Why These High School Valedictorians Came Out as Undocumented at Graduation

Two teen girls took the stage at their Texas high school graduations this month, long, dark hair spilling out below their graduation caps. The girls, both valedictorians—Larissa Martinez in McKinney, Texas, and Mayte Lara in Austin—had never met nor spoken, but that day they became inextricably linked. After they donned their caps and gowns that day, both told the world a secret that would later go viral: They're undocumented immigrants.

"Valedictorian, 4.5 GPA, full tuition paid for at UT, 13 cords/metals—oh, and I'm undocumented," Lara tweeted on June 3, just after her graduation speech, in which she encouraged her Crockett High School class to "celebrate this moment because it's yours to enjoy."

Hours later, Martinez would address her graduating class at McKinney Boyd High School, where she announced: "I am one of the eleven million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States. The most important part of the debate, and the part people often overlook, is that undocumented immigrants are people too. People with dreams, aspirations, hopes, and loved ones. People like me."

Lara, 17, and Martinez, 19, hoped their words might resonate with their peers, but neither could have anticipated the flood of support, hate messages, and national headlines that they inspired. So rather than celebrate their first two weeks post-high school relaxing, the young women have stepped into a new identity as the faces of undocumented students in America.

"We actually started a group chat, and there are four us in pretty much the same situation," Martinez told VICE of her growing connection with Lara and two other undocumented new graduates in Texas. "When I heard about Mayte, I had already delivered my speech—it wasn't something we had planned—but when I read about what happened, I got in touch."

Martinez, who is headed to Yale on a scholarship this fall, grew up in Mexico City where she attended a bilingual Spanish-English school. Every summer she and her mother visited their family in McKinney, Texas, on tourist visas. But by the time she turned 13, Martinez begged her mother to move to McKinney for good.

"There were a lot of factors. The main one was the bad relationship my mom and I had with my dad, because he was an alcoholic and really aggressive," Martinez told VICE, "but also things were deteriorating as a whole over there so we wanted a better opportunity."

So that year, when Martinez and her mother and sister visited Texas, they didn't leave. The girls enrolled in school, and Martinez dove into her studies, viewing education as the way to change her family's life. Only when she entered sophomore year of high school did Martinez start to feel held back by her status.

"Everyone in my class started working and driving—things I realized I can't do," said Martinez, who cannot get a work permit or driver's license since she is undocumented. "Especially when it came to the college process, it hit me most that being undocumented could be detrimental to my applying to college."

Martinez found a scholarship program specifically designed for undocumented students applying to top-tier schools, and she applied, ranking Yale as her first choice.

"The whole month before I found out was the hardest month—I cried every day," Martinez said. "I'd always talk with my mother's side of family who are undocumented, and they'd say, 'Why would they choose you instead of an American citizen?' I started thinking about that a lot."

Lara, whose family came from Mexico to US when she was a toddler, said she felt like an American early on.

"As a child, I always knew I wasn't born here in America, but that didn't worry me then. I was raised in Austin, Texas, and I always considered myself from here, even though I am not from here," she told VICE. "I remember always placing my right hand over my heart every morning to say the Pledge [of Allegiance], and how normal it was for me."

As she grew older, though, Lara realized the profound limits she faced as an undocumented immigrant. In high school, as her friends "began talking about registering to vote, traveling, and applying for financial aid through FAFSA," it hit her that she wouldn't be able to do any of those things.

Since Martinez and Lara were both exceptional students, they were able to secure rare scholarships for undocumented students, and they both plan to embark on a profession in science or math: Martinez wants to be a neurosurgeon, and Lara is considering actuarial science, nutritional sciences, data analysis, or economics.

Their goals don't stop at their own futures: Both young women hope to inspire their undocumented peers.

In the wake of her graduation, Martinez has "been trying to do as much as possible" to continue spreading the word about her story, giving interviews to a variety of outlets with the hope of opening Americans' minds about immigration.

"What motivated me to give my speech was knowing that a lot of people grow up in bubbles protected from the outside world, so I thought by sharing this in my speech the kids and families might be exposed for the first time to what an undocumented person looks like and what their story is like," she told VICE.

Lara, who said her tweet was thought up "in like twenty seconds" and "wasn't meant to be taken as a political statement," wasn't prepared for the backlash.

"The support came accompanied by harsh comments," she told VICE. "People began to say I didn't deserve my scholarships, that I needed to go back to Mexico, that I was a piece of shit, that they were reporting me… I was bombarded." Eventually, she deactivated her Twitter account because she would have needed to "block thousands of accounts" to feel safe.

"My best advice to other undocumented students is to keep going, and don't be afraid. I've never been afraid to say that I'm not from here. It's just something that has made me work harder," Lara said. "So to all the undocumented students out there who are afraid and unmotivated—don't be. Work hard and show the world the great things were capable of. Together, we can shine a light on the broken immigration system, and make America great again."

Follow Meredith Hoffman on Twitter.