California Dreaming

California was once a silent and an unheard-of place. Since Mr. John Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, the gold rush era started and California became popular. It has become a place where people expected to be successful and wealthy. For this reason, the gold finders from all over the world came to Sutter's Mill to pursue their dreams. However, many of them found that their dreams did not come true. In fact, they had to do lots of hard work that barely led to financial success. Was California a fantastic place? Could everyone have an opportunity to be successful and rich? Whether or not the “California Dream" truly existed or was just a legend, there was no doubt that there were many successful gold miners in California, but there also were many of sad stories hidden behind the “California Dream" that so many people had. The dream promises too much and cause people to become disillusioned and they failed to look at the reality. Many people fail to see that nothing can be guaranteed. The dream may not be as sweet as for everyone.

People came to California during the gold rush era. Some people just wanted to look for opportunities to become successful, while some wanted a better job, education or standard of living. In the essay "California: A Place, a People, a Dream" James J. Rawls used how Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs started Apple Computers Company as an example of how people became successful in California. Another example he uses to support the “California Dream” inspiration was William Hewlett and David Packard. They founded a Palo Alto garage company which became one of the largest electronic firms in the nation. James thus stated that, "The list of California success is embarrassingly rich and endless" (Rawls 23). The successful stories in California gave people an illusion that it was easy to become successful here. However, there would not be much discussion about failure because it would have stopped people from coming to California. Rawls pointed out that disappointment already existed back to the days of "Gold Rush" era. "Yet as more and more hopeful miners arrived, the prospects for the promise being fulfilled dimmed accordingly" (Rawls 28). As more and more miners searched for gold in California, the fantastic gold wealth became exhausted and many of them found nothing here. For that reason, many people began to curse this golden place. An Argonaut wrote in 1850, "I really hope that no one will be deterred from coming here" (Rawls 26). The miners left everything behind and came to California to achieve their golden dream. What they finally found out was a lot of hard work with no reward at all. Perhaps California is a place people dream about, nevertheless not everyone would have made their dream came true especially with those hidden failures mentioned above.

After the "Gold Rush" era, there were more people immigrant to California; not only people from other states, but also from all over the world. In Jack Lopez’s personal essay "Of Cholos and Surfers", he explains that his father decided to become an immigrant to the states in order to give a better quality of life to the next generation of his family. Similarly, in Richard Rodriguez's essay "Proofs", he stated how Mexican people tried so hard to cross the border to America in order to get a better life. As the poor Mexican males said, "I will send for you or I will come home rich" (Rodriguez 65). They thought going to America as a "the right of passage", the "passage" to success. From the above cases, we can clearly see that people thought they could easily become successful in the America. However, there is always a dark side when the reality reveals. Once they stand on the land of America, in particular, California, they would find out the dream was not the way they expected. To prove this Rodriguez said, "The America that Mexicans find today, at the decline of the century is a closed-circuit city of ramps and dark towers, a city without God" (Rodriguez 66). He also claimed that, "The city is evil” (Rodriguez 66). It seems like "California Dream" has become a legend, and she is not a dream place for success