Jacob Lawrence's Painting The Long Journey

“Becoming American” is short film that informs the viewer about the process of immigrants getting jobs in America. Immigrants both gain and lose many aspects of what make them who they are when coming to America. This film teaches many things that people don’t probably know about Hispanic immigrants and allows others to understand what immigrants stand for.

Illegal immigration it is a controversial issue for many years. Immigrants do not have the same benefits as Americans citizens. According to the article Illegal Immigration by Kathleen Brown states “In the past decade, the number of illegal immigrants has double, to 2.1 million, equivalent to the population of Arkansas” (Brown). In fact, illegal immigrants immigrate to America, but their main intention is to get better opportunities in life. The American dream is all over the world, which is the principal reason why people come to United States to make their American dream true. However, the epiphany is that Americans protect their country by implementing more laws and enforcing their borders secure.

Although some argue otherwise, immigrants have a positive impact on our society. It is ironic how "within the country founded by Immigrants- Immigrant somehow become a bad word" (K'Naan). Although statistics prove that immigrants do bring overcrowding, drug trafficking, and diseases, they also impact positively on our economy and bring cultural knowledge. Being an immigrant in America is no easy task, they work long hours and most of the time have multiple jobs. Because the American dollar has greater value, immigrants will take any job that pays better than their home country. This often means they do the unwanted jobs of Americans. Immigrants fight hard to work their way to America with the American dream in mind, but once here that dream becomes very distant due to unexpected challenges they faced. In Valeria Luiselli book "Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions", she addresses her experience as an interpreter for immigration court of the state of New York, discussing the stories she has heard with the immigration process. Throughout the book, she explains her view of the lack of sympathy and protection the United States has for the young immigrants. Her purpose to show the difficulties the immigrants go through - their sacrifice, resilience, and strength as they fight to survive and obtain a better life in America can also be seen in K'naan video - "The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)", through his use of symbolism everywhere in the music.

Like many Americans today, a successful life is something every family endeavors to achieve. Whether you are native to this land or an immigrant, everyone is pursuing their idea of the American dream. Whereas every dream may be different, the journey to each dream is both trying and straining. In both articles written by Hogan and Shteyngart, we find two families striving for a better life as they encounter their own struggles along the way. Although Native Americans and immigrants are different as Native Americans are indigenous, while immigrants are foreigners, the authors illustrate they are also similar as they both have adversities, pervading family influences, and are strangers in a world they attempt to call home.

United States is a country with a big cultural diversity. Persons from all the countries, especially from the least developed ones, start a new life in this country with the only purpose of reach the American Dream. A better economic position, life style and educational opportunities for their family, are some of the facts that immigrates are looking for in America. All these privileges are not enough for them to forget their background. The reading Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and the movie The Namesake by Dir. Mira Nair, show two different stories about how the new family in America struggle with the parent’s culture and what American culture is. Immigrants, such as me, have to face many life changes when arriving for first time to America, such as different beliefs and ideologies, different language and new economic opportunities

“Heroic Journeys: The Immigrant Experience as the Hero’s Journey in El Norte and La misma luna” is written by Professor Susan Wiebe Drake of Murray State University, analyzing the relationship between Joseph Campbell’s theory of “hero’s journey” and two Latino-produced films: El Norte and La misma luna. According to the author’s analysis, in both films, undocumented immigrants are portrayed as heroes, because they all went through three phases corresponding to Campbell’s theory about the heroic journey: departure, initiation, and return. However, one significant difference between the demonstration of heroes in these films and Campbell’s theory is that, neither of the endings of both films is explicitly shown as positive, due to the failure of undocumented immigrants to assimilate to American culture.

Americans can never experiences the hardships and struggles that an immigrant experiences, at least not in the same type of context. Many authors describe the way American born citizens alienate immigrants: lowering their standards, taking away opportunities, and downright judging them for any reason that can be found. In Firoozeh Dumas’ memoir Funny in Farsi, and Pat Mora’s poem “Legal Alien” many descriptions of the struggles to live to what they are worth in America are shown. Being viewed as unworthy, and not amounting to what they truly should be—these are just small examples of what Dumas and Mora describe life as an immigrant in America. From the other sided view of things, in Richard Crowson’s political cartoon “Great American Melting

During this week, I was able to further solidify my appreciation for being a United States citizen. When our class discussed the Weekly News Analysis’, various people talked about the issues with undocumented immigrants in the United States due to the documentary. During the first hand account of life as an undocumented immigrant, I, as a viewer, was able to see the

Immigrating to another country could bring a lot of conflicts to families who chose to leave their children’s to look for a better life, but in fact, it could open many opportunities for people who chose to do so. A well know Hispanic movie, named Under the Same Moon delivers a traditional social message, amount people who decide to immigrate to the United States for a better future. The main character name Rosario, faced a dilemma where, she demands herself cleaning a house of a rich woman, and at the same time treaty as a second class citizen in order to sustain her family in Mexico. Despite the fact, that not only Rosario was treaty as a second class citizen, many immigrants who decide to come to the USA face different types of bad treatment

Within the film A Better Life there are many examples of situations that are seen as subjects which many people do not openly talk about. Circumstances such as illegal immigration and how people who do chose to enter the United States through backdoor channels can actually be a benefit to society and raise productive members of society. Furthermore, the movie depicts an illegal, Carlos Galindo and his struggles of maintaining a job, being a single parent, and at the same time evading detection from United States immigration officers. This struggle of trying to provide for his son Luis and make sure he maintains the correct direction which he is following to be a successful member of society is plagued by Luis’s friend, Facundo and his girlfriend, Ruthie Valdez. Both of Luis’s friends are on the track of being stuck inside of a Hispanic gang. This rips Luis in half due to his proper upbringing by his father Carlos. This paper will document multiple occurrences from the film and analyze the cultural significance for each event.

Immigration is a big subject that is talked about a lot today. Many authors us immigration as a subject in their text to us different techniques. Many articles and novels use different ways to portray immigration. The red umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and “A band-aid for 800 children” by eli saslow, they both portray immigration in many similar and different ways.

There are many difficulties which immigrants and immigrant's descendants encounter such as: language difficulties, identity crisis, economic, educational gaps and cultural differences. This film shows some difficulties and challenges which immigrants and immigrant's descendants experience from Carlos and his son, Luis point of view.

America the land of the free has been an open place for anyone to come and make a better life for themselves and their families. Our freedom has created more opportunities and open fields for anyone of any race, ethnicity, or sex to be able to flourish. Freedom to do almost as one pleases had been more of a crowd drawer than anything else throughout all of history. Freedom of religion, speech, and many legal freedoms of rights even today is a massive promoter of immigration and movement to the U.S. This immigration and movement across the boarder is exactly what The Dream Is Now is targeting. The documentary gives voice to and puts a human face on the undocumented children of immigrants who are desperate to earn their citizenship and give back to the only country they've ever called "home." The film also goes beyond the personal experiences of the individuals but places their stories in the larger pictures and explores the consequences of continuing our current policies and maintaining the status quo. Consequences not just for these young people today, but for our country's future because our future is not what we do today but what our children and the young group of people around us do.

“The truth is, immigrants tend to be more American than people born here”. This quote by Chuck Palahniuk illustrates the idea that migrant citizen’s desires to live the American dream exceed those of natural born citizens. Two essays have been written portraying this idea. The first essay, written by Gary Shteyngart, is titled “Sixty-Nine Cents”. The second essay, titled “Vagabond Nation”, is written by Azar Nafisi.

For my research paper, I will be studying the work and paintings of Jacob Lawrence. Jacob Lawrence was an American painter and was very highly commended African-American artist of the 20 century. What he is best known for is his Migration Series. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 7, 1917. When he was the age of two his mother deposited him and his two younger siblings in foster care in Philadelphia after his parents divorced. When he was thirteen he went to work in New York City and there he went to join his mother. He also spent fifteen years teaching as a professor at the University of Washington. Lawrence was also widely known for producing narrative collections such as the Migration Series and War Series. Shortly after Lawrence had arrived there, he was introduced to art when his mother had enrolled him in Utopia Children’s Center, which then had an after school art program. At the age of 16 he dropped out of school and took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop where it was taught by Charles Ashton and he very often visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1937, he won a scholarship to the American Artist School in New York. When he graduated in 1939 he had received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. By that time, he had already established his own type of modernism and that is then when he began to create his narrative series; where he would paint about 30 paintings or more for that one subject. In 1941, he had