Getting Deals Done with American Dreamer Ana Guerrero

What is the truest meaning of being a Dreamer in America? We are always talking about the "American Dream". So, just what is this American Dream?

You wouldn't know it to see me or speak with me, but I am a proud Latino. If California were Miami, Florida or New York City, my roots as an Afro-Latino might be more readily surmised. My mother is an immigrant from Panama City, Panama and I spent my late adolescent years growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico. I have familial and ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico and I am conversant in Spanish or as l like to say, "I know how to ensure I am not readily identified as the gringo in the group." So, it is a treat any time I get to associate with those roots in a way that are not only culturally affirmative but also spiritually uplifting.

That's basically how I felt in my conversation with Ana Guerrero; I was superfragilisticalidocious-ly inspired:

Ms. Ana Guerrero speaks movingly, in part, and as point of fact at other times, about her heritage as a Dreamer. She went from the loving daughter of migrant workers to rolling up her sleeves as chief of staff for America's second largest city during an international pandemic. Her dad came to America as a child as an undocumented farm worker in the 1940s in California fields. She grew up between Mexico and Northern California.

According to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a "dreamer" is "a person living in the United States without legal status who arrived as the child of someone who did not have the documentation required for legal entry or residence."

"I have always been very interested in as an adult in making sure that I am doing work that is helping all kinds of people to find their voice and find their power. Because that is really what allows you to thrive - is knowing what your personal source of power is and how to wield power in such a way that allows you to advance your agenda and achieve your goals." Ana Guerrero, Organizational Strategist and Leadership Expert

Later in her life, Ms. Ana Guerrero would meet and bond with an Occidental College professor in her work as a community organizer on the idea that, "the responsibility of government is to lift people up and created an environment where everyone can succeed." Eric Garcetti, the proofessor and son of a well-to-do Los Angeles politician, and Ms. Ana Guerrero found common ground in the American Dream. They went on to govern America's second most populous city with nearly 4 million citizens through one of its most perilous periods with the Black Lives Matter marches, a homeless endemic and governing a city at the center of the global trillion-dollar Hollywood industry.

But that word - dreamer - has a broader definition within the context of the American dream equally applicable to Ms. Guerrero. With all this talk of "manifestor" and "manifesting" these days, aren't we really talking about entrepreneurs, dreamers and visionaries who have planted their proverbial flag in the soil no matter the weather condition? A dreamer is one who has ideas or conceives projects regarded as impractical, a visionary.?

To me, a dreamer is someone who knows no limitations in his or her ability to envision a greater reality; a better way to be. A dreamer will go against all odds to realize a vision, not unlike Don Quijote in the?epic 1605 and 1615 novels by Miguel de Cervantes. But more to the point, not unlike a Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, Amy Tan, George Washington Carver, Mary McCloud Bethune, Martha Stewart, Calvin Broadus, Steven Spielberg or Elon Musk, a dreamer is someone whose mind knows no limits and dreams the impossible dream. Dreamers see the future of our world. Dreamers are the future of our world. With artificial intelligence, web 3 and the meta-verse at its onset with crypto currency and decentralized finance redefining the meaning of existence and what it means to be a human being... Dreamers? Dreamers have dreamt our world into being and dreamers will dream our new worlds into being.

The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone.

But let's keep it real, sometimes America is a boiling cauldron of ideas, faiths, ideological persuasions, ethnicities and, well, it's not a pretty American pie... sometimes. As Carl Jung so well put it, “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” Similar to a tree, the roots of a person are unseen. They consist of our beliefs, experiences, environment, etc., but what really defines a person are their trials, adversities and tribulations. And so it is in America, the most diverse population on planet earth. And now, more than ever, the true blooded dreamers need to step forth with their great dreams.

Ms. Ana Guerrero is a dream born to a farm worker and his wife in Mexico who has become a seasoned strategist and senior government official with a track record of building complex organizations, legislating, developing and implementing these policies for a new generation of dreamers and Los Angelinos.

So, really, just what is your American dream?

And how do you intend to get your deal done?

a Victory & Noble Production

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Getting Deals Done ?is a show about doing business, changing power, changing systems and making the world a better place one deal at a time. Host, veteran banker and entrepreneur?Patrick A. Howell , speaks with leading and successful innovators, mavericks and captains of industry about making big things happen in the world.

The entirety of our interview will be broadcast via our?podcast, Getting Deals Done ?on Apple iTunes, Amazon Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you receive your podcasts.