Workers' Rights Organizer
Victor Hugo Urquiza Cervantes (he/him) is an organizer, community activist, and undocumented writer with a passion for radical changes and revolutionary love. Born in Michoacán, Mexico to a dedicated working-class family, in 2005 Victor migrated to the United States when he was four years old. Victor spent most of his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia where he began to discover his love for social justice. Victor’s dedication to fighting for immigrants, workers, and oppressed people stems from witnessing his parent’s exploitation as undocumented workers. Fueled by the values of perseverance, dedication, and education that his parents instilled in him, Victor was awarded the Dream U.S. Scholarship to attend Delaware State University in 2019.
Victor majored in Political science and minored in Philosophy at Delaware State. It was during his undergraduate journey that Victor’s political conscience deepened as he began to better understand the root causes of exploitation, inequality, racism, poverty, war, and many other prominent social issues. For 3 years he served as corresponding secretary for the immigrant rights campus organization Dreamers Activism & Community Alliance. Here he organized other undocumented students by using popular education and by organizing protests, rallies, and other community events around the plight of undocumented youth. Victor worked as a Research Assistant with the Delaware State Neighborhood Revitalization and Research program around gun violence, racism, and community engagement. During his senior year, Victor also worked as a Writing Tutor with the Delaware State University Integrated Academic Support Service.
Victor has done extensive academic research examining Mexico's neoliberal economic and political changes that caused millions to migrate. This research aimed to generate political science theories on Mexican migration, and the nation's political economy, and offer a new radical perspective on undocumented migrants. Victor also conducted interview research with undocumented students at Delaware State analyzing the root causes of migration and had this research titled DREAMers: Who They Are and Why They Are Here published by Delaware State University. As a UCLA Dream Summer Fellow in 2023, he researched federal policies on immigration reform with the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education & Immigration.
For the past four years, Victor has been actively involved in community organizing across Delaware, Philadelphia, and North Carolina. He views the fight for workers as intertwined with struggles for black liberation, immigrant rights, and anti-imperialist movements, believing in collective freedom. He believes that no one is free until we are all free.
An avid reader and writer, Victor is currently working on publishing articles on politics, history, and philosophy. With aspirations of earning a Ph.D. in political science and becoming a professor, he envisions contributing to transformative change.
Article published on Migrant Roots Media: The Plunder of Mexico and My Journey as an Undocumented, Anti-Imperialist Organizer
To keep updated with his political writing, follow Victor at https://medium.com/@urquiza.victor09