What is your favorite thing about the United States of America? 

I like that it’s a free country and a land of opportunity. 

What is your least favorite thing about the US? 

Gun! Gun! Gun violence is a lot. 

What would you like to see happen in the US? 

A final end to racism in this country.

Gabriela Trujillo 

From Marianao, Cuba, and now lives in Hialeah, Florida.

What does the American Dream mean to you? 

My family came as political refugees with nothing to our name, all living in a one-bedroom apartment, not knowing a word of English. Within a few years my mom had her own beauty salon. That’s the American Dream. 

What did the American Dream mean to your parents? 

Finally having peace of mind. [With] rationed food lines [in Cuba]…my dad would have to walk over 30 miles a day to find me root vegetables, fish, goat’s milk — anything to sustain [me,] his baby daughter. The American Dream meant never having to wonder how we would eat again.