Belinda Hernandez Alum Story

We interviewed Belinda Hernandez who told us about her Encampment experiences (as an Encamper and intern and beyond) and summed up what she learned by saying, “I learned the importance of staying curious and seeking truth through the lives of other people who experience it in different corners of the nation.”

Tell us a little about your current life. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a legal advocate at a nonprofit providing immigration legal services. I’ve been doing legal services in different capacities since I graduated from undergrad [UC Berkeley]. When I’m not working, I am exploring the food scene or learning more dance steps in a ballroom setting.

What did you learn at the Encampment? I’m always curious about what our recent alums have to say after time has passed — I think over a decade now for you?

Yes, it’s over a decade at this point — 2015 Mississippi. As I reflect back, I would say I learned the importance of staying curious and seeking truth through the lives of other people who experience it in different corners of the nation.

In addition to my full-time work in immigration law, I’ve also been working on law school applications in the past few months. In my personal statements, I’ve written extensively about the Encampment. I detail how the Encampment experience was the entry point to understanding our struggles, histories, and victories. Before the 2015 summer program, I perceived the U.S. to be Ventura County, which included migrants from Mexico and farmwork. Through recounting their lived experiences, my fellow Encampers widened my view of the U.S. I learned about other communities and their history in the development of the U.S. I quickly learned that our seemingly separate struggles were, in fact, connected. Wins in immigrant and farmworker rights in Ventura County also meant a win for my kin in the South. A win in voter right access in the South was a win for us in Ventura County.

I learned to be invested in the collective on a national level. For me, pursuing social justice was no longer specific for those in Ventura County but also those in Pine Ridge [South Dakota], Duck Hill [Mississippi], and Springfield [Massachusetts]. I’ve kept the stories of my peers close to my heart in my pursuit of social justice.

I also want to point out that I was 15 years old when I participated in the 2015 summer Encampment. I also didn’t have an immigration benefit — no DACA or work permit to identify myself. Yet, I trusted I would be okay travelling several states away from my family with only my sophomore student ID. I was drawn to the Encampment. I trusted my intuition and the adults that I would be safe. I don’t take that for granted or lightly. In the most literal sense, the Encampment also allowed me to disrupt the fear of movement. I was taught that being invisible and staying put was the safest for me. I safely travelled as somebody who has been taught that traveling was not something that I could afford. Not just financially, but on a risk level. I learned how to trust adults in that sense and to foster that trust within myself. I harnessed inner trust to imagine and embark outside of the limits imposed to me as a young migrant. I grew confident in my ability to move around within the country and ultimately live and study in the Bay Area.

How has the Encampment influenced your life? I’ve stayed connected with the Encampment since I started. I learned that community is the way forward and worthwhile as I continue to do public service work. I think about what it would look like for me to pursue the private sector and I look back at my experiences with community-led spaces like the Encampment. I don’t think the private sector is the space for me. I’ve learned to seek spaces that honor connection to advance justice with others. I don’t think I can do that in the private sector.

Clearly, the desire to be in community has had an impact on my career, but it has also impacted my personal life. I continue to connect with Margot [Gibney] and Steve [Leibman] and other alums like Vivian [Calderon] and Bob [Hirsch] and Shauna [Marshall]. These are people that I consider my family and who are my community. I’ve also shared trips with other alums like A’Shaela [Chaires] and Angel [Mendez]; and they form part of my everyday life. On a personal level, my community is the Encampment.

Because community has been transformative for me, I’m looking to build community and allow others to be in community. I do immigration rights because I am an immigrant, and for me, it makes sense to do this work as somebody who’s directly impacted. But beyond my personal connection to the undocumented experience, I want more than a work permit for people. I want others to have their basic needs met that come with legal status so they also have access to a community. I want others to be part of something that they are proud of, that is life-affirming. I believe community allows people to feel confident and feel like active agents in their own lives. That’s my hope for other migrants.

2015 Mississippi-Belinda, second row, far right.
2016 Massachusetts-Belinda, middle, second from right.
2017 Massachusetts--Belinda with her fellow interns.

Why is the Encampment important now? I’ve worked at several nonprofits, volunteering and paid. The Encampment is unique because of the intergenerational skill-sharing, resource-sharing, wisdom-sharing — you can’t find it in another place. It’s an organization that really values youth voices and youth agency. It allows young people to be young by stumbling into decisions for the collective. The Encampment allows young people to make decisions on their own without the intervention of interns or other staff. The Encampment honors uncomfortable conversations in a safe environment. It says a lot about respect for young people and the respect for their ideas, agency, and ability to resolve conflict. That experience was so important for me because it taught that I am capable of leadership positions at nonprofits.

I don’t know if the respect for human life is honored right now. I often think about the young people who are currently detained by ICE. They’re a particularly vulnerable group because they are not with safe adults. The disregard for migrants who are minors is very alarming to me. However, I feel hopeful because I know the Encampment is a whole organization that is committed to young people on so many levels: the summer program, year-long opportunities, being on a committee, being part of the board. These are all ways that the Encampment embodies that respect for young people and the desire to come up with solutions.

The InterGen Cafés are a good example of what happens when youth are encouraged and supported year-long. Preparation behind the InterGen Cafés is a lot of work, but young people lead the conversations, say their truth, and come up with ideas. There’s a lot to do across the nation. InterGen Cafés allow me to know what is going on in the rest of the country. What are people seeing? Maybe I can find that online, but I know the censorship is real. In the Cafés, I get to hear news from people who I’ve known and trusted for several years. It is like journalism— an honest, trustworthy news source.

Do you have a favorite memory or story from any of your Encampments? Any of my Encampments? I love that you say it as plural because I have taken advantage of every opportunity to be in the Encampment. Every time an internship position opened and I could do it, I was there.

It’s hard to choose, but I have two favorites. One is a time when we were at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2016. After a long day, staff told us that the following day, we would speak to an immigration judge and potentially see an immigration hearing. That required all of us to go to sleep early and wake up early. For those who have been at the Encampment, you know that the days are long and they’re tiring. If they’re telling you about it at the end of day, you don’t want to do that the next day if you have to wake up early.

A lot of my peers didn’t want to go and suggested we skip. I was an Encamper that year. Many were saying no, and that really hurt me because my contribution to the Encampment at that time was speaking about immigrant rights and undocumented people. To hear people dismissing the opportunity was hurtful.

We asked the staff to help us convince our peers to agree to the trip and they said, “Talk to your peers.” Angel and I called for a circle conversation and shared our legal status. Essentially, we said, “This is why it matters to us. Do others have a connection to migration even if you’re not undocumented or first-gen migrants?” That prompted a lot of young people who at that time, never disclosed their immigration status, to share how their family acquired status. During that conversation, some of our peers shared that they were first-generation Black immigrants from Africa. This was eye-opening for me because I thought immigration to be only from the Americas.

The conversation got us closer and we decided to go. We saw the judge talk to several migrants. We sat behind the immigrants facing the judge. We later debriefed about issues we saw in the court, such as language access. I am sure my peers remember that because of the current news regarding migrants. That was one of my favorite moments.

The other one was when our bus broke down in the middle of the road in Mississippi in 2015 on our way back to Tougaloo campus. The weather was hot and muggy. What made it bearable is that we had just come from a field trip, meeting local activists in their homes. A lot of us were visibly out of place, yet, we were welcomed with food and smiles. I hold that close to me. I now think of the South as synonymous with the Encampment and southern hospitality. I always felt people received us with open arms, and I’m sure that that was a lot of planning by staff.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you think is important for people to know about you or the Encampment?

The Encampment is one of the first few steps to a lifelong commitment to public service and community power. I think it’s hard to see the effect of the Encampment immediately. I don’t think it’s fair to young people to expect them to change their towns or cities, their counties, the reservations [immediately].

However, some of us hold leadership positions in public service several years later after the Encampment. I think it’s worth seeing the summer program as an investment in the long run. Personally, I wouldn’t be talking about immigrants’ rights so passionately in a space full of attorneys. Maybe it’s common for other people to be in a room of attorneys to talk about legal cases, but it isn’t common for me. I don’t come from a family of attorneys. I come from a family of farmworkers who right now are really scared.

But I’m still showing up in these spaces because I want better for all of us, and the Encampment has held me throughout all these years when I was too tired or fearful that immigration law wouldn’t be sustainable. We are here for the long run with each other, with Margot, with Steve. I think that is our proof. I’ve helped young people get out of detention safely. I’ve helped others obtain the immigration benefits they are entitled to. I help people who currently fear indefinite detention. I listen to people cry all the time, and I’m still here. I’m still here because of spaces like the Encampment that have taught me that I deserve to be here. We all do.

Belinda shows her commitment to the Encampment’s diversity by joining Peter Neufeld for our annual Spring Sponsorship Campaign. This is your chance to join them in contributing to make diversity at the Encampment possible. Click to DONATE ONLINE or send your gift to The Encampment, P.O. Box 1210, Aptos, CA 95001-1210. Our Federal EIN is 30-0694938.

Other ways to donate:

Through PayPal Giving Fund: https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/5006765
or our Venmo Charity handle: @Encampment4C

Belinda (second from right) at the 2024 InterGen Weekend in Alabama.

SAVE THE DATE

The ultimate mini-Encampment weekend is coming in July! Join us the weekend of July 17-19 for our in-person (and hybrid virtual) InterGen Weekend experience at the 2026 Encampment.

Do you know a young person who is passionate about justice? Find out more here: https://encampmentforcitizenship.org/efc-programs/how-to-apply/

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