U.S. school named after Pulitzer winner Jose Antonio Vargas

A new elementary school in Mountain View, California will be named after Pulitzer Prize-winning undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas. AP PHOTO

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California – The school district will name a new elementary school after Filipino American Jose Antonio Vargas, one of the United States’ best known undocumented immigrants.

The Mountain View Whisman School District voted Thursday, June 14 to name a new elementary school after Vargas, the first time a public school is named after a living Filipino American. The new school will open in the summer of 2019.

“As a proud product of the Bay Area’s public school system, I am overwhelmed by this totally unexpected and deeply meaningful honor,” Vargas was quoted in AsamNews.com.

Born in the Philippines, Vargas came to the United States at age 12 and attended Crittenden Middle School and Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California. He became a Pulitzer Prize award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, and renowned human rights advocate.

Vargas publicly declared his undocumented status in June 2011 and, with a small group of friends, created Define American. Education has been a core part of the nonprofit organization’s DNA since, from educating the news media and Hollywood culture-makers about immigration to leading education initiatives that broaden and deepen people’s understanding of our country’s 43 million immigrants.