My (Underground) American Dream

In the heady days of the most astronomical stock-market rise in Wall Street history, Julissa Arce climbed the corporate ladder-a rare Hispanic woman in a sea of suits and ties. In 2005, against all odds, she landed one of the most coveted jobs as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Over the course of the next six years, even while the financial markets crashed, she continued to climb the corporate ladder-riding a series of promotions to become a Vice President, complete with a high six-figure salary and all of the perks that come with living the Goldman Sachs life.

What none of her colleagues knew is that she wasn’t just a young woman who broke through ceilings in a cutthroat male-dominated field: she was also an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. In MY (UNDERGROUND) AMERICAN DREAM, Arce opens up about the true price of pursuing the American Dream. In telling this personal story of sacrifice, lies, pain and suffering, Arce shifts the immigration conversation and changes the perception of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant.