Elizabeth Blancas Striving For The American Dream

                Elizabeth Blancas: Striving For the American Dream by Carlos Bonilla

*Elizabeth Blancas would rather keep her identity a secret

Identity: Who is Elizabeth Blancas?

Elizabeth Blancas is originally from Mexico city, Mexico. She is 20 years of age and currently is working in the electronic section of target in southern California. She loves to play soccer, take care of her puppies, and hangout with friends. She has 3 siblings and she is the oldest out of all of them, but she was the only one who was born outside of the U.S.. Her mother and father both came to America in search of the american dream.

"California... It has always been a multicultural frontier and is likely to remain so" -Sex, Gender, Culture, and a Great Event pg. 3

Immigration: What was immigrating to the United States like?

Her journey started out when she was still very young but old enough to briefly remember some of the details. She did it the old fashion way and  was snuck across the border. Back then if you were under a certain age they wouldn't ask for documentation because most babies don't have all of their papers at such a young age. Her mother and father paid a white family to bring them back to the states for them, the cost was 5,000$ wether or not they made it through the border successfully. Her first attempt was a failure because the tone of skin, it was to dark so she was sent back. The second attempt cost another 5,000$ but this time she got through the border and was successfully reunited with her family.

"There are also important variations among ethnic groups. Total fertility rates-the total number of children born to a women- average 3.7 children for foreign-born Latinas." -Competing Visions: A History of California pg 429

Discrimination: What were some problems you encountered?

When she first came to America the only problem she can remember encountering is financial problems. When immigrants came to America in the late 90's a lot of them were able to get jobs that paid under the table and didn't check for much paperwork. But after 9/11 happened a lot of things changed, new immigration laws started appearing which made it very difficult for immigrants of any race to find a decent paying job that didn't involve physical labor.

Men who persisted in living with native women earned the racist sobriquet "squaw men", and their children were known as "half-breeds"- slurs that condemned racial mixing." (Hurtado, 9-11)