Many people have a different concept of the American dream. People think it will be easy to accomplish it, but they have no idea what people who come here to America go through to accomplish where they want to be, and sometimes they don't achieve their goals. I interviewed my grandmother Maria and she told me her perspective of the American dream and everything she did to try and accomplish her goal.
When Maria came to America for a better life and a better education for her children. She faced many difficulties while coming here. Maria brought her 3 kids, including my mother to America by train. They were to be sitting for a long time, they were on their way to America to help Maria's American dream come true. My mother and her two older siblings came with their aunt they got it easy, my grandmother faced the difficult part. Without papers, Maria chose the only option available: crossing through the desert. while crossing the border was very difficult for her, it involved a lot of walking day and night. Walking through the desert at night is a scary event to do, I've been told. You are obligated to walk to a certain point where a car is going to pick you up, if you don't you will die in the desert. On the way there are some people that go around and steal money from others, luckily that did not happen to maria but it did happen to others she was traveling with. Till this day Maria can't forget the experience she went through to reach America.
Another problem my grandmother faced while having to come to America was to leave her family back, she found it difficult to do so. When she came, she left behind her husband. In my interview she stated that "dejar a mi pap fue Lo mas' dificil, que yo a tenido que hacer en toda mi vida," meaning that leaving her father was the hardest decision she has done all her life. Maria was very attached to her father, my great grandpa, she couldn't bear to leave him.
