Raised as a squatter in Manila, Philippines, Rosalie Orodio, a widowed wife, was ignorant of the “Land of Opportunity.” She only knew her life as a sweatshop worker, barely earning seventy cents a week to feed her six children in their house made of tin. Amidst this poverty, Rosalie resorted to an employment agency that sent her to the United States as a domestic helper. Emigrating out of the Philippines with only a picture of …showed first 75 words of 250 total…

…showed last 75 words of 250 total…truly found meaning in America being the “Land of Opportunity;” for, she was able to rise above her poverty-stricken life to success. Despite her history, America gave her the chance to start over and prove that she is a strong-willed, determined, and able woman. While she fantasizes about a beautiful home surrounded by a white picket fence, her real “American Dream” is to be reunited with her children and to truly live happily ever after.