For many Latino families, success may have less to do with arriving—and more to do with where the next generation gets to start.
United States / September 2026
What counts as making it? A home, a little security, enough time to sit at the table? The answer can change when we start thinking about the people who come after us.
A Pew Research Center report published September 1 finds a complicated picture. Among Latino adults surveyed, 20% say they have achieved the American dream, 33% are working toward it, 18% consider it out of reach and 27% say it does not exist.
A longer view of progress
Yet 57% say their standard of living exceeds their parents’, and 53% expect their children’s to exceed their own. Those are reported experiences and expectations, not guarantees about the future.
The findings come from a bilingual survey conducted in October 2025 that included 4,923 Hispanic adults.
The Primo take
We read those results as an invitation to widen the meaning of success. Progress can be personal, but it can also be something handed forward: more room to choose, more support, a place to begin.