Help Francisco Mireles with his studies

Kenji Hakuta, Jorge and Consuelo Aguilar, and I started this fundraiser to support our friend and colleague Francisco Mireles. 

These funds will help him get a cell phone, which he does not have, and also get a new computer, both of which are required for his studies, including interviews with migrants.  The funds will also help him with bus fare to Mexico City to meet with his adviser.  

Francisco is an  indigenous zapoteco from Oaxaca. He was brought to the US at age 15, and graduated from Madera High School and Fresno State University before being deported 10 years ago.  Demonstrating remarkable resilience, he has built a personal and professional life against all obstacles and is currently studying to obtain a doctorate in political science at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM), the best public university of Mexico.  He was also just accepted to a joint graduate program offered by La Universidad Iberoamericana and the University of California. 

Francisco's goal is to obtain a doctorate, become a researcher, and collaborate with the migrant communities in México and the United States to promote better public policies at the binational and regional levels.

His applied research project is about the emigrant population from Oaxaca to the United States who have returned or were deported to Oaxaca, Mexico. As a result of the project, he plans to form a nonprofit organization, La Casa del Migrante de Oaxaca, to support and serve the returned /deported migrant community in Oaxaca. The Mexican federal and state governments do not have a program to effectively serve this population. La Casa will collaborate with public and private institutions in Mexico and the United States.   

Francisco is uniquely suited for this because he is trilingual, tricultural, and familiar with immigration on both sides of the border. He has been a student and community leader, with extensive internship experience  with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the Great Valley Center, and Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) in North Carolina.

Oaxaca is in the top five states of Mexico for the returned and deported migrant population, with an estimated 220, 000 Oaxacan migrants deported, in addition to those who returned ¨voluntarily¨ between 2012 and 2018.  An estimated 20,000 Oaxacans emigrate to the United States every year, with California the primary destination; two million people from Oaxaca currently live in the United States.