Oral history interview with Liliana Luna, 2019 July 12

This oral history interview with Liliana Luna was conducted by Dora Totoian and Sankar Raman on July 12, 2019. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States.

In this interview, Luna discusses her early life in Mexico City, Michoacán, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, including her family life, her education, and the houses her family lived in. She describes the dangers of life in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, and shares the reasons her family came to Portland, Oregon, in 2005. She speaks about her experience as an undocumented immigrant. She talks about adjusting to life in the United States, about her experience in high school, and about racism she experienced. She discusses studying at Portland Community College; talks about her involvement with Oregon Dream Activists, an organization that advocates for rights for undocumented immigrants; and speaks about her participation in the 2012 May Day protest in Portland, in which she was arrested. She talks about her experiences studying at Portland State University as a person of color and an undocumented immigrant, shares her plans for the future, and speaks at length about her activism. She talks about her accomplishments, and shares her opinion about American culture. She closes the interview by discussing the experience of immigrants during the presidency of Donald Trump, and by discussing the abolition of borders.