Marcos Fabian Cardenas was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States when he was 4 years old. He has lived in San Leandro, California ever since. Marcos is a first generation college student studying Latino/a Studies at San Francisco State University and he hopes to continue on to law school afterwards. Marcos aspires to become an immigration lawyer and provide free legal services to his community.

While in high school, Marcos was part of the Social Justice Academy where he recalls his first exposure to different social issues impacting the world. There he learned the importance of organizing while also getting the opportunity to participate in different community projects such as organizing protests and marches. Marcos was also a key contributor in helping to create a health center for his high school.

Upon learning about various social movements throughout the course of history in which he was greatly influenced, Marcos made a decision to pursue a career in law, seeing that people of color are heavily misrepresented and in law programs. He wants to try and further improve the justice system that is currently in place. Marcos’ goal is to try and create systemic change for communities in need while also being able to connect with them.

For the DreamSF Fellowship, Marcos is placed at CARECEN. Here, Marcos will be helping out in U-Visa and asylum cases as well as representing CARECEN at Free SF meetings, which will help improve his skills representing the immigrant community for positive and just change.