By Ashton York and Natalie Murphy

Northwest Arkansas has become a melting pot over the last three decades. With the accompaniment of three Fortune 500 companies shuffling in workers daily and the University of Arkansas’ enrollment rates increasing every year, the local growth will only continue — as will the dreams of success in its confines.  

The region has come to share the ethos of the American Dream. Known as the “Land of Opportunity,” Arkansas has a rich history full of the success stories of immigrants, students, teachers, philanthropists, business owners, and the list is destined to continue. 

Karla Cruz, Nick Addison and Eric Howerton are three locals pursuing their own dreams and ideas of success in the region. Each from a different background, with different experiences and stories to tell, they were all asked the same question: How attainable is the American Dream in Northwest Arkansas? The following recounts their personal experiences living in the region and whether they see the American Dream in their daily lives. 

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Karla Cruz by Natalie Murphy

“¡échale ganas!”

“Give it all you got!” 

Those were the words Karla Cruz’s parents said to her when she Facetimed them, sharing the news that she had gotten a job offer. It was the morning of Nov. 4, 2024. They were the first people she had told, reassuring them everything would be okay.

It had been six months of exhausting job hunting and interviewing when she accepted the position to be a senior analyst at the Sam’s Club Home Office in Bentonville. Relief washed over her as she realized the search was finally over.

Truthfully, Cruz had felt nowhere near confident about how her first interview with the company had gone, surprised to have even made the second round, she said. 

She had been running late to the first interview, almost going to the wrong building, and her flustered state was getting the best of her while answering questions. The whole experience felt like a blur, she said, but despite it all, the company had seen something in her. By the final round of interviews, Cruz felt confident she would get the job. 

On the call with her parents right after receiving the news, it felt like everyone could finally breathe. It was a nice feeling to tell them, she said, but it also felt different from past accomplishments. 

While it was theirs to celebrate, it was hers to have.

It had felt different when she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Arkansas. Despite her hard work to attain a full-ride as a first-generation student, she knew she was completing the dream her mom set aside three decades ago to move to the United States. As the oldest daughter in her family, Cruz said she approached success with her mom and the things she never got to do in mind.

“I think that when I graduated, the first thing I told my mom was, ‘This was for you. So, whatever’s next is mine,’” Cruz said. “It felt like it was my mom’s dream, too. It felt almost like it was hers a little bit more than it was mine, and everything that’s next is fully my own, and I think we both accept that.”

When Cruz received her master’s degree at the University of Arkansas the next year, it was hers: her decision, her hard work and her perseverance. No one had pushed her to pursue grad school; she had even told her parents for a time she wasn’t going to apply. 

Her decision to apply to grad school and the senior analyst position had been her choice. It was her individualism, a trait she believes is unique to the United States. What Cruz describes is the exact ethos of the American Dream — the opportunity to carve your own path toward success and a better life.   

“It’s weird because obviously I grew up in American culture, and American culture is very independent and individualistic, and I love that about the United States, I think that’s great,” Cruz said. “But I also grew up in Mexican culture, where I think it’s less individualistic. It’s much more focused on the collective, on the we, on the community.”

This understanding is a complexity many children of immigrants understand, and it is seen throughout Cruz’s life. She has roots in both cultures, but in relation to her identity, she said she is “neither here nor there,” not one culture more than the other. 

While Cruz said she does not truly know what it feels like to be an immigrant, she still acknowledges the hardships those like her family have to go through along their journey to gaining citizenship and the persistence of discrimination that often follows. She feels deeply for that side of her community, and with the recent legislation targeting them, her empathy only extends further. 

“While I feel very grateful for the opportunities that I have that my parents didn’t and that my parents specifically wanted me to have,” Cruz said, “I also think it’s important to understand the systemic issues that immigrants face and that even children of immigrants face because they look different than what this ‘American’ should look like, so it honestly makes me very sad to think about.”

The day after Cruz got the news of her job offer, her celebration quickly turned to grieving for the future. It was Election Day, and by nighttime, her focus had shifted toward the Hispanic community as President Donald Trump led in the polls.

During his last term, Trump used immigration as a political scapegoat. As he continued his campaign for the 2024 election, he showed no signs of easing up on this stance.

Trump’s reelection was hard for Cruz to accept. She still doesn’t know if she fully has, she said. Following his inauguration, she was shocked at how quickly his administration took action, specifically on the undocumented population. Just in his first week in office, he signed 10 executive orders on immigration. 

Cruz was especially upset when Trump revoked a policy first enacted in 2011 that prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol officers from making arrests in “sensitive spaces.” This now lets law enforcement enter churches, schools, hospitals and weddings to make arrests, leaving undocumented individuals, including children, vulnerable.  

Even scarier for Cruz is the president’s yearning to end birthright citizenship. While his order has been met with strong legal pushback from 22 states thus far, if put into law, this would impact the future children born of immigrants on American soil. In doing so, it would be unraveling the 14th Amendment and its nearly 160-year-long history. 

“That really upset me because I just felt like they are just targeting everyone right now,” Cruz said. “It really scares me that they want to hold children accountable for something that they really have no say in, like a 5-year-old who was brought over here undocumented. Their home is here, not there. And for (Trump’s administration), I feel like these decisions are made without any sort of empathy.”

As Cruz may have recently gotten a taste of the American Dream, many others in the United States and Northwest Arkansas are having it stripped from them. 

“It’s very difficult to reach your full potential when there’s hostility wherever you are, whether that’s in your community or culture,” Cruz said. “And I think from when I was younger to now, I’ve always had a very defiant view, I would say, of the American Dream because I don’t always think that people are treated here the way that they should be.”

The concept of the American Dream suggests equal opportunity for all, yet the diverse identities and experiences of those pursuing it may reflect otherwise. Although Cruz has found success in Northwest Arkansas, she acknowledges she is likely the exception and not the rule. 

As she navigates this chapter of her life with a new job and entering a presidential term, she feels uncertain as she looks to the future but will continue to give it all she’s got. While she has gratitude for the opportunities the region and country have provided for her, she only hopes it can be extended more kindly and freely to others. 

 “I think if I were to redirect the American Dream outside of success from culture,” Cruz said, “it would be to inspire and uplift others into achieving their dreams as well. In the American Dream, it is very, very emphasized of your success — your individualism and how you are going to make things better for yourself. But I think it would be good for people to redirect their energies into helping others. Whether that’s your community, whether it’s a community you’re not familiar with — taking what you have, the talents that you have, and helping and uplifting others.”

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Nick Addison by Ashton York

The American Dream has long been a symbol of hope in the United States, but what does it truly mean? The answer, it seems, depends on who you ask.

“At least originally, this idea of liberty and democracy — that’s the American dream,” said Nick Addison, a senior at the University of Arkansas. “But at the same time, being a queer person living in America, it’s hard to do simple things like starting a family, getting married, changing legal documents and accessing medical care that is necessary for me.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the idea that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” But how level is the playing field when reaching the American Dream?

Race, class, gender and sexual orientation, identities in their own right, all play a role in one’s ability to attain the American Dream, despite the common claim that this dream is for everyone.

Addison has mixed feelings about life as a queer, transgender man in the U.S. He said he feels lucky to have a great community around him in Northwest Arkansas, but it is difficult to be a queer person in America right now due to the uncertainty of new legislation. As an English education major, the ever-changing school legislation may determine a large part of where his career goes after graduation.

The idea of the American Dream has changed with each generation, and during the Cold War, it became an argument for consumer capitalism, according to historian Sarah Churchwell. While its weight shifts and citizens have given the term new meaning over the years, this idea of material success is why most picture the American Dream as gaining wealth and career accolades.

With the American Dream, some may imagine 1950s suburban America, populated by stay-at-home moms and fathers who spend all day at work. Others may envision their arrival in a new country, a land full of new opportunity and hope. But perhaps the perspective of the American dream is a mindset, ever-shifting to meet the needs to keep individuals alive and persevering.

“In my mind, the American Dream is just about getting to the top of whatever career you’re in and pushing that narrative,” Addison said. “But for me, if I was defining my own American Dream, it lines up more with just doing the most good I can; making a positive impact on the people around me, and advocating for a better country than the state it’s in right now.”

Addison’s motivation to have a positive impact on society is due in part to his negative experiences. In the past, he has had coworkers and peers pry him, asking personal and uncomfortable questions about his identity, simply because he was the only queer person they knew.

While he was working minimum-wage jobs and just trying to collect a paycheck, he was faced with uneducated conversations about how some people thought “transness was caused by air pollution.” 

He said these types of ideas were voiced regularly in his Oklahoma hometown, and having to navigate the everyday harassment at work was frustrating because it was not what he was there to do. Addison was not there to educate people on his own identity.

“(The American Dream) is just about, ‘How can I make my life the best it can be with the situation that I’m in?’” Addison said. “Also, just dreaming of making America a place where I do want to live and I do feel like I can thrive.”

Addison also said he feels like his current career path is at risk because some politicians do not think trans people should be teachers or be around children at all. He has already faced rules that make him feel uneasy while student teaching.

“There’s legislation in place in Arkansas that requires me to do things that I know are, at the very least, traumatizing and would have been really dangerous for me if they happened to me,” he said. “I’m having to do that to my students.”

He feels as though many setbacks and forces are working against him when it should not have to be so difficult, he said. Furthermore, he said this experience has shown him that there are many additional challenges people have to face in order to achieve the American Dream.

“You expect me to live a life that has this mobility,” Addison said, “but if I can’t even do things like get treatments correctly or talk to a doctor that understands me, how am I supposed to achieve that American Dream? 

“It just doesn’t really feel like it is for me,” Addison continued. “The general voice doesn’t feel like it wants to support the true democracy, liberty, life, the pursuit of happiness.”

In a nation built on individualism and differences, there is a certain beauty in choosing how one decides to measure success and prosperity. In many queer-specific spaces in Northwest Arkansas and across the South, there is a sense of community that many individuals cannot find elsewhere.

Addison often sees how American policies and society treat trans citizens. Not only does he face these issues himself, but he has several friends who deal with similar struggles. This appears to greatly impact their view of the American Dream.

“I think a lot of (the transgender community’s) dreams for our futures are related to our transition and just making ourselves more comfortable,” Addison said. “It feels like there’s more of a focus on, ‘How can I live my most authentic, happy self?’ rather than, ‘How can I commit so hard to something where I get outward success?’ like the traditional American Dream is. It’s more about internal gratification.”

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Eric Howerton by Ashton York

Arkansas native Eric Howerton was born and raised in Jonesboro and moved to Northwest Arkansas around the year 2000 to be a newspaper photographer. Since then, Howerton has built his career on a foundation of strong relationships and persistence, starting multiple local businesses on his own.

Howerton graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in photojournalism. He then wanted a location change, primarily so he could start a magazine called Get Outside, which focused on outdoor Arkansas. 

At 22 years old, after working for the newspaper, Howerton was waiting tables at Olive Garden in the evenings to support his magazine during the day. He later helped other magazine publishers to design and lay out their productions.

“I realized while I was doing the magazine, the advertisers could not create good artwork to put in the magazine,” he said. “And I was like, ‘So, this is a freaking problem.’ So, I started helping them.”

Howerton said creating his own magazine was pure chaos. He saw the beauty of the Arkansas outdoors and felt there was a story to be told, and the magazine became his first of many projects.

Howerton currently owns Doing Business in Bentonville, a media company for Walmart suppliers, PodcastVideos.com, a podcast studio in Rogers, and more. He has a shared podcast with Mark Zweig called “Big Talk About Small Business,” where the two entrepreneurs discuss their experience working with local businesses and strategies.

While some may want to start a business with the idea of getting rich, Howerton said he is motivated to simply provide services that can fix others’ problems.

“I see (the business industry) as there’s a problem,” Howerton said. “I can see it clearly. I see the possibility of fixing it. It might as well be me because no one else is getting off their ass to take care of the problem.”

He said he does not believe there is such a thing as a good or bad climate for the market. There will always be a need for services and products, no matter how advanced or in-advanced society is, he said. The economy is a “chaotic system of itself,” and nobody can predict what it is going to do next.

“We’re always thinking that money is just deserving of certain people, certain classes, certain education,” Howerton said. “That’s all bull crap. If you really look at the American Dream — American history — American entrepreneurship is the dream. That’s where it starts. An individual sees a market need, goes and fulfills that market need, and is relentless to making sure that gets done; they push through the hardships and work their living faces off until it becomes true.”

Howerton said U.S. laws are structured to allow new entrepreneurs to start a business without having much money beforehand. Investors can pull together money to allow the entity to be born. If the company loses a large amount of money, not every single person involved is liable for the whole amount, he said.

He also said the fact that small business owners get to keep most of the profit is a huge benefit of living in America. 

“You have the freedom to earn money, but you still have to pay your taxes,” Howerton said. “You give back to the government, so it can continue to do its thing and function and operate, but I think it’s a fairly decent tax rate in comparison to other countries (where) you only get to keep 30% of what money you earn.

“That money is just a sign of the bartering system that is set up,” he continued. “If I have more money, then I can buy more things, give more things back and build more things.”

Howerton sees the American Dream as the freedom to create his own path to success and the ability to earn. His idea consists of small entrepreneurs creating their own businesses without being hindered by their religion, race, gender or anything else. He said it is the ability to earn money for oneself, solve problems, progress and contribute back to society.

“You’re designed to struggle,” Howerton said. “Struggle is the honor, contributing back to society until the day you die.”

No matter the perspective, navigating success in the U.S. requires significant determination and resilience. It inspires a deeper look at what the American Dream represents to each of us and how we can pursue success in our own ways.