We Live Here

Today we are talking to Ricardo Martinez. Born in Mexico, Ricardo is a DACA recipient who grew up in Illinois. His passion for helping Spanish speakers with financial literacy is fueled by his entrepreneurial journey and of course, his love for St. Louis. Ricardo came to the United States when he was five years old and spent most of his life in central Illinois. At heart, he would say he was a “mid-Midwesterner”. He never really understood how different he was different until later. Ricardo’s parents were immigrants and they jumped at the chance for deferred action. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, enabled roughly 832,881 eligible young adults work lawfully, attend school, and plan their lives without the threat of deportation. It provides temporary relief from deportation (deferred action) and grants authorization to work for young undocumented immigrants. For Ricardo’s parents, it meant their children would have temporary, renewable permission to be in the United States. Me