What is the "American Dream"?

 My grandma tells a story of when she was 10 years old.  She lived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  Ciudad Juarez is a city that is across the border from El Paso.  She recalls playing as a child there when the border was just made of barb wire.  During this time she remembers helping people get across the "river" and would charge them 10 cents.  The people who were coming to "America", people who were in search of the "American Dream".  A dream that was talked about in the Pueblos in the country south of the border.  People making money, like it was growing from trees.  The dream that was followed by many, not knowing what impact it could potentially have in their lives or the lives of their children.  Many follow this dream but only a few succeed.  Why is that?  Is it because of their skin color?  Their language?  Or the way society portrays them?  Or could it be just a mixture of everything?  People that come in search of the "American Dream" don't think about finding themselves being profiled, separated from their families, doing hard labor with little pay, taken advantage of, and to top it off being suppressed.  

I choose this topic because I personally feel that anyone whose family is coming from a different country other than the United States can relate to some way or another with some of these examples of coming to find the "American Dream".