Immigrant Stories | The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants

Welcome to episode 79 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Dr. John Mesa was born in Colombia. He shares about moving to Venezuela during the oil boom with his family and living there for a few years before returning to Colombia. From a young age, Dr. Me...

Welcome to episode 78 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Rooya was born in Afghanistan and remembers they had electricity at one point, and then they didn’t. During the time that communism was taking over, she remembers if people were caught fleeing or...

Welcome to episode 77 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Ranjeet is a coach and mentor who guides professionals into achieving their American Dream by obtaining an EB1A green card (aka Einstein visa) just like he did. He grew up with a journalist mothe...

Welcome to episode 76 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today, I bring you the founder and blogger of This Latina Travel - Bianca Alba! Bianca shares about growing up in the DMV area or DC, Maryland, Virginia - which, before this episode, I had no ide...

Welcome to episode 75 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today, I spoke with Kristy, the host of The Master Delegator Podcast and owner of a virtual assistant agency. Kristy is from the Philippines, and she moved to the U.S. after meeting her husband o...

Welcome to episode 74 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Happy New Year! Today is the first episode of 2025 and the new format, where I’m releasing episodes every Tuesday! I’m excited to bring you content on a weekly basis since the show is growing, an...

Welcome to episode 73 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today, I’m bringing you my conversation with Dr. Griselda Martinez. Dr. Martinez is a business coach for women entrepreneurs and hosts the podcast “ Unexpectedly Successful ,” where she shares gu...

Welcome to episode 72 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today, I’m sharing my conversation with author Sindy F., who wrote If I Denounce My Accent . This novel is based on true events, and I finished it on our holiday vacation in the Dominican Republi...

Welcome to episode 71 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today, I spoke with Kathy, a transformational coach, about her unique experience as a first-generation child of immigrant parents from two different countries. Kathy shares heartfelt stories abou...

Welcome to episode 70 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Marta Spirk, a Brazilian immigrant who moved to the U.S. at 23, nine months after having her triplets. Marta has worked as a freelance court interpreter and is now a visibility s...

Welcome to episode 69 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Aimee Portes - who shares her journey of immigrating to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic. Amy reflects on her early life in the Dominican Republic, explaining how financial p...

Welcome to episode 68 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Pat Marino, the author of “ We Have All Been the Others": Reflections of a First Generation's Daughter on Belonging, Democracy, and a New American Dream. ” Pat is a historian and...

Welcome to episode 67 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Solveiga Jaskunas, an HR consultant and career coach who shares her journey as an immigrant from Lithuania to the United States. We discuss her childhood under Soviet rule, the c...

Welcome to episode 66 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Soraya Senosier, the host of the Diaspora in Development Podcast. She shares her journey as a Haitian-Canadian growing up in Canada and the cultural impact of the U.S. We talked...

Welcome to episode 65 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Prasanta Verma, the author of Beyond Ethnic Loneliness: The Pain of Marginalization and the Path to Belonging . In this episode, we talk about her family’s decision to move to th...

Welcome to episode 64 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is immigration attorney Hector Quiroga. Hector came to the US from Colombia to study English and eventually stayed. He initially was interested in NASA and studied in Texas, but the...

Welcome to episode 63 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Evelin Andrade, founder of Ir Al Sol Swimwear. She shares her story of growing up in Queens, New York, with immigrant Colombian parents. Starting at the age of eight, she and her...

Welcome to episode 62 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Marlen Lane, a singer/songwriter, blogger, and podcaster. Marlen also sings on her church’s worship team and volunteers with the youth. She shares about growing up in Honduras wi...

Welcome to episode 61 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Idrees Khan - his parents immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago, and he was born and raised in South Florida. If you know anything about South Florida, you know how culturally dive...

Welcome to episode 60 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is author Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez. She was born in Nicaragua and moved to the United States with her family in elementary school. She is the founder of Latina Rebels . She st...

Welcome to episode 59 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Maritza Perez from MP Virtual Assistant. She runs a VA company, but before she started her business, she worked at Disney for about ten years. Maritza was born and raised in Colo...

Welcome to episode 58 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Dr. Elizabeth Turner, the writer and director of the musical and book Ciao Bambino—a musical about the Italian immigrant experience based in New York City in the 1940s. Dr. Turne...

Welcome to episode 57 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Lory Martinez, the founder of Ochenta Studios, a podcast production studio. Lory grew up in New York to Colombian immigrant parents. She wanted to be an international journalist,...

Welcome to episode 56 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Stacey from Batch Pantry. Stacey was born in Jamacia and moved to the US at the age of five. She was raised in New York City but would visit Jamacia frequently in the summer grow...

Welcome to episode 55 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time! Today’s guest is Dr. Munira Zahabi, who is an entrepreneur, author, mentor, coach, public speaker, and podcaster. Her podcast is called Munira’s Musings . She is also known as The Niche Navigator...