What is your favorite thing about the United States of America?
I like that it’s a free country and a land of opportunity.
What is your least favorite thing about the US?
Gun! Gun! Gun violence is a lot.
What would you like to see happen in the US?
A final end to racism in this country.
Gabriela Trujillo
From Marianao, Cuba, and now lives in Hialeah, Florida.
Trujillo at 28. Photographer: Alexander Saladrigas. Fashion Stylist: Alexander-Julian
Alexander Saladrigas What does the American Dream mean to you?
My family came as political refugees with nothing to our name, all living in a one-bedroom apartment, not knowing a word of English. Within a few years my mom had her own beauty salon. That’s the American Dream.
What did the American Dream mean to your parents?
Finally having peace of mind. [With] rationed food lines [in Cuba]…my dad would have to walk over 30 miles a day to find me root vegetables, fish, goat’s milk — anything to sustain [me,] his baby daughter. The American Dream meant never having to wonder how we would eat again.