If my father had not been brave and hungry for a better future in America, there would be one fewer public administrator, one fewer third grade teacher and one fewer student in medical school in my family. Had so many young people not given their youth, their energy, their strength and their love for this country, the America we know would not exist.
I owe the America I know to my father and the many men that toiled long ago in the fields of our past. I owe my success to my father Herminio, mother Juanita and countless others that dreamed of a better tomorrow. They dreamed of a better tomorrow never knowing if they would reap the slightest of benefits from their hard work.
Today I stand as a testimony to that dream.
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I am the dream. I am an American. And I am the proud son of an immigrant.
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