“Angel” is not her real name. We’re calling her that because she is undocumented and could be deported, although she’s never been arrested for anything and is known locally for good works. She came to the U.S. from Mexico on a tourist visa twenty years ago with her two boys, ages 4 and 6, to join their father, her husband, who had come a year before. Both parents, college graduates from Mexico City, had planned to stay no more than three years, but when they saw how much opportunity their sons would have in this country, they decided to stay on.

Living in what she called a “nasty building” at first, when her husband earned little washing dishes, she walked the boys to school to be safe. Teachers invited her in to an afterschool program for parents, and soon she was helping the teachers, tutoring her boys and others, and was elected V.P. of the P.T.A. Her husband’s new job in construction enabled them to move into a better apartment as Angel was learning why so few other mothers came in afterschool. They were embarassed because they were illiterate. So, she got basic books and taught them to read and write in Spanish, then hired more teachers, and has taught hundreds of immigrants critical language skills that give them and their families hope, new work, and greater opportunity.