{"id":202268,"date":"2016-10-29T13:59:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T19:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=202268"},"modified":"2017-03-08T13:10:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T20:10:14","slug":"millennials-like-this-mixed-ethnicity-couple-are-reshaping-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/millennials-like-this-mixed-ethnicity-couple-are-reshaping-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennials like this mixed-ethnicity couple are reshaping America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2WeZUB9SdJA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>LAS CRUCES \u2013 Luna Mae is learning about colors. The crayon choices on display in her \u201cMy Little Pony\u201d coloring book often don\u2019t match the real world. The pony might be green. The sky might be pink. The grass might be blue. Her world does not reflect the real world. But she&#8217;s 2, and that&#8217;s OK.<\/p>\n<p>Luna&#8217;s parents are much more concerned about colors. Not their own color \u2014 Luz Skywalker is brown, Zach Eason is white \u2014 but Red and Blue. Luz, 21, and Zach, 20, are about to vote in their first presidential election, and they plan fill in a box for a candidate they don&#8217;t think can win. They want to protest the two-party system.<\/p>\n<p>Zach and Luz are millennials, part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/the-avenue\/2016\/06\/28\/diversity-defines-the-millennial-generation\/\" target=\"_blank\">the most racially diverse generation<\/a>\u00a0yet in the United States. Their generation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/for-millennial-voters-the-clinton-vs-trump-choice-feels-like-a-joke\/2016\/08\/13\/306d85a2-609c-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">frustrated<\/a> with the nation\u2019s political system, <a href=\"http:\/\/iop.harvard.edu\/youth-poll\/harvard-iop-fall-2016-poll\" target=\"_blank\">concerned<\/a> about the future, and ultimately reshaping America.<\/p>\n<p>Their story isn&#8217;t black and white. It isn&#8217;t Red or Blue. It&#8217;s messy, and it reflects the real world.<\/p>\n<h3>Back of the bus<\/h3>\n<p>Luz and Zach met at the end of their first day of high school in August 2010. It was nearly 100 degrees on the bus, which had no air-conditioning. Zach got on first and headed straight to the last seat, deliberately sitting next to the emergency exit.<\/p>\n<p>Zach had spent the previous four years attending a small, private Christian school where his mother taught and he received reduced tuition. Nearly everyone at that school, like Zach, was white.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>So Zach\u2019s first day back in public school brought a sort of culture shock.<\/p>\n<p>Arrowhead Park Early College High School was a brand-new school. In its first year, nearly 72 percent of its 117 students were Hispanic. The school prided itself on the number of students who would become first-generation high school graduates.<\/p>\n<p>When he arrived at school that day, Zach said he thought he \u201cwas going to get shot or knifed.\u201d Because of drive-by shootings in his neighborhood, Zach said his father had built the walls of the adobe home two-feet thick. Zach said his father \u201cwasn\u2019t afraid of Mexicans; he was afraid of bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at 14, I probably associated them together,\u201d Zach said.<\/p>\n<p>His father tells a different story. He\u00a0said the thick walls were for insulation, and he occasionally joked about the house being \u201cbulletproof.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regardless,\u00a0at the end of an uncomfortable first day at Arrowhead Park, Zach\u00a0was eager to get home. He had only been sitting in the last row a moment when Luz walked up, surrounded by a posse of girls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first saw Luz, I thought she was going to cut me,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI remember thinking about the park by my house, and how all the little gangbangers had busted up the toilets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz hadn\u2019t yet started wearing makeup. Her hair was pink, blonde and black. She was wearing a white, diamond-studded tank top, skinny jeans and white high heels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I had my gang, too,\u201d Luz said. \u201cWe pretty much owned the back of the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz wouldn\u2019t let Zach move. The ride home, he said, was probably 45 minutes, but it felt like 2-3 hours. As they talked, they discovered they shared a love of cars. Luz thought Zach was funny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s all it took,\u201d he said. \u201cI had been avoiding all these brown people all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They quickly became friends. Years later, when they were seniors in high school, Zach and Luz started dating. Today, they\u2019re engaged to be married. They\u2019re a mixed-ethnicity couple in the state that had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colorlines.com\/articles\/latinos-most-likely-ethnic-group-marry-out-race\" target=\"_blank\">the highest rate<\/a> of new marriages between white people and Hispanics \u2013 19 percent \u2013 between 2008 and 2010.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202045\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-202045\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4-771x547.jpg\" alt=\"Zach and Luz\" width=\"771\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4-771x547.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4-336x239.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4-768x545.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4-1170x831.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-4.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luz Skywalker, 21, Zach Eason, 20, and their daughter Luna, 2, relax in the entertainment room at\u00a0Zach&#8217;s home on Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Family changes, name changes<\/h3>\n<p>Luz was born Luzaide Arrieta \u2013 her maternal grandmother\u2019s maiden surname \u2013 to a 15-year-old mother, Melinda. Luz has seven younger siblings. Her stepfather adopted her at age 7, and she became Luz Reza.<\/p>\n<p>That man tried to instill in Luz a belief in Mexican superiority, and not to trust white people, she said. But those beliefs never took hold. Luz grew up with white friends, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Her mother divorced that man in 2007, when Luz was 12.<\/p>\n<p>Luz\u2019s great-grandfather came to the United States through the Bracero program, established in 1942 under the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. He earned a living picking cotton, started a family, and built a house. He later worked in the Facilities Department at New Mexico State University, where he helped build the campus \u201cHorseshoe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At 16, Luz moved into the house her great-grandfather built to care for her ailing great-grandmother, who was suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s, dementia and diabetes. Luz and Luna still live there. Luna sat on her great-great grandmother\u2019s sofa next to Zach during an interview for this article coloring in her \u201cMy Little Pony\u201d book on a coffee table Luz bought at an estate sale.<\/p>\n<p>Luz\u2019s biological father is an immigrant from Mexico living in the United States without legal status. She grew up not knowing him. He\u2019s been deported three times \u2013 when she was 9, 12 and 16. She met him once during childhood but was told then that he was her uncle.<\/p>\n<p>Her father is back in the United States today, living \u2013 again without legal status \u2013 in Colorado. He reached out to Luz after she turned 18, and Luz recently visited him. He offered to buy her any automobile she wanted. Luz chose a Honda Civic because it had a backseat for Luna.<\/p>\n<p>During Luz\u2019s early years, her mother worked as a nurse and the family lived comfortably. Her mother went back to school to become a teacher when Luz was 12, during the divorce. Her mother worked nights staffing events held at the Pan American Center, but they needed additional help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were poor for the first time in my life \u2014 like, really, really poor. Salvation Army, food banks, and school supplies from churches, standing in really long lines for expired bread,\u201d Luz said.<\/p>\n<p>Luz spent a lot of time at her great-grandmother\u2019s home while her mother worked toward her degree and did her student teaching at Vado Elementary School. Then Melinda remarried. That man went from being a manager at a local Burger King to a general manager for Taco Bell. \u201cThen we were back in the upper-middle class bracket,\u201d Luz said.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Luz, who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/2015\/12\/16\/luz-skywalker-local-fan-seeks-change-name\/77453372\/\" target=\"_blank\">loves Star Wars<\/a>, legally changed her last name to Skywalker, which she\u2019d already been using on social media for years.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202047\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-202047\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6-771x485.jpg\" alt=\"Luz and Luna Mae\" width=\"771\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6-771x485.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6-336x211.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6-1170x735.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-6.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luz and\u00a0Luna play a tickle game on Tuesday at Zach&#8217;s home.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>A \u2018mansion on the hill\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Zach\u2019s grandparents were Baptist missionaries from Alabama. Their family moved all over, and Zach\u2019s father, David, spent his high-school years in Puerto Rico. \u201cHe grew up with an appreciation for that culture, and also understanding Spanish, which is important in public schools in Las Cruces,\u201d Zach said.<\/p>\n<p>His mother\u2019s side of the family has roots in Kansas and settled around Moriarty, N.M. His maternal grandfather, Bill Larson, was a teacher. After retiring, Larson became a produce broker, negotiating prices for supermarket chains.<\/p>\n<p>Zach\u2019s parents met in college at the Baptist Student Union at NMSU. His father purchased 10 acres near the Butterfield trailer park without electricity and running water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had a gym membership so he could shower,\u201d Zach said.<\/p>\n<p>After his parents married, Zach\u2019s father set out to build an adobe mansion. He recruited his friends \u2014 migrant Mexicans \u2014 to help. They built a shop, then used it to make the money to build the enormous home, literally out of dirt, on 10\u00a0acres just south of the trailer park where they\u2019d lived.<\/p>\n<p>The new home would become a point of contention, Zach said \u2013 a sort of \u201cmansion on the hill\u201d for other neighborhood children, causing some racial discomfort between Zach and his Mexican-American neighbors.\u00a0(Zach&#8217;s father describes it as a \u201chouse,\u201d not a mansion.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy family was never racist, really,\u201d Zach said. \u201cMy dad\u2019s best friends were from Mexico, and we\u2019d go down to Mexico to help them build stuff \u2014 because they helped build our house, and it was a two-way street, not because we pitied them. It\u2019s more like the neighbor who cuts your grass because he\u2019s got his lawnmower out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mansion was finished when Zach was 5. To this day, it sits within view of the trailer park, on a road named after Zach\u2019s family on which no one else lives. Zach\u2019s parents still live there. His father said they are friendly with their neighbors and help each other out when the need arises.<\/p>\n<p>Zach\u2019s father taught auto mechanics at Mayfield High School. His mother taught English and history at Mesilla Valley Christian School, which Zach attended from fifth through eighth grade \u2014 those early years erecting yet another wall separating him from others in his community.<\/p>\n<h3>A bridge-building friend<\/h3>\n<p>Luz found the idea of Arrowhead Park\u2019s focus on earning an associate\u2019s degree in high school appealing. Arrowhead Park would only accept freshmen, so she dropped out after six weeks at Las Cruces High School, before acquiring any ninth-grade credits, and took a year off. She spent most of that school year building a truck. Working on cars is a passion she and Zach share.<\/p>\n<p>Zach was also eager to enroll at Arrowhead Park. To him, it seemed \u201cnew and cool,\u201d and provided opportunities the Christian school didn\u2019t. He doesn\u2019t fault the Christian school for its racially insular circumstances. But the day he met Luz was the first in more than four years he hadn\u2019t been surrounded primarily by white people.<\/p>\n<p>Hispanic students are the majority in all but one of the 42 schools in the Las Cruces district. At 32 of those schools, they make up more than 70 percent of the student population.<\/p>\n<p>Even after becoming friends, Zach and Luz said they were \u201ctoo racist\u201d to date each other at first. Another friend, Jo Anna Rincon, with her black eyeliner, bobbed haircut, choker necklaces, and charisma, helped bridge the divide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJo Anna was really a shade in between us,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI felt like she was approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was, like, super-rich because her dad was a school principal and her mom was the head of bilingual education at LCPS,\u201d Luz said. \u201cThey were \u2018tastefully Mexican.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jo Anna decided who her friends would be, then kept bringing new people into the group, Luz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe clicked really well, because she was a huge Marvel (Comics) fan,\u201d Zach said of Jo Anna.<\/p>\n<p>Zach graduated high school with associate\u2019s degrees in arts and sciences, several certificates, and 93 college credits under his belt. Luz graduated high school with an associate\u2019s degree in arts.<\/p>\n<p>Both enrolled at New Mexico State University. But a week before their first midterms in 2014, Jo Anna was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legacy.com\/obituaries\/lcsun-news\/obituary.aspx?pid=172880980\" target=\"_blank\">killed in a car crash<\/a> near the university. Like their friends, Zach and Luz took it hard. Both dropped out of college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe lost our scholarships,\u201d Luz said. \u201cWe realized we could either become saddled with student debt or we could drop out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz, who grew up wanting to be a cop, took her current job as a corrections officer. Zach left college and started working at Alaska Structures, a company that manufactures fabric buildings \u2014 large tents, primarily for use in extreme and remote locations.<\/p>\n<p>This year, at the company\u2019s urging, Zach returned to NMSU to finish his degree. Upon graduating, he\u2019ll become an engineer with the company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI dropped out, but they dropped me back in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202043\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-202043\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Zach Eason\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zach shops with Luna on a recent Sunday. Zach says he often feels uncomfortable shopping with Luna because her skin color is darker than his. &#8220;A lot of people look at me weird. They look at Luna and look back at me,&#8221; he said.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Gender roles<\/h3>\n<p>Luz became pregnant with Luna during her senior year of high school. Later, Zach and Luz began dating. Today they\u2019re engaged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually financed our wedding rings,\u201d Luz said. \u201cWe could\u2019ve afforded to pay cash for them, but we needed to build up our credit, as millennials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like so many of their peers, Zach and Luz <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/sponsored\/prudential-sleeping-giants\/millennials-and-gender-a-major-attitude-shift\/467\/\" target=\"_blank\">break gender norms<\/a>. Luz works 12-hour shifts at the jail plus overtime. She recently worked 12 days out of a two-week period. Zach works part-time while going back to school. He spends his free time caring for Luna.<\/p>\n<p>Luz said her mom was \u201cyour typical housewife\u201d when married to a man from Mexico, cooking and cleaning. That\u2019s not a bad thing, Luz said \u2013 \u201cThere are times I\u2019d love to be a stay-at-home mom\u201d \u2013 but she has no problem being the breadwinner.<\/p>\n<p>Zach says he does a lot of things now \u201cthat I grew up thinking a wife would do,\u201d like laundry and cleaning. \u201cBut I\u2019m pretty picky about how things are done, so it\u2019s probably for the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Zach and Luz haven\u2019t set a wedding date, but Luz\u2019s ring arrived in late September.<\/p>\n<p>They have discussed home-schooling Luna, but haven\u2019t made a decision. Luz has also considered a new job \u2014 maybe staying in law enforcement, but perhaps something with more-regular hours.<\/p>\n<p>Zach has considered being a stay-at-home dad while working on cars and building things to sell. He\u2019s good with his hands. He rebuilt the engine in his current vehicle. Out of scrap wood, he built an enormous table for his dining room \u2014 unvarnished and intricately designed \u2013 to host his first Thanksgiving dinner at his new home.<\/p>\n<p>Luz and Luna still live in the house her great-grandfather built. Zach bought himself a house north of town last year, at the age of 19. His parents had to co-sign for the loan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s basically how millennials have to do everything,\u201d Luz said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to buy anything unless you have parents with good credit.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202042\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-202042\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Zach Eason, 20, and Luz Skywalker, 21, look at a phone together while relaxing in entertainment room of Eason's home on Tuesday.\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zach and Luz\u00a0look at a phone together while relaxing in the entertainment room at his\u00a0home on Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Shades of gray<\/h3>\n<p>Luz and Zach are irritated by the way millennials are portrayed in the media and by politicians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of our peers are just sitting on their butts and playing video games all day,\u201d Zach said. \u201cEveryone is working really hard to get what they want. I wasn\u2019t the first one from my class to buy a house or get their dream job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pervasive narrative, they say, relies too heavily on generalizations \u2014 a problem they believe extends beyond attitudes about millennials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo many people think they can assume things about others based on their age, or their race, or their religion,\u201d Zach said. \u201cEverything is black or white, left or right, Hillary or Trump. It\u2019s like there are no shades of gray anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I\u2019m a gray,\u201d Luz interjected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery person is a gray,\u201d Zach said. \u201cOnce people are informed, nobody is a black or white. It\u2019s, like, nature to be so \u2018us versus them.\u2019 It requires work to get to the truth, and everyone is getting lazier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both bemoan the decline of media literacy. They believe much of the mistrust of the media comes from an inability to discern commentary from news reporting. They also see a problem they believe is more intentional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is definitely a divisive agenda to what we\u2019re being fed,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI feel like the media is trying to drive a wedge between us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neither subscribes to a newspaper, in print or online. Neither has a cable or satellite subscription or follows broadcast news closely. But the example Zach cited for his distrust comes from social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Facebook, the clickbait will be \u2018White man shoots unarmed black man.\u2019 And then you read the story, and it\u2019s not even a real case. It\u2019s just an opinion piece,\u201d Zach said. \u201cBut you read it, and it\u2019s clearly designed to drive a wedge between the races, or between cops and civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zach empathized with the Black Lives Matter movement in its early days. He now believes it has become another source of divisive, false dichotomies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow it\u2019s like you have to choose between Black Lives Matter and law enforcement,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it shouldn\u2019t be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a white guy, Zach\u00a0believes he would be unwelcome at a Black Lives Matter rally. Luz thinks he\u00a0is wrong about that. Though a corrections officer who fiercely supports law enforcement, she believes protests of police shootings of unarmed black men are important.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201call lives matter\u201d response from some, Luz said, misunderstands, cheapens and undermines the message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course all lives matter,\u201d Luz said. \u201cBut saying \u2018all lives matter\u2019 does not draw attention to the problem. And this assumption that you can\u2019t support law enforcement officers and believe that black lives matter is absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz believes the system treats white people and people of color differently. She pointed out that people of color are arrested at higher rates and given longer sentences when convicted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe college student going to Yale is simply not going to get the same sentence as the 19-year-old black kid from Harlem,\u201d she said, \u201cif he\u2019s even arrested at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zach has long believed that higher rates of people of color in prison are rooted in a lack of educational and economic opportunities. He once believed that people of color committed crimes at higher rates than white people because of a lifestyle passed down from their parents and because they grew up \u201cin the ghetto.\u201d He said he no longer believes this, and has begun to see things more like Luz does.<\/p>\n<p>Zach acknowledged that over-sentencing of people of color \u201cabsolutely happens,\u201d but said he doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s a deliberate act of racism.<\/p>\n<h3>The deportation threat<\/h3>\n<p>One issue on which Zach and Luz are united is their opposition to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump\u2019s immigration rhetoric and proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. Their views have much to do with Luz\u2019s father and the young son he\u2019s raising today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father wasn\u2019t around to raise me, and if Donald Trump is president, he may not be around to raise his new family,\u201d Luz said. \u201cI\u2019m terrified that he could get deported.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz said she doesn\u2019t support open borders but believes it should be easier for immigrants living here without legal status to become naturalized. Zach wants immigration reform and stronger border security but disagrees with Trump\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous to assume that he came over here to commit crimes and rape people, or that he was sent by the cartels to do bad things,\u201d Zach said of Luz\u2019s father. \u201cHe works hard and makes good money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz said her father, a manual laborer, pays income tax \u2013 as do half the immigrants living in the United States without legal status, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/research\/adding-billions-tax-dollars-paid-undocumented-immigrants\" target=\"_blank\">the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy<\/a>. He also pays sales taxes and property taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Zach and Luz also have a friend from high school whose family fled Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez during the cartel wars<strong>. <\/strong>For the first couple of years, she was in the U.S. legally \u2014 but then, after a mix-up with her paperwork, she stayed in the United States without proper documentation throughout high school, Zach said. Right before high school graduation, that was sorted out. Today, that friend is working in Germany as an electrical engineer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was here for nearly seven years, and did everything she could to become a citizen legally, and it was really hard for her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>After Googling the immigration policies of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson on her smartphone \u2013 which both do often to learn about issues \u2013 Luz said she agrees with Clinton\u2019s approach but believes Johnson\u2019s is more pragmatic and achievable.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202046\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-202046 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5-771x615.jpg\" alt=\"Zach and Luz\" width=\"771\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5-771x615.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5-336x268.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5-768x612.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5-1170x933.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-5.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zach and Luz, who are planning to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson for president to protest the system, gather with Luna\u00a0in the kitchen at\u00a0Zach&#8217;s home on Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Making a statement<\/h3>\n<p>Like many millennials, Luz voted for Bernie Sanders in this year\u2019s Democratic presidential primary. Zach, who comes from a family of Republicans, did not register in time to vote in the Republican primary. Both plan to vote for Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, in the presidential race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis whole Hillary-Trump thing has been really distracting,\u201d Zach said. \u201cIt\u2019s so much about their personalities and not about the actual issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their views on many issues are complex. Zach said he thinks abortion should be illegal, while Luz, like Johnson, says it should be legal. But the pro-choice\/pro-life dichotomy fails to contain Zach and Luz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t get (an abortion), and I don\u2019t know if I could stay friends with someone who got one,\u201d Luz said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think the government (should) decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hers is not an uncommon view. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prri.org\/spotlight\/americans-and-millennials-agree-abortion-isnt-black-and-white\/\" target=\"_blank\">a March 2015 poll<\/a>, 27 percent of millennials identified as \u201cboth pro-life and pro-choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zach, with his Christian upbringing, has always opposed abortion. But his views are shifting. As their pastor at Calvary Baptist Church put it, according to Zach, a person\u2019s religious beliefs should not be imposed by the government on others who don\u2019t share that faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust like we wouldn\u2019t want Sharia law imposed in the U.S., we shouldn\u2019t do the same with our own faith,\u201d Zach said. \u201cSo now I\u2019m becoming a little more pro-choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz and Zach say they don\u2019t use marijuana. But like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/most-americans-favor-marijuana-legalization-2016-10\" target=\"_blank\">more than 70 percent of millennials<\/a>, and Johnson, they support legalizing and taxing marijuana as a means to generate revenue for the state.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Zach nor Luz believe Johnson has a chance of winning the presidential race. He\u2019s polling in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/2016\/president\/us\/general_election_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson-5949.html\" target=\"_blank\">single digits nationally<\/a>. The most recent poll in New Mexico, where Johnson used to be governor, had him <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/new-poll-finds-trump-gaining-on-clinton-in-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\">at 9 percent<\/a>, trailing both Clinton and Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Their votes are a protest. Like many millennials, they don\u2019t like the nation\u2019s political system. More young people identify <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2014\/03\/millennials-independence-poll-104401\" target=\"_blank\">as politically independent<\/a> than people in older generations. In one recent poll, nearly a quarter of millennials said they would prefer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uml.edu\/News\/press-releases\/2016\/odyssey-poll-10182016.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">a giant meteor striking the Earth<\/a> to Clinton or Trump becoming president.<\/p>\n<p>How millennials will vote this year remains to be seen. But their support has helped make it a strong year for third-party and independent candidates in spite of a system that makes it difficult for such candidates to gain traction.<\/p>\n<p>With their votes for Johnson, these two millennials are hoping to be heard. Zach doesn\u2019t trust Clinton and said he won\u2019t vote for Trump \u2013 \u201cthe guy who pushed the red button and caused thermonuclear warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that, even in the land of make-believe, it\u2019s not possible for Johnson to win,\u201d Zach said. \u201cBut it could make a statement, if he got enough votes, that we\u2019re really dissatisfied as a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The future<\/h3>\n<p>When asked what this election cycle might mean for the future of the two-party system, Zach said he\u2019s not sure the country will survive the next four years. Then he laughed.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202044\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-202044\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3-336x504.jpg\" alt=\"Luz and Zach\" width=\"336\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3-336x504.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3-771x1157.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3-1170x1755.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/smallNMpol-3.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luz, Zach and Luna go for a walk near Zach&#8217;s home on Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI want to think it will get better,\u201d Zach said. \u201cBut I honestly don\u2019t think it will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the wedge issues are becoming so divisive that the country is heading down a dangerous path.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to end up drinking toilet water,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI think it will literally end in the annihilation of this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz is more optimistic. She said society is progressing despite the challenges of the moment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019ve come a long way,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re quick to call things out \u2014 like sexual harassment in the workplace, for instance. We have made so much progress on so many important issues in, say, the last 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luz\u2019s vote for Johnson is rooted in her belief that protest can change the system \u2014 a hopeful view that, at its core, is centered in her optimism. Zach is more pessimistic. He is voting for Johnson to keep his conscience clean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know where we\u2019re headed,\u201d Zach said, \u201cbut I\u2019m not at all convinced that it will end well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Damien Willis may be reached at 575-541-5468, <\/em><a href=\"mailto:dawillis@lcsun-news.com\"><em>dawillis@lcsun-news.com<\/em><\/a><em> or <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/damienwillis\" target=\"_blank\"><em>@damienwillis<\/em><\/a><em> on Twitter<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This story was co-published with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/2016\/10\/29\/millennials-like-mixed-ethnicity-couple-reshaping-america\/92895254\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>. Primary funding for this project came from the\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kfla.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\">Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance<\/a><\/em><em>, a project of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Sarah Silva, the executive director of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.organizenm.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">N.M. Communidades en Acci\u00f3n y de F\u00e9<\/a>,\u00a0<em>is a W.K. Kellogg fellow<\/em>\u00a0(and, by way of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/disclosures\/\" target=\"_blank\">disclosure<\/a>, Silva is dating NMPolitics.net editor and publisher Heath Haussamen, who edited this project). Silva\u00a0focused her fellowship resources on partnering with news organizations\u00a0to tell stories of multi-ethnic families as a way to bridge our understanding of one another. NMPolitics.net and the Las Cruces Sun-News also provided financial support for this project, and the news organizations retained all editorial control. A second article in this series will run after the Nov. 8 election.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This article has been updated to include\u00a0some clarifying statements from Zach&#8217;s father about\u00a0Zach&#8217;s childhood home and neighborhood.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story of millennials Luz Skywalker and Zach Eason isn&#8217;t black and white. It isn&#8217;t Red or Blue. It&#8217;s messy, and it reflects the real world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,297,3312,3311,226,143],"class_list":["post-202268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-gary-johnson","tag-hilary-clinton","tag-millennials","tag-presidential-race","tag-race-and-ethnicity","series-multi-ethnic-families"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}