Personal Narrative: My Pursuit Of The American Dream

It was the spring of 1964, my parents Elodia and Antonio Fernandez had migrated over to the United States with hopes of living the American dream. They came from Michoacán, Mexico, where they didn’t have much to leave behind. The economy wasn’t any better there than it was in the United States, but at least there were more opportunities for them to earn a couple extra dollars. After working in the barrio of Watsonville, California for five years, where they picked strawberries, lettuce, cabbage and a variety of other fruits and vegetables, they saved enough money to build a house of their own. At the time, California agricultural workers stayed in labor camps and various types of dwellings. The indigenous farmworkers throughout California faced

However, my father didn’t believe in earning an education, he told me that I had to work hard for my money and that’s how you move up in the world. During my senior year in high school, I met a boy named Xavier, who I ended up hanging out with during lunch and at times outside of school. I had never been in a relationship, since my father wouldn’t let any boys come around the house and told me I couldn’t date. Over the years, my curfew was extended a couple hours, so now I didn’t have to be home until 11 at night. By this time, I was working at Sears at Northridge Mall in the clothing department, where Xavier would occasionally come over to see me. On one of my days off of work, Xavier came over to the house in the evening, where he encountered the wrath of father. My dad yelled, “Get out of here you punk!” and leaped after him and kicked him down the street and told him to never come around the house again. I was peeking out my bedroom window, when my father stomped into my room, outraged he slammed the door behind him and took off his belt and began to hit me repeatedly. I cried the entire night; I was embarrassed to go to school the next day and didn’t know what I was going to tell Xavier. When I arrived to school, Xavier walked up to me and told me my father was going to have to do a lot more than chase him down the street for him to stop talking and seeing me. I knew I was falling in love with him, but feared my father would cause this relationship to come to an