My grandparents were migrant farm workers, cherry pickers, and hop pickers. Although both were born in Texas, their Mexican identity and socio-economic status determined their daily lives but not their futures.
I realized that there was an unspoken pride in our family that was rooted in our Latinx experience of the American Dream. My grandparents knew that education was a way out of low wages and harsh working conditions, so my grandfather decided to work as a janitor at a public school to get a steady job.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that I am an educator, and therefore I think about how to present and process education. american dream With my students. When we think of the American Dream, we often think of the following images:great gatsby” and ellis island But it is unlikely that images of the American Dream will be unleashed on the border with Mexico. From its borders, the American Dream guarantees safety, education, economic stability, and full survival for many Mexican and Central American people.
As a Spanish teacher, I have the opportunity to expand my students’ perceptions of the American Dream to include the experiences of Latin Americans coming to and living in the United States. I work at a small Catholic girls’ school in Minnesota, and some of the students whose families immigrated to the United States have experienced the pain of having family members illegally deported. For them, the opportunities and challenges implied by the American Dream have never felt more real.
With the growing number of Latino students in my school, it is important to humanize the immigrant experience so that we can redefine the American Dream for today’s students.
live in a bubble
Most students at our Catholic girls’ school believe they live in a bubble. Although our schools continue to become more ethnically and racially diverse, there is still a sense of being sheltered here and our schools do not truly reflect the outside world. This student’s perception is a bit exaggerated, but it makes sense to me. Students want to connect beyond the classroom, learn about cultures, and appreciate reality.
I also advise our co-curricular group, Students of Color Society. This small group is led by two of his Latino students, whose family stories, like mine, are tied to the promise of the American Dream. These students and their parents believe in the power of education for our nation’s collective future.
I want to help the students in my Spanish class recognize that experience and move beyond their bubble. For me, the Spanish course is more than just grammatical structures. It’s about connectivity, cultural competency, and global engagement. I teach Spanish through the lens of history and justice because learning about Latin America and understanding its people is heart-opening for my students.Students can challenge negative issues stereotypes of latino immigrants And that biased political movement They are exposed to the media. In this way, we begin to puncture the bubble so that students have hope for freedom.
Redefining the American Dream
In class, we will learn about the struggles of Mexico, Central America, and South America. socially and economically. For this reason, Many people and families migrate to the border, expressing a desire to live a life free of violence, obtain secure employment, and obtain an education for the success of future generations. While dreams allow us to imagine the opportunities that are within our reach, it is also important that we study as a class the various obstacles that impede the progress of historically and systemically marginalized people.
To humanize people who visit our borders and create deeper compassion. undocumentedI read the prologue and first two chapters of “.Enrique’s journey” was published in 2006 by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sonia Nazario. Like our students, Enrique is a teenager facing unique life circumstances, living in the midst of gang violence and poverty, struggling with depression and drug addiction; Eventually, he dropped out of school. His dream is for Enrique and his sister to reunite with his mother, who immigrated to the United States in search of a way to earn a sustainable income.Enrique navigates Journey to the Texas-Mexico border at the head of the train He then finds his mother, Lourdes, in North Carolina. But he realized that living in the United States meant exchanging one form of poverty and oppression for another. In reality, the American Dream was paved with racial prejudice and limited, low-income jobs that left Lourdes barely able to make ends meet.
By reading Enrique’s journey, students can see a three-dimensional portrait of the immigrant experience and strengthen their compassion muscles. Together we discover how difficult it really is to achieve all that the American Dream makes us believe is possible.
From there, I ask students to determine whether the American Dream actually exists for illegal aliens. They often say “no,” but if they do, it’s the exception rather than the rule. Students always point out one aspect of the American Dream that seems to lead to change and the future they envision. It’s not just about educating immigrant families and children, it’s about educating teachers and students like us who help shift the narrative. Immigration.
education and empowerment
The school held its annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration last October, where Latinx leaders from the Student Association of Color shared their stories with the school’s broader community. They talked openly and honestly about their struggles, but they also wanted to turn their challenges into something empowering. Inspired by America Ferrera’s TED Talk,my identity is a superpower”, our students shared their stories of being combatants, embracing their Latinx identity, and finding a sense of belonging amidst discrimination and fear of their undocumented relatives being deported. .
I can’t help but believe that the courage of our students to speak their truth is imbued with the humanity of the American Dream that we seek to define in our Spanish classes. What we cultivate in our classrooms will ultimately impact the overall culture of our school. Humanizing those who are perceived as outsiders to society creates a sense of belonging based on empathy and a shared understanding that students and their families want to live safe, joyful and nurturing lives.
While the American Dream has always been tied to political rivalries and geographic boundaries, we must also remember that our opinions and perceptions of the American Dream change, as do school demographics. Just like my students, their parents, and my own grandparents, we believe that dreams can be achieved by believing in the power of education. That can be achieved by crossing the border to find a future or by attending a Catholic girls’ school in the Midwest.
I want my students to understand that the fundamental promises of the American Dream—prosperity, education, and growth—reveal our human connections.
Most of all, I want our students to challenge dominant narratives and stereotypical interpretations of what it means to immigrate and achieve the American Dream, and to burst out of their bubbles. I am. As educators and students, we must center our humanity and strive to uplift each other. We must bravely tap into the potential of the dreams we hold within ourselves, the dreams of our ancestors.
