Immigration, Sports, and Resistance: An Interview with Carlos Borja

After Carlos Borja built an award-winning track team, he was fired for refusing to oust his assistant coach, who was undocumented.

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Ochoa: And the athletic director, how do you think he felt in the end?

Borja: I think he found himself in the wrong. I think he realized that we were not pushovers; he dealt with the wrong people. We were such a small group, but we were powerful within the running community. We had a lot of support from other teams, other schools, just people around the community who knew running. So, I think he finally realized, “I made a mistake with this small group of Mexicanos.” Because they think that Mexicanos are afraid to go to meetings and to take a stand. He thought, “Parents aren’t going to organize.” He was wrong.

Gilda L. Ochoa ( gochoa@pomona.edu) teaches Chicana/o-Latina/o studies and sociology at Pomona College. She is the author of Learning from Latino Teachers and Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community.