When H moved to America at 25 years old, it felt like a dream. She knew that money didn’t grow on trees in America, and she was confident that through hard work, she would be able to provide a better life for her son back in South America.
Her plan was simple. Find a job, any job, and work hard to provide for her son. She began working at a laundromat folding laundry. With the money she received, she sent money and material items to her son. Her son was her motivation.
“He was my American Dream. To bring him here,” she said.
H could not see her son for 15 years because of her immigration status in the United States. Her son, who now has a child of his own and is in the U.S. on a student visa, tells her “I had everything money could buy but you weren’t there.”
Now, H’s modern American Dream focuses more on showing her children that material things are not necessary, and it is most important to grow up to be a good human being.
There is one thing that stands in the way of her original American Dream being fulfilled. That is to be accepted by the United States. The fight for papers has been a constant battle for H to reach.
Her son sees it differently. He tells her “All the doors are open for me.” For H that has not been the case. She started the process of getting her papers in 2004 and she is still waiting. She has seen her friends and families get papers, but not in the way she wants to get them.
“People got papers cheating,” H said of the process. “You want to do the right thing and you can’t get it.”
H wants to make sure she gets her papers in the right way. Since she arrived here, she has been a respectful, law-abiding citizen and has paid all of her taxes. But the process to get papers has been an uphill battle with no end in sight.
When I asked her what her vision of her own American Dream is now, she knows exactly what she wants and needs.
“One day I can have my social security number and papers done,” H said. “That’s all.”
H is…
- 42 Years-Old
- Female, Cisgender
- Mestizo
- South American
- Christian
- Working Class
- Straight
