America is...
A Starting Point
America is a starting point
The statement America is a starting point is clear throughout history. To come to America has been almost everyone's dream. Immigrants from all over the world have heard of "The American Dream" and have always wanted to experience it. America gets people started, starting from jobs, people came to America in order to get work, to give them opportunity to start a new life.
Ellis Island
Ellis Island was a gateway and an opportunity for immigrants to come to the Unites States for Freedom. They were looking for a new beginning, a new life, in search for overall better lives for themselves and their families.
The Bracero Program
The Bracero Program (1942-1964) brought millions of workers from Mexico into the United States. The men who came were guest workers in need of work and the US hired them knowing that we needed the work. They came and worked short-term, mostly agriculture jobs on contracts signed by US. Over 4.6 million contracts were signed, this was the biggest contract labor program for the United States.
Angel Island
Angel Island was a place where immigrants mostly from Asian countries came in order to enter the US. The rejection was around 18 percent due to the suspicion from US immigration officials. The majority let in were merchants, clerks, students, teachers and laborers. These people from the Asian countries were in search for home owner ships, opportunity, higher education, economic conditions and even entrepreneurship.
I feel as if it was a race for every immigrant to hurry and get to America. They did not care how they got there or what they had to do in order to get there, all that people wanted was to get into America. They wanted the "American Dream" to happen to them, they wanted a better life, they wanted more opportunities, they wanted a fresh start where their voice mattered. So the track represents the race for people to get to America, the words just represent how America was a starting point and what immigrants were wishing for.
Passport
The passport is used to symbolize the immigration into the US. Even though their transportation did not really involve the use of passports yet, it still symbolizes the involvement of leaving their home country into the USA.
Compass/words
The compass is used just to symbolize the direction of where the immigrants were going, they were headed towards the US in search of all the opportunities. The words on the track represent what immigrants were fighting for. They were all in search of those things and believed that America was the place for them to find it.
Earth
This picture of the earth with people walking across the globe is representing the immigrants coming from all around the world to get to America. Their ultimate goal was to get to America and no matter how far or how dangerous it was for them, these people would overcome absolutely anything to get to America, Land of the Brave, Land of the Free.