Once upon a time there was a Spanish woman, we will call her Puri because Sonia Monroy was already caught, who after turning 40 decides that it is the PER-FECT-TO time to pursue her lifelong dream: becoming a Hollywood star. 💫  

So grab that dress that you already know with the flag of your Spain, close your suitcases, and head to a place very, very far away. On the other side of the pond. The country where “if you want, you can”.   

Destiny: the American dream. ✈️

What is the American dream about?

Maybe they don't teach you this in the Magic English workbook, but if you look it up in the dictionary of the collective imagination... 

The "American Dream" is the idea that in the United States anyone can achieve, prosper and succeed in everything they set out to do on their own merits, if they want it very hard and work hard from dawn to dusk.   

Regardless of the money in your account, where it comes from or what you have between your legs... or that meritocracy at this point in life is a story with more fantasies than the Disney Plus catalog.   

And... who wouldn't like the promise of arriving with empty hands (and wallet) and ending up reincarnated as the next Steve Jobs or the next Carri Bradshaw living the Sex and the City life? York? Who won't like it?  

Con razón lo del sueño americano se ha convertido en un cliché que ha cruzado más fronteras que los paquetes del Shein.   

From Sonia Monroy to Penélope Cruz, raise your hand if you have never fantasized about a different life in a new country, a better job, more bills in the bank, better opportunities, living happily and eating partridges...   

Because it is clear that there is an American dream for everyone here... Or is there?

From dreaming about Los Angelitos… to having Texas Chainsaw Massacre nightmares

There was a time when the American dream sounded like a Disney movie with a happy ending... 

But the truth is that on the other side of the pond there are no longer fantasies for so many dreamers:

• Sonia Monroy went from the Sex Bomb to pretending to pose very Spanish and very Spanish on the Oscars red carpet. But they know Penélope Cruz and her “Pedroooo” in the depths of Texas.
• Your cousin left town to wash dishes in London. Your ex-university buddy, on an expenses-paid end-of-year trip.
• Anna Allen was stoned in the media for inventing a career in Hollywood. And here let anyone who has not gotten more creative than ever with their CV throw the first stone.

Y lo mismo no es porque no se lo merezcan o porque no se lo curren lo suficiente, sino porque los números ya NO salen ni por mucha bandera que le pongan.   

Pay attention to the data that makes us suspect that the iPhone's alarm has also sounded for the American dream:    

• The social elevator is broken: 90% of kids born in 1940 in the United States earned more than their parents, but only 50% of those born in 1980 have been able to achieve the same. Imagine yourself in 2022. 
• Not even the richest 10% of the population in the US had humble origins. 
• At least 426 thousand people have two full-time jobs. 
• The average American salary has been stagnant for almost 50 years (LOL). 
• And yet, more than 60 million migrants live in the United States in search of opportunity.   

But don't despair, we're not here to discourage the group but rather the opposite, so...

Bye, bye Mari Carmen! We got off the American Dream

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them", said Walt Disney...   

“Frozen has screwed us up”, we say in Siwon.   

The philosophy of “if you want, you can” has made a lot of noise among that generation that aspired to star conditions... and they crashed into mileurist salaries (hopefully) for which you have to get a degree, two master's degrees, three languages... and if that were not enough you have to change continents to find your way elsewhere.

Maybe the move is not that we have to look outside to fulfill “dreams”, aka the American ones that have slipped us between eyebrows as a canon of “success”:   

• Work 25 hours a day to earn $100,000 a year or more.
• A great car in which to spend another 3 hours a day from home to work and from work to home.
• A 300 or 400 square meter house in a suburb straight out of Desperate Housewives.
• A vacation in guiri ON mode along the Costa del Sol.
• [...]

But that we can build a life, a career or a dream that makes the people around us and, most importantly, ourselves a little happier. Without pressure, on our terms and with purposes that are as realistic as they are desirable.   

So less American dream... and more Sunday nap on the couch at home, for your pretty face!

PS: Say “bye, bye” to the American dream… and “hello, darling!” to New York.   

At Siwon we are having a raffle and TET BY THE FACE: we are going to give away a trip for two to New York among all orders over €50 until January 5th. Does he rent you?    

 Grab something and participate here.   

We do cool right,
Siwon