America's Dream

Esmeralda Santiago

America Gonzalez is a hotel maid on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico cleaning up after wealthy foreigners who don't even look her in the eye. Her alcoholic mother resents her her married boyfriend beats her and their 14-year-old daughter thinks life would be better anywhere else than with her mum. So when America is offered the chance to work as a live-in housekeeper for a nice wholesome all-American family in Westchester she sees it as an opportunity to start afresh. Life in Westchester seems strange from the language through to the food. Even as America revels in the comparative luxury of her new life meets new people and dares to dream again she fights the nagging feeling that no matter what she does she can't get away from her past...