The American Dream

The American Dream

                                    The American Dream can mean an array of things depending on with who one is speaking. The American Dream was defined as the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American or as a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S. (Dictionary.com).  The term most identify in reference to the American Dream is immigration. When the United States was first discovered, many came over as immigrants.  Many immigrants came to the United States and were forced into slavery or indentured servitude to survive.  People from other countries would send younger relatives or elderly family members to the United States to achieve a better quality of life or to save their lives.  However, many immigrants have gained access to the United States illegally. 

Immigrants came from all walks of life and many different countries. Many immigrants came to America to gain a better quality of life but were met with hardships of not being able to find work to support their families.  Men, women and children worked on plantations or in factories as slaves just to ensure food and shelter would be given in return for their work.  Pilgrims were first immigrants in the 1600s and came in search of religious freedoms.  The country’s first immigration station was Ellis Island. On January 1, 1892, the first immigrant processed was Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland.  She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two brothers.  She later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side.  In the 17^th through the 19^th centuries, hundreds of thousands of African American slaves came to America against their will.  (“United States Immigration Before 1965.”)

            A guest speaker, named Mauricio Garcia, which I recently heard was an immigrant from El Salvador in 1983. His family sent him to live in this country at the age of 17 with his 16 year old brother and cousin.  In the early eighties, El Salvador was ravaged by a bitter civil war.  Mauricio stated that the life expectancy for boys aged 16-24 was very low. The war is why his parents chose to send him and his companions away.  Being sent to America saved their lives.  In the journal titled “The Air War in El Salvador” it states, the war became so deadly that President Jimmy Carter cutoff US economic and military aid. As a result of being thrust into America, Mauricio struggled to fit in and learn to speak English.  He claimed, “Teachers who teach English are Saints.”  Also stated was, “Learning another language messes with your confidence.”   Mauricio came to America as a scared, hard-nosed, did not want to learn anything and became a man with dreams and ambitions.  His first job was working in an animal hospital as a volunteer and was excited when he was promoted to “shoveling crap.”  Mauricio exhibits the ultimate American Dreamer in my eyes.

           

Incidentally, human trafficking and illegal immigration happen every day. Most of Americans cannot fathom the number of cases.  An estimated 14,000 to 18,000 immigrants are illegally brought in the United States every year.  Trafficking is the recruitment and transportation of persons within or across boundaries by force, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploiting them economically.  Victims are sometimes forced to perform lewd acts in return for promises and often those promises are not kept.  Some forced into inexpensive labor in return for letting them stay in the United States. (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007. U.S. Department of State.) Many illegal immigrants will do anything that is asked of them to avoid being returned to their home country.  Deportation back to their home countries could lead to imprisonment or death.  One of the things the illegal immigrants are looking for is a better way of life and they all want to live the American Dream. 

            In essence, immigrants whether legal or illegal are all looking for a new start in their lives or that of their families.  There is a reason they choose to leave their home countries and move to the United States. We are the home of the free and the brave.  Mauricio Garcia said it so well, “The two best things about living in the United States are Bacon and Milky Way.”  Stop caring what other people think of you and start living your own American Dream.  If someone tells you that you cannot do something, prove them wrong.  There are lessons to be learned everywhere you turn and you have the choice to learn from them or not.  Another phrase from Mauricio Garcia, “We become really good listeners when we are out of options.”  Try listening for a change and you may be surprised what you will learn and it may just help you live your dream. 

  Works Cited

"American dream." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 26 Feb. 2013. <Dictionary.com

            http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/american dream>.

“Find your Purpose, Live Your Passion” Mauricio Garcia, http://www.facebook.com/events/310659692284633/

“Human Trafficking – Exploitation of Illegal Aliens, http://www.fairus.org/issue/human-trafficking-exploitation-of-illegal-aliens#end Trafficking in

Persons Report, 2007. U.S. Department of State.

“The Air War in El Salvador”, by Dr. James S. Corum (Major, US Army Reserve), Aerospace Power Journal, Summer 1998.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_158.shtml

“United States Immigration Before 1965.” 2013. The History Channel website. Feb 26 2013, 11:08 http://www.history.com/topics/united-states-

immigration-to-1965.