Daniel Enriquez 1

Dream To Come
A dream that shines bright is usually the one that comes true. The Land of the Free and
the Land of Opportunity. Jose Jesus Enriquez is the perfect example of the name opportunity. He
portrays American's wish to grow out of their socioeconomic class. His dream was always to
show the world that he can do anything with hard work, effort and sacrifices. He came of age in
the 1980s. The world was different and America was brighter and then ever. The economy was
increasing, houses were more valuable and jobs were on the rise. This is the adventure to the
dream that would become not only the journey to success, but the prime example of a legacy.
The year was 1964. Jose's journey began when he was born in Mexicali, Mexico, later
moving to Calexico. Jose was better known as Pepe. He was born into a very low income family.
He was the youngest sibling out of 6 and shared a small house with them and his parents, Jose
grew up with opportunities like education and working, and as a boy, he was into athletics and
working in a paper route. He loved the feeling of success as a young man. Resources were very
low where he grew up and the weather was always hot. The sun was constantly close to your face
and there was no outdoor play ground because of all the accidents that would happen because of
the first degree burns. Jose was always outside though, and he never really liked to just stay
home and be lazy, probably because in the 80s there was nothing to do inside before the
popularization of electronics. He had to rely on outdoor actives. He loved the feeling of the
natural breeze of the outside because he liked to prove that he was able to go through anything
even if it was extremely challenging.
Jose started working at 9 years old. He used to be in the local paper route and was always
a very proud worker even though they only paid him about $5 dollars a day. The job was
exhausting because of the heat, his tight helmet, his shirt soaked in sweat, and his legs tight as
the sun laid on top of him. He would come home with a smile and more excitement and energy
to fill up his own working jar, the jar of money Jose used to collect his earnings. His work ethics
were born when he lived next to the owner of the paper route who saw potential in Jose.
Growing into a young man, Jose still kept working and started to join school sports such as
baseball and wrestling.
Years have passed and Jose still followed the same path of working and athletics. At the
young age of 16 year old, Jose felt like he came of age when he was offered a job as a mechanic.
This motivated Jose to finish school immediately. He learned that his efforts in school did not
matter to him the only thing that would make him happy would be to have successful career as a
mechanic. He loved the sound of a roaring car engine that he fixed by covering himself in car
oils and slippery grease. He finally felt the taste of the good life, well his definition of the good
life which was just to have stability. He felt like he was ready to take matters into his own hands
and just live his life independently. His dream was finally starting to shine right in front of his
eyes. Since he wanted to make money and grow into a successful life of cars and money, Jose
felt the experience of a laborer, even though he did not know he would be working for the rest of
his life.

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Around this time, low class families in small neighborhoods were very common. Living
in a small community comes with many situations, the town of Calexico carried no activities.
Mainly because they did not have many entertainment inventions. A guarantee for people with
low class stability was that they could not have entertainment. The lower class just depended on
school and more extra curricular activities. Jose had different plans. With all the money he saved
up, he bought his first car at 16. Jose was one of the first teenager to buy a car in his town. Which
was incredibly rare. Jose was never the teenager to party too much. He was too busy working all
the time. Jose worked every day after school or sometimes he wouldnt go to school just to work,
but for the main reason for self support. He knew that working was his only opportunity for
success and stability.
Emotions. The only human characteristic that can ruin anyone's career or life. Jose was
ready to take a step forward and find his partner in life. Feeling trapped and shut out of all the
dreams that used to shine so bright Jose was in complete darkness all because of an action that
cost him a new life. Responsibility is hard to learn as a child, especially for a child who has to
teach another child. At 17, Joses world changed, he was going to be a father. Feeling confused
and weak, Jose turned to the people he never depended on: his parents. Their eyes widened as
Jose announced his future. His mother's stomach getting heavier to carry and his father fist
closing shut trying to hold back the whys?. His life that seemed like a success story would
soon come across challenges in his own mature brain in the body of a child.
Having a difficult life is the cause of previous mistakes. Jose learned the hard way that
becoming a father of a newborn daughter at 17 years old was going to be the most challenging
event in his life. After announcing his news, his parents decided that if Jose wanted to feel like a
grown up he must act like one; Jose was forced to live by himself. He was all alone with 2
mouths to feed and had to provide a roof over their heads. Although feeling trapped and lost,
Jose did not give up. He decided to take matters into his own hands and work harder than he ever
had before in his life to support his child. His inspiration for working was his source of life: his
daughter and wife were both homeless and he did not want that lifestyle for them. He worked
endless hours. When he came into the building the sun came out and when he left the sun that
shined so bright was already gone and you could only see the brightness of the moon. He always
felt exhausted, he would sleep for only 4 hours a day. After endless amounts of hard work, he
decided to move out of Calexico and move to the city life of San Diego. He saved up enough
money to buy and support his own apartment.
Around 3 years into his work, Jose came into America. Jose's chances of finding a job
were vast for many job opportunities were available by his past work experience. Jose started out
working in a factory with forklifts and storage. He was very determined by the influences around
him such as his daughter. He knew that he was the only hope to support his family. Having
children around this time was more common than ever. Around this time, teen pregnancy
increased 14% in the last 10 years according to CDC(1993) Condom use during this the 1980s
grew from 13 percent to 41 percent among Hispanics,the study found. Jose mentioned around
this time sexual education was not common and was not shared to the youth community. In
result, there wasnt many answers to the questions adolescents were asking about.

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Five years had past and the dream Jose saw was just simply to support his daughter and
make the most of his current situation. Throughout his struggle of a journey, he noticed his
biggest window of opportunity. He realized he had gained a lot of experience from the years of
labor that he knew he could use to be a leader. He lived the dream most people would do
anything for. He was able to strive for this dream because he started his own business at 22 years
old. He was the boss of about 30 people and everyone always looked at him surprised, because
he looked so young and yet was an intelligent working CEO. People would always say, "Hey son
where is your dad I have a meeting with him". He would always laugh it off and say, "Haha no
I'm the one in charge, my dad doesnt work here." His dream was very strong at this point. He
wanted to live the life he saw at 16 to own cars and to just have his children happy. He later felt
like he had succeeded again.
After several years of marvelous income, Jose knew he was a success in moving into a
new social class. He went from a homeless low class to a stable place in middle class. According
to Addy(2013), people were more likely to have a second child after feeling comfort that they
landed in a safe economic stand. Several years later, Jose had a second child. He felt like the
world was looking at him as a successful man. To feel relief as he can support his children and
buy them their necessities. Looking back to his past struggles when he finally had success the
dream was the brightest at this point, he thought he had accomplished the American Dream. His
version of the dream was simply to have enough money to support his family and to have a
stable job to keep working. Later he mentioned the American Dream around the 80's was to live
around the Los Angeles Hollywood area and to have various cars around this time to make
millions of dollars mainly because the world of an actor was the perfect life. Making millions of
dollars, and having the world honoring you and your talent.
Many people around this time did not go through the same lifestyle as Jose. This was
mainly because there was many different races around this time. According to A child birth,
many hispanics had many problems with pregnancy around the 80's because of poor treatment
and lack of sex education. A few things people faced around this time was reality. Various people
around the 80's simply had too many rich dreams, but they had the lack of opportunity, and
education. The growth of education could of prevented many childbirths according to
CDC(1993). But a child wasnt going to change a mindset. The dream was much alive in the
mind. Many peoples dream in America was as common as a nation primarily, because the rise of
communication was a given. The success stories that are heard, all share strength. The 80s
community that were born into a working class life style share the same dream that they just
want a good home with stable middle class income. They all share this because they have no
communication with social media or trends because they can't reach those resources because of
money issues.
When things started to look excellent, Jose and his partner decided to go their separate
ways and to just be respectful to each other for the kids sake. Jose was understanding and agreed
to moved on. Although they separated, he bought a house for them to live and funded his
childrens necessities and college tuition. His dream hasn't changed much up until this point in
life where he just wanted to find happiness before he started to live it. It was clear that Jose
wanted to share his experience with someone else which would be later his second wife they

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ended up to be business partners. She helped bring stock up, brought thousands of dollars in
income, and bring their new business together as CEO. Later doing well in his business, Jose
would come to work energetic even if he had to have a crooked smile to show a glimpse of
happiness. At around this time Jose looks back at all the opportunities he was given and shares to
everyone that it is possible to live out your dreams if you simply put effort and sacrifices for your
own success.
Jose has made it clear that anyone can reach the American dream by simply sacrificing
and dedication to a work ethic, if it means school or even working. Jose's story is to not give up
even if all the odds of you surviving a horrible event are slim. Use all opportunity, chances, and
to show hard work when it comes to just simply putting any effort into any subject. Jose was dirt
poor and homeless yet he rose from the ground to a new rising business empire. He was
explaining that his struggles show a passage way to victory and that they helped him become the
man he is today. He grew up to give opportunity to many people by giving them jobs and an
outlook for a better future Jose's story makes the 80's pregnancy statics true by being a father at a
young age and having no income. It all seemed impossible yet he came to the land of dreams and
showed his nightmare and how he can make any event that can slow him down to a unbelievable
reality.