We’ve been talking about “the American dream” since James Truslow Adams coined the phrase in his 1931 book, “The Epic of America.”
But what’s a dream anyway? A brimming over of the day’s repressed desires? Just a flutter of the neurons? If the American dream was ever real, it isn’t now.
Lizania Cruz, a Dominican artist and curator, has been asking people to write obituaries for the American dream.
When and how, she asks, did the American dream die for you? It died, they said, “when I became aware of the fact that my family was considered ‘illegal’”; “when I realized that after working 50 hours a week I was not able to save”; “when I realized just how many of my fellow Americans valued selfishness over community, power over justice, prejudice over fairness, greed over generosity, demagogy over science.”
We invited our readers to respond to the same question. More of this project can be found here.
It was commissioned by El Museo del Barrio for “Estamos Bien: La Trienal 20/21,” a survey of Latinx contemporary art.
The American Dream.
WHEN & HOW THE AMERICAN DREAM DIED FOR YOU?
https://www.obituariesoftheamericandream.com/
Is the American Dream Really Dead? https://freakonomics.com/podcast/american-dream-really-dead/