Immigrants Struggles in Search for the American Dream

Coming to the United States offers many immigrants the chance to better themselves through education, jobs, and possible upward mobility. However, once in the United States, they face discrimination and stereotyping, which often hinders their ability to access the American Dream.[1] This is true of Bolivian immigrants who began immigrating after the passage of the Hart-Celler Act (1965). Most of the Bolivians who were coming were economic immigrants, hoping to make money to both have a good life in America and send funds back to Bolivia.

According to the 2010 Census, Bolivians comprised the largest number immigrants from South American countries to come to Alexandria, Virginia. [2]

Despite being the largest group coming from South America, Bolivians immigrants are often either ignored by the media or when covered, they are often grouped in a large catch-all group of other immigrants coming from Central and South America and the stories are  negative. They report on gang violence, drug trafficking, political coups, and earthquakes.[3] These stereotypes, which the media perpetuates, forces immigrants to work harder to gain the trust of Americans, in order to get the jobs or investments in small business start-ups.

In an effort to combat this negative image of Bolivians as well as other Central and Southern American immigrants, Julio Duran, a Bolivian immigrant, decided that he was going to begin to publish his own newspaper Impacto in 1986. Duran was born in Tarija, Bolivia and was trained as in journalism at the University of La Plata, in Buenos Aries Argentina. After graduating, Duran began working for different newspapers and even started a few of his own papers La Tablada in La Paz, Bolivia. In 1979, Duran moved to the United States to become a Washington correspondent for the newspaper El Diario.[4]

Despite his education and experience in Bolivia, Duran struggled to find a job in the United States. He was repeatedly turned down for jobs with the federal government despite passing the writing exams and a background check. In the face of this opposition, Duran decided that he would write and publish his own newspaper and focused on stories that were neglected by the U.S. media but were important to those Spanish-speaking immigrants from Central and South America. Duran knew that in order to finance his newspaper, he would need to get advertisers interested in investing in his newspaper. In an interview with the Washington Post, Duran describes how he was forced to go around carrying his degree to prove his credentials. Still, many were hesitant to advertise in his newspaper and instead insisted to see the first edition before making any decision. So Duran was forced to invest $8,000 his own money into his newspaper while only taking in $4,000 in advertisements.[5]

Partially due to his status as a Latino immigrant, Julio was denied a job with the federal government (despite his qualifications) and struggled to get advertising in his newspaper, despite his extensive experience. However, due to his determination and hard work, Julio Duran was eventually able to get his newspaper Impacto published. While the American Dream and belief in the equality is central to the American psyche, immigrants often face a number of struggles. One of the hardest to overcome is the racial stereotypes held by those born in the America. These stereotypes are often portrayed by the media and cause immigrants to struggle to have access to jobs that they are qualified for.

 

[1]. Tom Gjelten, A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015).

[2]. 2010 U.S. Federal Census: Community Facts; Hispanic or Latino, Alexandria, Virginia, American Fact Finder, digital image, accessed November 09, 2016, http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml.

[3]. Dianna Saenz, “Fledgling Va. Publisher Puts Out a Paper with Latin American Beat,” The Washington Post, December 11, 1986, accessed November 09, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/12/11/fledgling-va-publisher-puts-out-a-paper-with-latin-american-beat/6344a7f8-c047-4758-a935-769d7924046a/.

[4]. Ibid.

[5]. Ibid.