Diego Corzo

Corzo is a Dreamer, born in Lima and raised in Florida since he was 9 years old, but he didn’t realize he was an unauthorized immigrant until he was 16. A few years later the #GreatRecession hit, and his family struggled to pay the bills and send him to college. At the time, Corzo’s father had opened up a restaurant, not expecting the #FinancialCrisis to be that bad. “For a couple of months the restaurant would sell less than $100 a day,” Corzo says. “My dad had to fire the dishwasher, and had to fire the busboy and the waitress, and he had to do everything. He had to cook, wash the dishes and also be out talking to the clients and making sure that everybody got served.”

Eventually his parents filed for bankruptcy, and they moved out of their three-bedroom home into a small condo. Corzo couldn’t qualify for most students loans because he was unauthorized, and he had to work while going to school to pay all the bills. “We are the only generation right now that becomes an adult and they’re already 20, 30, 50 thousand dollars in debt due to student loans. Right now I do not have any loans … because of DACA and because I'm a Dreamer, I didn’t qualify for any student loans, so that was a blessing in disguise,” he says. Today, Corzo owns multiple properties and is trying to set himself up for success down the line.

Photos by Filipa Rodrigues @pi_rodriguesExplore more stories on Instagram