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questions
5

1. Amanda Machado takes issue with four dimensions of the American Dream. Examine one of
them closely by first agreeing with her, then challenging her analysis.
2. Machado states that being the first generation of a family to go to college “can be socially

alienating” (para. 11). To what extent do you think that this is a problem unique to first-
generation Americans?

3. In paragraph 8, Machado quotes Seneca’s definition of luck: “what happens when
preparation meets opportunity.” How, according to Machado, does this statement apply to
Redefining America
immigrants to the U.S. and their children?

4. What does Machado mean when she acknowledges that “it is in part because of this privilege
[her Ivy League education] that I can offer a critique of the United States” (para. 24)?

5 5 5 5 Is America Still a Nation of Immigrants?
Is America Still a Nation of Immigrants?
Is America Still a Nation of Immigrants?
Andrew Lam
Born in 1964 in Vietnam, Andrew Lam came to the United States with his family in
1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. He is both a journalist and fiction writer. In addition, Lam
is an editor of New American Media, a regular contributor to National Public Radio,
and a blogger for the HuffPost . He was featured in the documentary My Journey Home
(2004) about his return to Vietnam. The following letter was published in HuffPost in 2018.

Dear Cousin,
What is it like to be an immigrant in America these days? Is it still worth coming, you ask, and
is the American dream still possible?
Your questions gave me pause. Who from Vietnam, after all, would have thought to
ask them a few years back? Didn’t the American dream, or rather the dream of coming
to America, cause the movement of millions in our homeland, and stir the soul of many
millions more? It breaks my heart then to hear that you might not come. It is to me the worst
news yet about my adopted country.
Yet it’s undeniable. The nation of immigrants is turning its back on immigrants once more.
The immigrant’s hold on American soil has become increasingly tenuous. Even citizens now face
a barrage of hate speech and many are being attacked in a rising wave of hate crimes. In schools,
white students scream “build the wall” at their classmates who are Mexicans or Muslims.
“Build the wall” has become a racist mantra chanted by many around the country 5
against non-whites.
Cousin, have you heard the metaphor of the canary in the coal mine? When it stops
singing, it means the oxygen has run out, providing a warning to all.
In America, and in the context of a free and open society, often the immigrant is that
canary. In economic down times he is often the first to be blamed. And amid the ongoing US
war against terrorism, he is fast becoming a scapegoat.
After the 2016 election that ushered in Donald Trump as President of the United States,
many hate-crime related incidents occurred in which the President’s name was invoked by
the perpetrators, as if to sanction the violence and verbal abuse.
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Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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