Click VIDEO to listen to the story

I am not an illegal. I am not. That was a lie. The lie that created all the lies that pulled me into darkness. I am not an illegal. My name, Reydesel, has its ancestral root in Rey de Sol. Or king of the sun. I was made for the light. I am a warrior of light. And no human being is illegal on these stolen lands.

 

Born for the Light: Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodríguez journey through the darkness and beyond the chains of anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric.

MONOLOGUIST’S BIO

Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodríguez migrated to the U.S. with his family from Mexico at the age of 10 and has been living in Denver for the last 17 years. Despite being legally deaf and undocumented, Salvidrez graduated from the University of Colorado of Denver (CU Denver), where he majored in Communications and Ethnic Studies. He was the first Undocumented Senator for the CU Denver Student Government Association. He is currently getting his Master’s Degree in higher education at Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver.

Mural location: Schlessman Library - 100 Poplar St, Denver, CO 80220

About Motus Theater’s collaboration with muralist edica pacha

Muralist Edica Pacha is installing 12 murals (six in Denver and six in Boulder, Colorado) featuring Motus Theater UndocuAmerica project monologists. Each mural includes a QR code to the English and Spanish video of the monologist reading their own story. Regardless of your perspective on immigration, the UndocuAmerica project allows you to know more about the impact of current immigration policies on the lives of undocumented families in Colorado.

FOR Other Ways to Experience and Share REY’s Story

  • Shoebox Stories UndocuAmerica Podcast Episode 3
    Nicholas Kristof is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and writes an op-ed column for The New York Times. He reads the story of Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodriguez, a legally deaf undocumented young man who was on the verge of killing himself before the DACA program was created that gave temporary legal status to undocumented young people brought to the U.S. before age 16 by their parents.