Is the American dream a scam?

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on the pod: author Edgar Gomez talks about what it was like growing up poor, queer, and Nicaraguan Puerto Rican in Florida. His new memoir, Alligator Tears, chronicles his dreams of making it big, the various mini-scams he got into along the way, and his realization that a rich life might not ever come with bundles of money.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.5	Hids up, this episode has language that might not be for everyone, so be mindful.
0:20.8	There will be some swearing.
0:24.5	Hey, everyone.
0:25.7	You're listening to Code Switch.
0:27.8	I'm B.A. Parker.
0:29.9	And today we have one of our excellent producers,
0:34.6	Xavier Lopez, joining me on the mic.
0:38.6	Hey, Javi, how's it going?
0:43.7	Hey, Parker, it's going. Thank you for calling me. Excellent, Parker. Oh, boy. What do you got for us today, Harvey? Well, Parker, today I'm going to start off talking about my parents
0:50.1	because I can't come on and not talk about my parents, it sounds like. Fine, like, we get it, we get it. You're loved and, like, adored by your family, and that's why you're absolutely intolerable.
1:00.9	No, yeah, it's true. Unfortunately, I am. But, but no, I want to talk to you guys about my parents and how they just recently bought a house.
1:10.8	Congratulations, Lopez's. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we've been looking, about my parents and how they just recently bought a house.
1:12.7	Congratulations, Lopez's.
1:13.1	Thank you.
1:13.7	Thank you.
1:16.7	Yeah, we've been looking forward to this for a while now.
1:19.5	Yeah, we've been in this country for like 20 years or so.
1:24.8	My family and I came to the U.S. from Ecuador, and my parents worked super hard that entire time.
1:26.2	You know, my mom was a nurse back in Ecuador, and for the longest time, she was really trying hard to get recertified in the U.S.
	...

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