Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
Four undocumented Mexican American students two great teachers one robot-building contest . . . and a major motion picture
In 2004 four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico but raised in Phoenix Arizona where they attended an underfunded public high school. No one had ever suggested to Oscar Cristian Luis or Lorenzo that they might amount to muchbut two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished undocumented kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot.
And build a robot they did. Their robot wasn't pretty especially compared to those of the competition. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country including a team from MIT backed by a $10000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers had scraped together less than $1000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. This was never a level competition??and yet?? against all odds . . . they won!
But this is just the beginning for these four?? whose story??which became a key inspiration to the DREAMers movement??will go on to include first-generation college graduations?? deportation?? bean-picking in Mexico?? and service in Afghanistan.
Joshua Davis's Spare Parts is a story about overcoming insurmountabl