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Jose Antonio Vargas Quotes

Powerful Jose Antonio Vargas for Daily Growth

After I arrived in Mountain View, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, I entered sixth grade and quickly grew to love my new home, family and culture. I discovered a passion for language, though it was hard to learn the difference between formal English and American slang.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Love, Bay Area, Francisco, Slang

I wasn't supposed to be walking with Mark Zuckerberg. I wasn't supposed to be interviewing Romney's sons. Why was I doing it? Because I wanted to survive. I wanted to live. I wanted to earn what it means to be an American.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Doing, Interviewing, Means, None

Of all the questions I get asked as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, there are two - asked in various permutations via email, social media or in person - that chill me to the bone: 'Why don't you just make yourself legal?' And: 'Why don't you get in the back of the line?'

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Chill, Line, United, Asked

Culture is about humanizing people. You look at the African-American civil rights movement, you look at the LGBT rights movement - the culture changed before the politics did.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Politics, Before, About, African-American

The film 'Documented,' a project of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Define American campaign, is about my families: the family I was blessed to be born into, and the family of friends, mentors and allies that I found when I moved to the United States at 12, a Filipino kid trying to make sense of my new home in America.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Nonprofit, United, Moved, Documented

People don't really assume that I'm Filipino. Of course, they're gonna think, 'Oh, are you some sort of Hispanic?' and you say, 'No, I'm actually not.' I get Korean or Chinese a lot.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Think, Some, Gonna, Filipino

I found out that I was illegal when I was 16. I'm gay. I'm Filipino.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Gay, Found, Illegal, Filipino

One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby DMV office to get my driver's permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. 'This is fake,' she whispered. 'Don't come back here again.'

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Here, Some, Residency, Clerk

When I'm writing, I can always play around with tense. I can always make past present. I can always kind of manipulate, and I can always be delusional in a way that's completely self-serving. With film, it's like, the camera can't really lie. It can manipulate to a certain extent.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Lie, Play, Extent, Self-Serving

I traffic in empathy. I try to be vulnerable with people so they can be vulnerable back. I've always been searching for empathy in other people. It's when I feel most not alone.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Empathy, Always, Been, Traffic

Facebook's headquarters is a two-story building at the end of a quiet, tree-lined street. Zuckerberg nicknamed it the Bunker. Facebook has grown so fast that this is the company's fifth home in six years - the third in Palo Alto. There is virtually no indication outside of the Bunker's tenant.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Building, Years, Alto, Headquarters

In 2005, MTV Networks considered buying Facebook for seventy-five million dollars. Yahoo! and Microsoft soon offered much more. Zuckerberg turned them all down.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

More, Turned, Considered, Million Dollars

Kathy Dewar, my high-school English teacher, introduced me to journalism. From the moment I wrote my first article for the student paper, I convinced myself that having my name in print - writing in English, interviewing Americans - validated my presence here.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Student, Here, Interviewing, Article

I remember the first article I ever wrote, and I saw my name in the paper, and I already knew I was undocumented, and I was thinking: 'How can they now say I don't exist?'

- Jose Antonio Vargas

I Remember, Knew, Wrote, Article

I can't marry my way into citizenship like straight people can. I can get married in the state of New York where I live, but because of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government, which hands out visas, won't recognize my marriage.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Hands, I Can, Marry, Get Married

Film in many ways is very literal.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Film, Very, Ways, Literal

Laws are getting passed in states like Alabama that basically would punish American citizens who are 'harboring' people. Since the federal government hasn't been able to muster or to get comprehensive immigration reform passed, states are taking it upon themselves to police and enforce laws.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Been, American Citizens, Enforce

My mother made a choice. And when I was younger, I judged her for making that choice. Then I got older and got to be an adult, and I realized that was the ultimate sacrifice that any parent and any mother could possibly make.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Parent, Making, Younger, Possibly

When people saw that the film was called 'White People,' many got very defensive. I've been getting some very interesting emails - and I'm used to hate mail, believe me. I think this idea that we grouped white people together is offensive to people.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Some, Been, Very, Defensive

While in high school, I worked part time at Subway, then at the front desk of the local YMCA, then at a tennis club, until I landed an unpaid internship at 'The Mountain View Voice,' my hometown newspaper.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Voice, Newspaper, Part, Unpaid

For decades, I have cringed whenever someone called me 'illegal,' as if I'm an insect on someone's back. I found out I didn't have the right papers - that I was here illegally - when I tried to get a driver's permit at age 16. But I am not 'illegal.' No person is.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Back, Here, Papers, Decades

The Internet is changing the way we think of our relationship with government; it has the potential to bring to life what Abraham Lincoln said about the presidency being an instrument of the people.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Think, Bring, About, None

I worked for 'The Chronicle' in San Francisco, and immigration is a big issue in that region.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

San Francisco, Francisco, Region

The more successful I got, the more scared I got. My name was all over Google. I had a Wikipedia page I was terrified to look at. And so I just snapped. I thought, 'If I'm going to come out with this, I'm going to do it in a big way. And not just for myself. This can't just be my story.'

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Thought, Big, Had, Scared

All I've ever done since I was 17 is tell stories. You know, I'm a storyteller. And that's what I'm going to keep on doing, especially now, kind of embracing and making sure that we tell immigration.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Doing, Immigration, Making, Embracing

Facebook's privacy policies are confusing to many people, and the company has changed them frequently, almost always allowing more information to be exposed in more ways.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Always, Almost, Frequently, Exposed

We cannot change the politics issue until we change the culture around it; until we talk about what parents do for their kids as an act of love. That's a cultural conversation.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Love, Politics, Issue, Conversation

Technology and the Internet are not just changing politics here in the U.S. It's also happening abroad. In the Philippines, where I grew up, grassroots organizers used text messaging to help overthrow a president.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Politics, Here, Used, Philippines

When it comes to fighting for citizenship that many people take for granted, there isn't anyone I would not talk to. When it comes to immigration, there isn't any question I will not answer.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Immigration, Question, Will, Take For Granted

As I graduated from public schools and started working in newsrooms, I told myself that I am only the 'illegal' that my own country has not bothered to get to know.

- Jose Antonio Vargas

Myself, Country, My Own, Graduated

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