The Power of the "American Dream"

I was reminded of an article I read last week when reading this week's reading, "As Canadian As Possible" when considering how the fantasized "American Dream" has come to affect cultures around the world. For hundreds of years, individuals have migrated to the United States in search of a better life, for the popularized ideology of the American Dream and the belief that it does indeed exist. 

In this video, Alexis Gonzalez speaks of how he trekked from Honduras, across Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of reaching the United States, however, he never made it to his destination.

As the article title suggests, in this young boys tragic case, the American Dream he has seen in media and movies and heard about for years actually cost him more pain and loss than anything hopeful and promising that supposedly the American Dream could give him. 

So I have to wonder, how does this presentation and depiction of the American Dream across all mediated facets we broadcast worldwide impact the billions of people who wish they could have it? Especially when, I have to wonder, if the American Dream they dream about even exists in our culture today.

Like this popular track, American Dream, says in it's lyrics, "The world is spinning too fast for you and me. So tell me whatever happened to the American Dream;" the world is ever changing and cultures around the world are changing with it.
In considering all of this I wonder, when migrants do make it to the United States, and they find that the American Dream isn't what they believed it to be, how is that even far? Like the scholarly article "Dreams of America, American Dreams" explains, children like Gonzalez have a terribly hard time becoming accustomed to life in America. The problem is, no one ever told any of the migrants this. They have so much hope for a better life and risk their lives in search of it, but unfortunately may never find it.

Roxas, Kevin. 2008. "WHO DARES TO DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM?" Multicultural Education 16 (2): 2-9. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216525245?accountid=13584.