Download or read book From the American Dream to the Mexican Nightmare written by Francisco Guillermo Alonso Norma and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation analyzes the connection between Mexican out-migration to the US and Mexico’s ongoing internal wars during the process of US securitization and criminalization of undocumented migration. Until now Mexico’s transition to democracy has been the primary explanation for the spike in levels of criminality in Mexico dominating the literature. However, this dissertation argues that the financial crisis and a decade of hostile US security policies marked by a record high in deportations has discouraged Mexican outmigration to the US. In doing so, these policies have removed an important counterweight to narcotrafficking and ended up by helping the Mexican criminal organizations which they were claiming to fight. For decades, Mexican irregular migration to the US turned a problem into an opportunity for Mexico since remittances promoted peace and development, and the departure of unsatisfied people stimulated social and political stability, particularly in the Mexican countryside. Nevertheless, during the 2000s, post 9/11 migration and security policies in the US greatly reduced this “escape valve” and ended the “American Dream”. Therefore, by restricting one of the main strategies for capital and status acquisition and one of the main alternatives from the “repertoire of adventures” for young males, Mexico became more violent. A statistical analysis of the changes in the average number of homicides and migration data in two periods (1995 - 2000 and 2005 -2010) combined with semi-structured interviews and participant observation in regions of migration origin are used to provide evidence about the connection between the end of the “American Dream” and “the Mexican Nightmare”. In addition, time-series data at the state and community levels are combined with ethnographic and journalistic material to provide analytical narratives about the rajectories followed by the migrant communities in three states. A controlled comparison selecting three Mexican states with strikingly similar socioeconomic and political characteristics but different levels of out-migration and violence is conducted. At last, the consequences of European migration policies on Moroccan migration to the EU are analyzed in order to address the external validity of the proposed theory beyond the Mexican case. Such a mixed methods approach allows to identify certain nuances in social sciences that are usually not addressed simultaneously by works that do not bridge the quantitative-qualitative divide. In particular, this thesis identifies heretofore neglected variables as salient: increased competition for local scarce resources; deflection of prospective migrants into dangerous occupations like growing illegal crops; reactivation of blood feuds since paying back debts became more difficult; a fall in school attendance because parents were not able to sustain their children economically once they were impeded from sending remittances; and reduction in seasonal economic spillovers produced by migrants during holidays.
Download or read book American Dream or Nightmare written by Omar Messina and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-02 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Dream…or Nightmare? By: Omar Messina Follow the struggles of the Messina family, as told through the recollections of the older son, as they navigate the immigration climate in the United States. American Dream...or Nightmare? is an intense, compelling telling of a young boy's experiences moving from Mexico to New Orleans, later developing and running a successful landscaping business in California only to lose it when he is deported and separated from his young wife and baby girl. His only option is to rebuild his life and get back to his family.
Download or read book The American dream of the Mexican nightmare written by Itzel Perez-Zagal and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Dream or A Nightmare written by Armando Ramirez and published by Armando Ramirez. This book was released on 2021-03-13 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pages of this book will discuss a little bit about the reasons for migration and its consequences. The questions are raised and analyzed what is what motivates migrants to leave their land, family, friends, and in many cases possessions which are often poorly sold (losses) to afford the expenses of the trip. It is not intended at all to propose a solution to this phenomenon or problem as some describe it, but to capture in a general way the panorama of migrants, their experiences and vicissitudes, mainly in America, and to motivate a little to awareness on this situation that generates this so-called “American Dream” which for most people in too many cases ends in a nightmare. The hardships and experiences suffered by migrants in general. It should be clarified that other books or articles may have already been written addressing this topic, however, I have not read anyone about it, only some articles and also I know of this subject by what it is seen in the news and what I lived on my own. Here are described some specific stories and cases in which this so-called “American Dream" did not end as it was figured out by those who experienced it. In addition to the statistical data provided in this book for which a full research work has been done through different websites, the stories of those who and for whom this so-called dream became a nightmare or simply the dream ended in its own beginning, that is, it did not even begin. Success stories are also told, the book intends to point what has been called “dream” from two sides or two points of view, although it should be clarified that originally it was not conceived to raise it that way, however, it would be unfair to raise only the negative side, as also focusing only on the “positive” side (if we can call it so). So, the reader will have an overview of this phenomenon and then form his own concept and draw his own conclusions. By clarification, this book emphasizes the stories of immigrants for which this so-called dream was not only possible, but it even went beyond their expectations, so that this so-called "dream" could be seen in these two ways. It is now necessary to be clear that North Americans like immigrants have their own dreams. It is a fact that all human beings are dreamers, whether we are white, mixed or natives Americans, whether Asian, European, African, etc. We all dream of a better tomorrow, of a better life, of well-being, with financial comfort, and with happiness for us and ours. Dreaming is inherent to the human being. In the end, the reader will find a reflection on this topic, on this so-called «American Dream». However, it is necessary to clarify that this is neither a book for nor against migration, nor is it neither for nor against this so-called "American Dream", since, although in many cases the purpose was not achieved, it is also true that in more than one case, those who emigrated, were able to achieve their purpose, or their “dreams”. If you are willing to fulfill this “dream”, you must also be willing to pay the cost of making it true. It is about giving the elements to the reader to evaluate on their own whether it is worth the risk, knowing and being aware that everything in this life has a price, but no dream is worth it if the result is hardship, sadness, loneliness, high sacrifices and in the worst case, death. It may be as a bit of advice, a warning to those who have not yet emigrated and to those who have already done so, so that they may reflect on whether effort or sacrifice was worth it.
Download or read book The American Dream and the Mexican American written by Jorge Lara-Braud and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mexicans and the Future of the American Dream written by Maria Regina Martínez Casas and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-17 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mexicans and the Future of the American Dream examines the lives of Mexican society and government officials in the United States. The 2016 U.S. presidential election marked a defining moment in the lives of Mexicans in the United States. It rekindled nightmares in many Mexicans and pitted a new generation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans against a shift in politics. In this book, national experts and former government officials explore the direction and magnitude of Donald J. Trump’s shifts in immigration policy in three areas: consular strategies put in motion after the election, drugs, and bilateral relations. Insights from 19 Mexican consulates throughout the U.S. territory, in states both favorable to and against immigration, demonstrate shifting perspectives of government officials and Mexicans visiting consulates for formalities, getting orientation on a range of topics, or just asking for help. Mexicans and the Future of the American Dream will be of interest to advanced students and researchers of politics, sociology, history, ethnic studies and American studies.
Download or read book My Underground American Dream written by Julissa Arce and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A National Bestseller! What does an undocumented immigrant look like? What kind of family must she come from? How could she get into this country? What is the true price she must pay to remain in the United States? JULISSA ARCE knows firsthand that the most common, preconceived answers to those questions are sometimes far too simple-and often just plain wrong. On the surface, Arce's story reads like a how-to manual for achieving the American dream: growing up in an apartment on the outskirts of San Antonio, she worked tirelessly, achieved academic excellence, and landed a coveted job on Wall Street, complete with a six-figure salary. The level of professional and financial success that she achieved was the very definition of the American dream. But in this brave new memoir, Arce digs deep to reveal the physical, financial, and emotional costs of the stunning secret that she, like many other high-achieving, successful individuals in the United States, had been forced to keep not only from her bosses, but even from her closest friends. From the time she was brought to this country by her hardworking parents as a child, Arce-the scholarship winner, the honors college graduate, the young woman who climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs-had secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant. In this surprising, at times heart-wrenching, but always inspirational personal story of struggle, grief, and ultimate redemption, Arce takes readers deep into the little-understood world of a generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today- people who live next door, sit in your classrooms, work in the same office, and may very well be your boss. By opening up about the story of her successes, her heartbreaks, and her long-fought journey to emerge from the shadows and become an American citizen, Arce shows us the true cost of achieving the American dream-from the perspective of a woman who had to scale unseen and unimaginable walls to get there.
Download or read book Who Stole the American Dream written by Hedrick Smith and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. In his bestselling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today. This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth. This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists. Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined. This magnificent work of history and reportage is filled with the penetrating insights, provocative discoveries, and the great empathy of a master journalist. Finally, Smith offers ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream. Praise for Who Stole the American Dream? “[A] sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience.”—The Huffington Post “Some fine work has been done in explaining the mess we’re in. . . . But no book goes to the headwaters with the precision, detail and accessibility of Smith.”—The Seattle Times “Sweeping in scope . . . [Smith] posits some steps that could alleviate the problems of the United States.”—USA Today “Brilliant . . . [a] remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Smith enlivens his narrative with portraits of the people caught up in events, humanizing complex subjects often rendered sterile in economic analysis. . . . The human face of the story is inseparable from the history.”—Reuters
Download or read book Who are We written by Samuel P. Huntington and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America was founded by settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of later immigrants came gradually accepted these values and assimilated into America's Anglo-Protestant culture. More recently, however, national identity has been eroded by the problems of assimilating massive numbers of immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, and the "denationalization" of American élites. September 11 brought a revival of American patriotism, but already there are signs that this is fading. This book shows the need for us to reassert the core values that make us Americans.--From publisher description.
Download or read book Mexican Voices American Dreams written by Marilyn P. Davis and published by Owl Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these vivid recollections, recorded both in Mexico and the U.S., 90 Mexican-Americans share their innermost thoughts and feelings and reveal a wealth of experiences: the risks they take, what they left behind, their dreams versus the realities, and how immigration has changed their lives.
Download or read book Utopian Dreams Apocalyptic Nightmares written by Miguel López-Lozano and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utopian Dreams, Apocalyptic Nightmares traces the history of utopian representations of the Americas, first on the part of the colonizers, who idealized the New World as an earthly paradise, and later by Latin American modernizing elites, who imagined Western industrialization, cosmopolitanism and consumption as a utopian dream for their independent societies. Carlos Fuentes, Homero Aridjis, Carmen Boullosa, and Alejandro Morales utilize the literary genre of dystopian science fiction to elaborate on how globalization has resulted in the alienation of indigenous peoples and the deterioration of the ecology. This book concludes that Mexican and Chicano perspectives on the past and the future of their societies constitute a key site for the analysis of the problems of underdevelopment, social injustice, and ecological decay that plague today's world. Whereas utopian discourse was once used to justify colonization, Mexican and Chicano writers now deploy dystopian rhetoric to interrogate projects of modernization, contributing to the current debate on the global expansion of capitalism. The narratives coincide in expressing confidence in the ability of Latin American and U.S. Latino popular sectors to claim a decisive role in the implementation of enhanced measures to guarantee an ecologically sound, ethnically diverse, and just society for the future of the Americas.
Download or read book Assault on Mexican American Collective Memory 2010 2015 written by Rodolfo F. Acuña and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses a micro-narrative structure to explore the assault on the collective memory of Mexican Americans in the Southwest United States from 2010–2016. These communities’ survival depends on their histories and identities, which are being quickly erased by gentrification and dispersal, neoliberalism and privatization. This issue is most apparent in the education system, where Mexican American students receive inferior educations and lack access to higher education. Avoiding the overly-theoretical macro-narrative, this book uses case studies and micro-narratives to suggest possible changes and actions to address this issue. It also explores how the erasure of Mexican Americans’ history and identity mirrors society as a whole.
Download or read book The Line Becomes a River written by Francisco Cantú and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN CURRENT INTEREST FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NONFICTION AWARD The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line.
Download or read book American Nightmare written by Richard Lord and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homeowners who can't borrow from banks have long turned to the subprime lending industry for mortgages. Increasingly, that industry has turned on them by charging outrageous fees and usurious interest, and then taking their homes through foreclosure. Richard Lord explores the spread of predatory lending practices. And it tells the stories of borrowers who've been taken, contractors and brokers who've been co-opted, lenders who've cheated--and the world's biggest financial titans, who've cashed in. A battle is taking shape that could determine whether home ownership for working people will be an achievable dream or an American nightmare. Richard Lord is a writer for the "Pittsburgh City Paper" whose work on subprime lending has won numerous awards.
Download or read book The Humane Gardener written by Nancy Lawson and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
Download or read book We Became Mexican American written by Carlos B. Gil and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-08-17 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story of Mexican family that arrived in America in the 1920s for the first time. And so, it is a tale of immigration, settlement and cultural adjustment, as well as generational progress. Carlos B. Gil, one of the American sons born to this family, places a magnifying glass on his ancestors who abandoned Mexico to arrive on the northern edge of Los Angeles, California. He narrates how his unprivileged relatives walked away from their homes in western Jalisco and northern Michoacán and traveled over several years to the U.S. border, crossing it at Nogales, Arizona, and then finally settling into the barrio of the city of San Fernando. Based on actual interviews, the author recounts how his parents met, married, and started a family on the eve of the Great Depression. With the aid of their testimonials, the author’s brothers and sisters help him tell of their growing up. They call to memory their father’s trials and tribulations as he tried to succeed in a new land, laboring as a common citrus worker, and how their mother helped shore him up as thousands of workers lost their jobs on account of the economic crash of 1929. Their story takes a look at how the family survived the Depression and a tragic accident, how they engaged in micro businesses as a survival tactic, and how the Gil children gradually became American, or Mexican American, as they entered young adulthood beginning in the 1940s. It also describes what life was like in their barrio. The author also comments briefly on the advancement of the second and third Gil generations and, in the Afterword, likewise offers a wide-ranging assessment of his family’s experience including observations about the challenges facing other Latinos today.
Download or read book The Latino a American Dream written by Sandra L. Hanson and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “American Dream” means many things to many people, but in general it can be said that it connects the idea of freedom to the opportunity for prosperity and upward social mobility. Sandra L. Hanson and John K. White have joined together with a group of social scientists to explore the attitudes, experiences, and expectations of Latinos in their quest for the American Dream. The Latino/a American Dream asks many timely questions, including: how do Latino/as view the American Dream? Has the recent economic downturn affected their hopes of achieving the Dream? What about recent immigrants? What about Latina women? The answers to these questions and more draw on sociology, political science, and history to paint a multifaceted portrait of Latino/a opportunity in America, both real and perceived.
