Capturing the American Dream: Celebrating Independence Day
By: Monica Cl Nash
Tags: American, Asian American, Immigrants, Chinese American, American Dream

Capturing the American Dream. Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco, CA

I’m going to talk about opportunity and the American Dream because you don’t always get this story from the mainstream. I celebrate Independence Day as a first-generation Chinese-Thai-American.

As a daughter of immigrants, who have achieved their success because of the opportunities in the country, I am incredibly thankful and aware of my opportunities that I would have not been able to access otherwise.

My father and grandmother fled from China when Mao was massacring his own people and even people to establish Communism. 40 to 80 million victims died through starvation, persecution, prison labor, and mass executions including my great uncle, who was actually also a communist too, just fell out of favor.

I appreciate the freedoms in this country and opportunities for upward mobility. I’ve said this before, and to reiterate, my grandfather was a waiter at a Chinese restaurant and my grandmother was a factory seamstress who never earned more than minimum wage from a job. My grandmother still barely speaks English even though she is a citizen, she and my grandfather were able to support their family. A story of the American Dream. In less than one generation, my grandparents moved a 4-person family from a 1.5 room apartment in Chinatown with saved money to buy a duplex in the Inner Richmond at a time when they needed white co-signers to buy a house in America.

Though racism was rampant for most Americans, my dad and uncle went to integrated public school thanks to the ongoing trend for civil rights and the right to an education because of Supreme Court decisions like Tape vs SF Board of Education, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Brown vs the Board of Education. (Thank you to our Constitutional Republic and Supreme Court!) My father was dedicated to his education and my grandparents saved and managed to send him to UCSF for med school.

At the same time, on an extremely thrifty budget, my grandparents were able to sponsor many family members to also flee from Communist China. My grandmother, especially, is a true patriot because she is thankful for her liberties here.

My sister and I afforded luxuries such as graduate education because of the upward mobility that my parents achieved at a time when China was suffering from female infanticide under the one-child policy. I could go on for a long time about how I appreciate my life in America.

I tell this story because I appreciate Independence Day for these reasons. Our country may have been founded by less than perfect people, yet I recognize that they created a system that is flexible, yet still firm, to fit the needs of the people. Though this may not seem the case always, this is my experience, and the way I see it is that if we work to overcome our divisions we can accomplish a lot with life, liberty, and hard work.

“The American Dream belongs to us all,” said Kamala Harris, and this story is not so uncommon as it may seem.

So celebrate today and pursue your own happiness.