don't look like the 'stereotypical undocumented' person. Jose Antonio Vargas person like look way When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can always kind of manipulate, and I can always be delusional in a way that's completely self-serving. With film, it's like, the camera can't really lie. It can manipulate to a certain extent. Jose Antonio Vargas camera lie way past The language change on the first day of this administration, with Kamala Harris the daughter of immigrants, to me it's not just symbolic... it's foundational, how we describe people really sticks. It affects how we treat them. Jose Antonio Vargas We were in the President Trump in speeches administration the perennial boogeyman, president Trump in speeches was in trouble, President Trump in speeches started talking about the' illegals' and talking about the border. Jose Antonio Vargas Language has power. And I think we saw that in the Trump administration, how it used dehumanizing terms and how it debased language and in turn debased people, if you call them' alien,' of course you're going to put them in jail, of course you're going to lock them up, of course you're not going to care that you're separating little kids from their parents. Jose Antonio Vargas
