Esly Reyes Blog

I Made it Through Undergrad
June 1, 2020

The last four years have been a roller-coaster. I entered Regis University thinking I wanted to go into law and that nothing could go wrong. I miscalculated.  

My first year at university was during the presidential election. When it was announced that President Trump won, I cried. I needed someone to tell me it would be okay. I felt that the world that I knew was breaking by finding out how much people hate Latinos and other minorities. That first semester made me pessimistic. I realized that no matter how much people fought to be equal and to be accepted, nothing has changed. Luckily, to end my first year I got a job at the Center for Service Learning, an office that connects students with the community to do service, and helps students be in solidarity with the community they are serving. This office opened its doors to me and helped me immensely in the following years. This is also the year that two of my mentors who were attending the University of Colorado Law School, had me attend one of their classes each. I enjoyed being able to be in those classes and getting a glimpse of what law school would be like, and even though at that moment I didn’t belong, I felt that when it was my turn to be there I wouldn’t feel out of place. 

In my second year, like my first, there were good moments, bad ones, and many new experiences. During my first semester, I was able to go to the School of the Americas Watch in Nogales, Arizona, and I learned more about the US intervention in the Americas, especially in El Salvador. This was the start of my interest in Latin America. Then during the spring semester, I had the privilege to go to Bakersfield California, and spend a week with Mary, an old lawyer for the United Farm Workers. I learned more about UFW, the legal side of UFW, that they are working on recently, and I was able to attend a court hearing between the UFW and one of the agricultural companies. I was able to go through an agreement between them and LSYWC, I am so grateful to have been able to go and learn more about the immigrant and Latino struggle that I knew little to nothing about before this trip.  

During my third year, not a lot happened. I became more interested in Latin America through my classes, I was learning more about to work against injustices. The biggest take away from my third year was that maybe law school wouldn’t be for me. There was a lot of conversations with my mentors about my doubt into going into law. They were supportive and full of great advice. Yet, I kept telling myself to go to law school.  So much so that I took LSAT classes, that the program paid for. Unfortunately, I never took the LSAT. I kept avoiding signing up for the test, telling myself that I needed more time. It took me my first semester and winter break to realized why I was hesitant to sign up for the LSAT. The reason: law school and being a lawyer is not for me.  

This past year I was part of an intentional living community called Romero House, in honor of St. Oscar Romero and six Jesuit Priest who were assassinated in El Salvador during the civil war and became martyrs. During this time, I learned more about liberation theology and how that has part of tools many people in Latin America used to demand social equality, in countries were the church used to use religion to oppress. I also went to the School of the Americas Watch in Ft. Benning, where the school is located to protest the existence of this school, since it was a school that trained Latin American soldiers torture tactics, and man of the graduates proceeded to commit massacres. With Romero House, I went on a pilgrimage to Guatemala and El Salvador and met people who were affected by the civil wars. Some of the people I met suffered so much and the US was part of causing that misery, by either financially backing these wars, or training the soldiers who committed horrific murder to their people. But I also met Americans who were living in solidarity with the communities and helping them be able to keep surviving after so much destruction. The reason I am talking about the Salvadorian and Guatemalan Civil war, the impact and US involvement, is because during that trip I accepted that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I wanted to be able to learn more about Latin America and US intervention. Which now leads me to want to get a master’s in Public Policy, or Latin American Studies. I think I would have gotten to this point if I wasn’t in LSYWC, but I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities I did, I wouldn’t have had law school as a potential option, nor would I have had the immense support I have gotten for the past four years. 

The Support Beams for My Future
June 7, 2019

When I was younger, I had lofty dreams, but I never knew what it would take to achieve them. My parents never went to college, and that is what motivated me to pursue a higher education. I wanted to be many things, but then I landed on wanting to be a lawyer. To be truthful, sometimes I felt that my dream of becoming a lawyer was to make everyone else happy, or proud that I wanted to do something “big.” It felt as if I was not doing it for myself. During high school, I had doubts about this, whether to pursue becoming a lawyer. It was not because of the slim pipeline into law, but because I did not think I was good enough or strong enough to stay on top of everything in college that would enable me to attend law school. Then I heard about Law School… Yes We Can, and I saw a support group for students who wanted to be lawyers. It felt like a sign when I wanted to give up on my dream. 

The biggest benefit this program gave me this year was not all the classes, not that those did not help. It was knowing that there was a support group with the other Fellows, and especially my mentors, when I felt that I could not keep going in college. My mentors have helped me so much. For a while, I thought that I would not want to go to law school because I felt like I would not belong, but my mentors, who are still in law school, took me to sit in on one of their classes. I really was out of place because I am a freshman in college, but I felt that I could do it. I could go to law school and belong there. 

Having classes was so helpful. They weren't classes without a purpose. In each class we learned something about how to succeed or about ourselves. We learned about how we learn and what to do to help ourselves while in class. We learned about our personality and what that meant. So far, the class that I found the most helpful was the one on how to write a resume, a cover letter, and how to ace an interview. This class would have definitely been helpful in high school when I had to do interviews for scholarships. I went into those scholarship interviews unprepared and, in some of them, I was lucky enough to receive the scholarships, but, in others, I believe that I would have succeeded if I had a stronger interview.

“Sí, Se Puede” is a phrase born of farmworkers, who, under the leadership of the UFW, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta, fought valiantly for equal protection under the law. As a result of the efforts of the UFW, “Sí, Se Puede” has become well known as a call that engenders hope and inspiration in those who face similar battles. We thank the UFW, whom we acknowledge to be the sole and exclusive owner of the Trademark SI SE PUEDE, for granting us a limited license to use“Sí, Se Puede” in connection with our efforts to recruit, in Colorado, students of Hispanic or Latino descent for our law school pipeline program. For more information about the programs offered by the UFW, please see UFW’s webpage (www.ufw.org); UFW Foundation’s webpage (www.ufwfoundation.org); and UFWF’s immigration services webpage (www.sisepuede.org)