The American Dream in Drown Drown brilliantly portrays a harsh and contemporary reality for Latin American immigrants

in the United States. We can identify the image Hispanics have of the land of opportunities as an icon of improvement. However, the particular kind of American dream that Yunior s father achieves for his family is entirely stereotyped. Certainly, there is a different concept of the American dream shown in this short story collection which is not ideal as most of us would think. To begin with, Latin Americans migrate to the States pursuing a better life and job opportunities; such is the case of Yunior s family. If we compare the type of poverty Yunior talks about in Aguantando -when they still lived in the Dominican Republic- with the type of poverty his whole family experienced in the States, for instance in Fiesta, we could see there is a significant transition in the characters lives. In Aguantando, Yunior s mother works overtime for little money and the children are poorly fed and dressed; a sign of extreme poverty. In contrast, in Fiesta we see that the family s problems come from a much different source; the father is male chauvinistic and has an affair with a Cuban woman, the mother is aware of it but does nothing about it and the children are basically afraid of their father because he is extremely violent. After they migrated to the United States their conflicts drastically changed, they shifted from major problems, related to satisfying their basic needs, to bare unhappiness. A good example of this pseudo improvement is in the last story of the book, Negocios. The story of Ramn de las Casas (Yunior s father) after his arrival at North America is not different from other Latinos experiences. Ramn had to break his back working and living in run-down places before he found a way to settle down; even though, as far as we know, he

never really succeeded. Most Latinos wanted to have their own business and make a wealthy living, but most of them ended up in the same situation as Ramn; trying to save money, away from their families and working overtime without much payment. In the end, Ramn was periodically interested in his family abroad, and when they finally met things did not improve a lot. Although the poor environment was not as awful as in Dominican Republic, Ramon s family in the U.S. was still related to minorities, living in downtown ghetto-like neighborhoods. Furthermore, this is quite a contrast with the suburbs and the lifestyle associated with them in the States, which is far from the American dream concept. The last argument that is useful to exemplify how surreal the American dream is, it is told in the story Aurora. In this story we see Yunior has grown up and he is apparently emancipated, though he has not come out of the type of the environment he grew up in. Moreover, he has become a drug dealer and knows all there is to know about how to behave in his situation. In addition, the same is clearly stated in Drown, Yunior is living alone with his mother and he is already dealing. The fact that Yunior was not able to find another profession shows how the stereotype of Latinos and African Americans is portrayed. Most likely, since they are a minority and form the lower class, they will end up becoming drug dealers or criminals. To conclude, the type of American dream portrayed in the book is the most real one. It is the dream that Latin American people, among other minorities, do come true. This is not totally bad because with immigration a great deal of intercultural differences and issues comes along, yet there is somehow improvement in life quality. The characters in the book made their dream come true, in the sense of improving their lives in comparison with their previous condition and, although not perfectly and for bad or worse, they changed the course of their paths.