The American Dream Realized

So much of politics often deals with the negative side of everything. Much lip-service is paid towards “cleaning up politics” and making things more positive. For the most part, this is impossible. What you have is two or more groups of people passionately believing something and attempting to explain their worldview. Since most of what I write about deals with these hot-button issues, it’s nice to sit back every once-and-a-while and write a story about something inspiring.

Most of America has yet to hear about a young man named Henry Cejudo; and certainly almost all of America outside of the wrestling community. Cejudo is a 21-year-old wrestler who represented the United States at the Olympic Games this year at the 55 kg. (121 pound) weight class. He was a four-time state champion in high school, splitting his years between Colorado and Arizona. Cejudo was the youngest Olympic champion in the history of American wrestling; but that’s probably the least of the obstacles he had to overcome.

Henry Cejudo was born the sixth (and last) child to two undocumented workers while they were living in California. His father left him at the age of 4 and returned to Mexico, while his mother decided to stay in the United States to ensure a better future for her children. Cejudo’s older brothers discovered the joy of wrestling and passed that on to him.

After winning four state championships, Henry decided to forgo certain full-ride scholarships to college and train for the 2008 Olympics. As someone who adjusted to college wrestling coming out of high school, I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to go from high school to international competition. Nevertheless, Cejudo trained for a few years and earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.

In freestyle wrestling (which differs from normal high school and college wrestling), a competitor must win two of the three periods to prevail. All three of Cejudo’s matches on the way to the championship bout went the same way. He lost the first periods and had to claw his way back by taking the next two. A difficult task…but relatively minor compared to the obstacles he put up with throughout his life.

I’m not going to pretend I know Henry Cejudo. From what I’ve read, he lived a life in which his family did not have a lot of money. He was a citizen, but his parents were not. I can only imagine the types of struggles that he has been dealt; I can only imagine because my life has been so easy in comparison.

All of this makes for an amazing story. But the thing that amazed me the most was Cejudo’s answers when he talked about his Olympic gold medal in retrospect. He spoke about “(having) that American blood pumping through my veins.” He called the United States the “land of opportunity” and the “greatest country in the world…I’m just proud to be an American.”

I read an interesting news story once that commented that depending on where you went in the world, people had different thoughts about what Americans looked like. In more modernized countries (like Western Europe), they saw all of us as white. In the Latin American countries (like Cuba), many saw a huge influence of Hispanic culture. In some Asian countries (most notably China) and parts of Africa, they thought that we were mostly black. The reasons for this vary, but I personally see it as something to celebrate. I was watching swimming this year and when a (seemingly) white swimmer from Zimbabwe competed, I was dumbfounded. Different colors, races, and religions are scarcely represented in other countries; and yet nobody thinks twice about it here in America.

By the end of the interview, I thought to myself: “This guy really gets it.” Henry Cejudo understands America; far better than the rest of the world, far better than most politicians, and probably far better than me and most of you.

The American Dream is still a reality.