The American Dream is something that Americans have believed in for centuries, and people still believe in it today. What is the American dream? The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what social class they were born into, can obtain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone.
For some, the American dream may be having money or just being successful, But the American dream cannot be given that it has to be earned. The main goal for most people that come to the United States is to have a home, a car, with a white fence yard and filled with the latest luxury goods forever value of the house. It is the only restriction on this freedom that individuals are willing to go before the law-abiding approach. In the film “El Sueño Americano”, it shows the struggle of a Mexican immigrant that arrived in the United States to better his and his daughter’s life. His desperation and conflict helped to shape and motivate his destiny and his vision in search of his American dream.
The film starts off with a couple trying to get across the border and the wife was killed along the way. The main character Javier was able to get a cross into the house of his late wife’s sister. His daughter was already brought to the United States by her aunt and was living with her until he came. His main motivation for coming to the United States was to give his daughter a better life away from all the crimes in Mexico and to be more stable financially. His daughter enrolled in school and he gets a job as a chef in a restaurant. After shortly working at the restaurant making eight dollars an hour, he was offered a job working construction that pays more.
This job paid more but it was off the books. The employer did not ask for any additional information which he figured would be better for him because he would make more money and not need a social security number. While working this new job he was able to afford things and able to help his sister in law and her husband out around the house financially. The sister in law’s husband begins to get jealous and later on, he tells Javier and his daughter to leave. Javier reaches out to a friend to help him find an apartment or a house because he is still undocumented and can’t find good housing on his own. Javier and his daughter then move into a new home and things begin to go wrong for them. Javier gets hurt on the job and is unable to work while he recovers.
He had to give the car he was driving back to its owner because he could no longer afford to pay for it. Once his sister in law finds out that Javier is beginning to struggle again, she begins to help him with things such as giving Javier a ride to and from work so Javier won’t be late for picking up his daughter. But once her husband finds out that she lent one of their cars to Javier, he gets upset and his wife takes their daughter and leaves. Later on that night, the husband calls the police and reports the car stolen before heading over to Javier’s house to pick a fight. A few days later while Javier is driving to work, he is pulled over and arrested. He calls his sister in law to let her and his daughter know that he will be deported back to Mexico.
Even though Javier was deported, it seemed like his main goal for his American Dream was for his daughter to have a good life. He wanted his daughter to have better opportunities than she would have in Mexico. With his daughter living in the United States, she could get a better education, better career opportunities and better living standards. His desperation for having a better life and wanting better for his daughter helped him to shape his main motivation for his vision and his destiny in search of his American Dream. With him getting arrested, it affected his plan to live and take care of his daughter but it did not affect him wanting the best for her. Towards the end of the movie after he was arrested and called to speak to his daughter, she asked him “ what about the dream?”. He replied “honey, you are the American Dream. His actions showed that he was willing to do any and everything in his power to give his daughter the life she deserved.
The American Dream is the idea that every United States citizen has equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and determination. Mostly everyone at one point in their life has had the dream of achieving the American dream. The American dream can even be as simple as going to college, getting a degree, and getting a job and home. However, those things are not as simple to achieve for some as it is for others.
