Before dawn most mornings, while his family was still asleep, Alex Ramirez-Gonzalez’s father would leave for construction jobs across the Washington area.
Ramirez-Gonzalez grew up watching the rhythm of those long days: early mornings, late nights and years of physical labor that began after his father crossed into the United States from Mexico at 14 alongside his younger brother, hoping to build a better future.”
For Ramirez-Gonzalez, a graduating senior at Gonzaga College High School, that sacrifice has shaped the way he sees both his future and his responsibility to others.
“I have opportunities they never had,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said. “I take pride in the fact that through their sacrifices, I’m able to do this.”
This fall, Ramirez-Gonzalez plans to attend the University of Maryland, where he will study philosophy, politics and economics with plans to pursue public policy and advocacy work focused on migrant communities.
“My dream is to really help create foundational change,” he said. “To bring awareness and open up the eyes of many Americans that migrants are human beings.”
The son of Mexican immigrants and one of the first in his family to pursue higher education, Ramirez-Gonzalez said his parents constantly reminded him not to waste what they had worked to give him.
“My parents always laid it out on the table,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said. “‘You have these opportunities. Take advantage of them.’”
At Gonzaga, Ramirez-Gonzalez immersed himself in academics, ministry and student leadership through the National Honor Society, choir, student government and the school’s Ignatian Leadership Team. He also served as a campus mission ambassador, helping encourage other students in the school’s faith life.
“The brotherhood has always been something at the center of our school culture,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said. “We really are a family.”
One of the most transformative experiences of his high school years came during an immersion trip to El Salvador following his junior year. Through conversations with local families, Ramirez-Gonzalez encountered stories of poverty, migration and political instability.
“I was able to enter into stories and dialogue and personal experiences of others,” he said. “Not necessarily to serve, but just to be a brother.”
The experience clarified his understanding of Catholic social teaching and strengthened his call to advocate for marginalized communities.
That call became especially visible this year as national conversations surrounding immigration intensified.
Ramirez-Gonzalez helped organize and lead a student walkout at his school, protesting the treatment of migrants and immigrants. He said more than 2,000 students from schools across the Washington area participated.
He remembers looking out at crowds of students filling city sidewalks and realizing how many young people wanted to stand alongside migrant families.
“It showed me people really do care,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said.
At Gonzaga, he also organized a “Love Thy Neighbor” prayer service rooted in Catholic teaching and solidarity with migrants.
“Silence really is violence,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said. “There is a necessity to speak out on behalf of those who can’t speak for themselves.”
Ramirez-Gonzalez said his advocacy is rooted as much in faith and family as politics.
“Central to my faith is looking at other people not just through the lens of Christ, but as Christ,” he said. “Every human being has inherent worth and dignity because we are created in the image and likeness of God.”
Ramirez-Gonzalez said his Catholic faith was first nurtured at home and then at St. Mary’s parish in Landover Hills, where his family remains active parishioners.
Watching his parents work and sacrifice for their family, as well as the example of faith they have given him, Ramirez-Gonzalez said, continues to shape the way he understands gratitude, responsibility and human dignity.
As conversations surrounding immigration and identity continue across the country, Ramirez-Gonzalez said he hopes people take time to see the humanity behind political debates.
“America is diversity,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said. “Diversity of thought, diversity of perspective, diversity of story.”
For Ramirez-Gonzalez, becoming American has never meant leaving part of himself behind.
“When people talk about immigrants like they’re a problem, they’re talking about families like mine,” Ramirez-Gonzalez said.
To be American means freedom,” he said. “Freedom to express yourself, to disagree, to have dialogue, to work hard and to become a voice for others. As a first-generation American, I carry the sacrifices that made those opportunities possible.”
