By Camilla Cantu The Howler
The American Dream is the idea that people from anywhere can gain wealth and success with a little elbow grease and a “can-do” attitude. For first generation families in Southwest Detroit, the road to achieving the American Dream is through education.
Often Mexican born parents encourage their first-generation children to obtain their high school education despite economic pressures for them to enter the workforce at a young age. But, is it easier said than done?
Jorge Guzman is a first generation junior at Western International High School whose parents were born in Michoacan, Mexico. His parents never enrolled in high school because they had to help support their families. Today, Guzman finds himself in a similar situation.
“On some occasions, I’ve had to almost quit school because my dad loses work,” Guzman said. “Luckily, he gets back on his feet eventually. It’s sad for someone to have to drop their education for their familia. But you have to be willing to do anything for your family.”
The pressure to drop out of high school is a pattern for many first-generation students.
“My family has a construction business. They tell me that if I don’t get good grades, I might as well be like them and work in construction; because otherwise, I will never achieve anything in life,” said Angeles Cuevas, a junior at Detroit Cristo Rey.
Despite the pressure to drop out, Cuevas flourishes. She has a 3.5 grade-point average and aspires to attend college.
“I want to advance past the educational level that my parents did,” she said. “My parents are very supportive about me going to college, and they have high expectations of me. They pressure me to do my best because if I don’t get scholarships, I’m not going to college.”
But what happens to other first generation Hispanic teenagers who don’t find themselves so lucky and cannot avoid the pressure to drop out? A 19-year old high school dropout from Southwest Detroit, who asked that his name not be used, told of the struggle he had before he left high school.
“I have an older sister and brother. My brother was a really bad influence. He started doing negative stuff that was stressing out my single mom. This made me think less and less about school and more about helping support my family,” he said. “At 16, I dropped out of high school, found myself a job landscaping, and started to help out my mom. I’ve been working ever since.
“To the teens that find themselves in my position, I would tell them to follow their instincts, and then you will know what you have to do. In ten years, I hope to see myself with a GED, still working, and living a decent life.”
