Once the land of immigrant hopes, America now just a ‘dream breaker’

NEW YORK – Silvia leaned on my kitchen counter and looked at me with sullen eyes, showing me what it looked like to see another American dream go up in smoke.

“I’m going back to Mexico,” she said.

“I am tired of waiting and I am beginning to feel like a fool waiting for someone to do something in this country. I don't believe any of them when they say they care about me anymore. I am done waiting. I don't believe in this country any more,” said Silvia, who is an immigrant from Mexico and here struggling to raise her teenage children.

Some people might think I am overly dramatic, but I believe that one of the best traits a journalist can have is to be able to feel things deeply. For everyone. No matter what side of the story they fall on. So to hear Silva say she had given up on this country, given up on the promise, given up on its political leadership and given up on the ‘dream,” breaks my American heart. Maybe it comes from the fact that I chose to become a citizen and so I take these core American values so seriously.

As if I have the duty to protect them. Like I said, dramatic.

My American heart is all about democracy, and it’s all about dreams. I believe that modern American democracy stands for the notion that we all have voice and that the laws of our country state explicitly that we are all also equal. To have someone living in our country, raising teenagers like me, sharing the same city as I do and feeling ‘invisible,’ as Silvia describes it, is disheartening for my profound sense of what it is to be an American.

Silvia is a Mexican citizen who is an invisible person in this country. In Mexico, at least, Silvia can vote. And she will. Deeply engaged politically, she dreamed of voting in the US. But now the worrisome message is what Silvia will communicate to her three American citizen children. If she does indeed leave.

This country once held her American dream. But our country now is a dream breaker.

My worry is that Silvia's young adult children end up believing what Silvia will have communicated with her actions. Leaving, giving up on the simple but powerful idea that we-are-all-equal-under-the-law, will undercut her children’s belief in that promise. What will happen if Silvia's kids follow in their mother’s footsteps, and grow to feel, like her, that the ‘American dream’ can never be their dream. The inability of the politicians to move forward on immigration reform communicates a simple message. We don't value you enough to make you a part of this country. If these young Americans feel unvalued by the politicians, how can that be good for our democracy?

This is not just a problem for Silvia's family. It is a problem for American democracy. Every 90 seconds a Latino turns 18 in the US. We need more of these young people engaging in democracy. But I worry many of them will internalize the frustration and broken dreams of their parents and thus, turn away from voting, turn away from engaging and turn away from owning their voice as Americans.

After Silvia told me she was thinking about leaving her American dream behind, I was overwhelmed with sadness. All I could see around me were stories of human loss and empty political rhetoric.

President Obama says he is only deporting serious criminals, but is about to break the 2 million mark on the number of deportees under his watch. If there were 2 million serious criminals walking around our country then we don't have an immigration problem; we have a criminal justice problem. Of course, what it means is that swept up with those 2 million deportees are mothers and fathers and sons and daughters who committed no crime other than not having a stamped piece of paper, a visa, a green card. Permission.

This is the story of our America today. If the fastest growing demographic group is Latino—comprising 17 percent of the nation’s total population—then it has to matter that one out of every four Latinos knows someone who has been detained or deported. These are not just Latino stories. These are American stories.

After Silvia told me her plans, I walked into our newsroom in Harlem feeling pretty down. The cluster of desks and edits suites has great energy and it’s a valuable sounding board. This is the space where we produce the longest running Latino news program in the country-LatinoUSA. I asked the young producers if they, too, felt like the American dream had gone up in smoke – not just for Silvia, but for all of the immigrants and their supporters who have not seen immigration reform and may not see it until after a new president is elected in 2017.

I think the glass is half empty, I said. I told them I was worried about Latinos becoming disenchanted, disenfranchised and disengaged.

The conversation immediately took off in the newsroom.

While 2013 saw a year of intense political engagement by the new face of grassroots activism on the issue of immigration reform in the country, the so-called “DREAMers”—undocumented young people who were brought to this country with out papers—weren’t able to get The DREAM Act—legislation for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors—passed. They were deeply engaged with the democratic process, doing acts of civil disobedience, hunger striking, taking over offices, stopping traffic, and lobbying inside the halls of congress. But it wasn't enough.

The lesson? Not to give up, but to say, “If no one is going to do anything for us we will do it for ourselves.” This fast growing demographic (that marketers so eagerly want to own) are doing the opposite of what Silvia is doing. They are not walking away. In fact, they are doubling down. I dare say, they are doubling down with hope.

The engagement of young Latinos in the political process is one of the best things that can happen in the US. Given our growth rates, in 25 years, how these now youthful Latinos feel and act upon every aspect of American society is not going to impact just them, but all of us.

How Latinos as one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the US feel about democracy, about the constitution, due process, public protest, the tax system, voter ID laws, abortion, women's rights, and poverty is going to matter to all of us.

Silvia told me her story at the end of 2013. And since the beginning of 2014, I have returned to being a professor at DePaul University in Chicago. The Latino students I am hearing from on the campus challenged my sense that the glass was half empty. They see it as half full. I don't hear so much about pull your bootstraps up and make money, but rather stories of giving back and empowering the community they came from.

The producers in my newsroom talk frequently about the need to change the narrative about Latinos in this country. We are not sad Latinos anymore, they insist. As journalists, they will never be afraid to tell you the truth about how badly some Latinos are being treated and that truth may make you sad, but the narrative for Latinos now is shifting. The narrative says, “See us. We are no longer invisible. And if you don't see us, you lose. Because this is what the future of the country looks like.”

The good news? Silvia told me that her son who recently turned 18 has already registered to vote. So even if he loses his mother her son will vote.

His American dream, rooted in democracy, is still alive. I guess my younger colleagues and my students are right, the glass really is half full.

GlobalPost columnist Maria Hinojosa is a regular contributor to the VOICES series on the GlobalPost commentary page. She is president and CEO of The Futuro Media Group, which produces LatinoUSA, the longest running Latino news program in America.

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This piece is part of a new GlobalPost Special Reports/Commentary initiative supported by the Ford Foundation called "VOICES." The mission of VOICES is to present the ideas and opinions of those who are less frequently heard in the media, including women, people of color, sexual minorities, citizens of the developing world and young people. These voices will consistently discuss topics important to GlobalPost Special Reports including human rights, religious issues, global health, economic inequality and democracies in transition.