May 31st, 2008
The UCLA Labor Center banquet was a much larger event than I anticipated! When I first arrived at its venue, the gigantic cathedral in Downtown L.A., I was surprised by the massive sign-in table while about one hundred guests milled about in semi-formal attire. I stepped outside for fifteen minutes, and when I returned, the sold-out crowd had ballooned to *over seven hundred* guests (according to Kent Wong's count, but that only included tickets sold, not student guests like myself)! The lobby was so full, bodies were pressed against each other, and everywhere I looked, I recognized many VIPs -- Senator Gil Cedillo (that night's honoree), Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, and Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, not to mention the ones I wouldn't be able to immediately spot in a crowd. After Janna introduced me to an overwhelming number of labor leaders from all over the state, we were seated in the massive formal dining area, as Kent Wong gave an energetic welcome, and dinner was served.
I began to panic when I realized that -- aside from Senator Cedillo and the rest of the night's special honorees -- I would essentially be the only speaker of the night to the gigantic crowd. Janna comforted me by suggesting that I picture the audience as "a bunch of cabbage heads," and it actually did help a lot. After Tam's documentary was shown, Kent introduced me to speak, and it actually wasn't that intimidating! I'm sure it helped that everyone there was already familiar with, and friendly toward, the issue -- and everyone cheered when I mentioned how the book is the most successful of all of the Labor Center books so far. I really tried to stress the importance of the book even for those who might already be familiar/supportive, and I think we got a great amount of interest and an incredible crowd response. (Funnily enough, I think it was pretty cool that I got a standing ovation when I walked onstage -- but NOT when I walked offstage. That made it pretty clear that everyone was in enthusiastic support and celebration of "me as representative of the issue itself," not just "me as one individual who gave a good speech," so that's definitely a great thing, if that makes any sense.) In their respective speeches, the honorees of the evening dedicated a lot of attention to the DREAM Act as well while onstage.
After I sat down, Susan later pulled me into the hallway where she, Tam and Gaby were selling books, because some of the guests were asking to speak to me. We sold a ton of books very quickly, and I (and Gaby!) signed many of them (which made Susan call me "Rockstar" all evening). I was really amazed how much support we got from lots of labor leaders who I wouldn't expect to show interest -- I got tons of business cards from people who purchased to book who were members of, for instance, sound engineer unions. It really opened my eyes to how wide our support can be, not just necessarily with groups who normally focus on immigration or education issues. It made me very excited about the book's ties to the labor center, and all of the instant interest that creates. In the end, we sold every book except for 3 remaining copies (which we would have easily sold in three minutes, but we had to clear out our table right away -- even though there were still dozens of guests lingering in the dining room who didn't get to see our table, awww). I don't know how many books we started out with, but it was a LOT!
I met so many great supporters, including an L.A.-suburb councilmember's wife who is still undocumented and is just about to graduate from UCLA (and doesn't even qualify for AB540!). I also spoke with an amazing woman who related her difficult struggle working multiple jobs to attend UC Berkeley in the 60s, because she simply never *knew* about scholarships and grants even though she DID qualify for them. (She contributed a donation toward my personal tuition fund in encouragement, which was amazing.) Altogether, I was in awe of the level of excitement, interest and support we received from so many groups I had never truly considered reaching out to before.
I began to panic when I realized that -- aside from Senator Cedillo and the rest of the night's special honorees -- I would essentially be the only speaker of the night to the gigantic crowd. Janna comforted me by suggesting that I picture the audience as "a bunch of cabbage heads," and it actually did help a lot. After Tam's documentary was shown, Kent introduced me to speak, and it actually wasn't that intimidating! I'm sure it helped that everyone there was already familiar with, and friendly toward, the issue -- and everyone cheered when I mentioned how the book is the most successful of all of the Labor Center books so far. I really tried to stress the importance of the book even for those who might already be familiar/supportive, and I think we got a great amount of interest and an incredible crowd response. (Funnily enough, I think it was pretty cool that I got a standing ovation when I walked onstage -- but NOT when I walked offstage. That made it pretty clear that everyone was in enthusiastic support and celebration of "me as representative of the issue itself," not just "me as one individual who gave a good speech," so that's definitely a great thing, if that makes any sense.) In their respective speeches, the honorees of the evening dedicated a lot of attention to the DREAM Act as well while onstage.
After I sat down, Susan later pulled me into the hallway where she, Tam and Gaby were selling books, because some of the guests were asking to speak to me. We sold a ton of books very quickly, and I (and Gaby!) signed many of them (which made Susan call me "Rockstar" all evening). I was really amazed how much support we got from lots of labor leaders who I wouldn't expect to show interest -- I got tons of business cards from people who purchased to book who were members of, for instance, sound engineer unions. It really opened my eyes to how wide our support can be, not just necessarily with groups who normally focus on immigration or education issues. It made me very excited about the book's ties to the labor center, and all of the instant interest that creates. In the end, we sold every book except for 3 remaining copies (which we would have easily sold in three minutes, but we had to clear out our table right away -- even though there were still dozens of guests lingering in the dining room who didn't get to see our table, awww). I don't know how many books we started out with, but it was a LOT!
I met so many great supporters, including an L.A.-suburb councilmember's wife who is still undocumented and is just about to graduate from UCLA (and doesn't even qualify for AB540!). I also spoke with an amazing woman who related her difficult struggle working multiple jobs to attend UC Berkeley in the 60s, because she simply never *knew* about scholarships and grants even though she DID qualify for them. (She contributed a donation toward my personal tuition fund in encouragement, which was amazing.) Altogether, I was in awe of the level of excitement, interest and support we received from so many groups I had never truly considered reaching out to before.
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