(upbeat music) - Here's my 30-year-old dad, a very young 28-year-old mother.

Our existence in Havana was I think what you refer to as middle-class.

The American dream was alive in Cuba.

Everyone wanted to get their American car.

They were using American products.

You might say we were living the Cuban dream.

I was an only child, I didn't have any brothers or sisters.

Our life was comfortable.

All of a sudden this political situation went south.

We left school April of '61 because of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

I could see the tracer bullets flying from my aunt's balcony around the corner.

They're faced with the prospect of having an eight, nine-year-old kid raised in communist country.

For us, we basically pursued the American dream because we had to, we had no choice because the Cuban dream isn't gonna work for them anymore.

So it's September of 1961, I get put on a plane and sent to the US to live with one of those aunts that, you know, you see maybe once a year.

I chuckle when I see these pictures because I'm wearing this little hat, and those were the hats that were worn by Castro's army people.

I had that cap everywhere.

My parents didn't wanna leave their country, but I think they felt that in order for me to live free and to be able to achieve the most, I was gonna have to be sent to the US.

Arriving in Miami was sort of venturous, was a little bit scary because of, you know, you were staying with someone that you didn't know real well.

They left the year after I did, and they had nothing.

They arrived in this country with a few change of clothes.

And the only thing that the government allowed them to bring was a bottle of rum and a box of cigars that they could sell and generate some money.

And, you know, it wasn't just us, there were a bunch of other Cubans that were also pursuing their American dreams.

I've asked my mom on a number of occasions, what it was like, and she is every bit as convinced today, you know, 60 years later that it was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do.

And she says, "What was I gonna do?

Leave you here and live in communism?"

Those were tough days for them.

Way more than me.

You know, I think the beauty of this country is that it allows you, first of all, it welcomes you.

We arrived in '61 and I think by '65, '66, we had become citizens.

And here we are all together again.

(Raúl sighing) How big a part of your American dream that first house is.

(upbeat music) I was taken from a Latin American urban environment, I relocated to Moline, Illinois, which is a little town on the Mississippi river.

They had it tough, they had it tough, we lived in this old house.

There was really no Spanish spoken away from home, you know, and there was a change in culture, there was a change in weather.

Snow for the first time in my life.

I think that move to Moline was very difficult.

My American dream was, you know, I think I had visions of being a major league baseball player, and when I realized that my athletic talents were not gonna get me there, then it was a career that sort of went side-by-side with sports.

My parents always said, "You can do whatever you want after you graduate from college."

And so I registered at Iowa State University, majoring in engineering.

I lasted two years in engineering and then went to radio, TV and film, 'cause I found out that there was a career behind the cameras that no one had ever told me about and I could begin to do that.

All these little passport pictures that are in this book.

The continuing pursuit of my American dream included pursuing my connections with the island in light of the fact that I had never been there since I left.

(upbeat music) This is my grandmother whose house I visited.

So I knock on the door, she comes to the door, opens up, I said, "Ms.

Rodriguez."

I say "I'd like to introduce myself.

I was born in Cuba and I live in the United States and this was my grandmother's house."

And she looked at me and she said, "You know, I always knew that someone was gonna knock on this door and tell me they lived in this house."

I think the American dream is really the same as anybody's dream in any other country.

It could be the Mexican dream.

It could be the German dream.

I think everybody wants their kids to have a great life.

I've been able to see my kids grow up, and now my grandkids.

In four generations, the American dream has allowed our family to prosper and to live comfortably.

- [Narrator] We'd love to hear your American dream story.

Go to milwaukeepbs.org/americandreams to submit your story.