LYNN — Full Color Office Manager Maribel Matul-Ramirez joined Attorney Jim Carrigan’s LCTV show, “The American Dream,” this week to discuss the namesake of his show — the ability of people to overcome difficult circumstances and extreme challenges to find success in the United States.
The show is “designed to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at how public and private policy is developed,” according to Carrigan.
During the show, which ran for slightly less than half an hour, Matul-Ramirez described her immigration to the United States from Guatemala at the age of 14. She said that at the time, there were far fewer resources in the city than are available today for immigrants, and that as a result it took her a long time to enroll in school. She went on to graduate from Lynn English.
“Everybody talks about the American Dream, but they don’t talk about the struggles that you have to go through to achieve the American Dream,” Matul-Ramirez said. “When I came here, it was a tremendous change for me, because now I had to face the obstacles of a new culture…. So the first year, I started to work, I was working at a cleaning company because I had to pay my rent and all my expenses because I didn’t have mom or dad.”
Matul-Ramirez now owns a signs and graphics shop in the city with her husband, Ward 2 City Councilor Obed Matul.
The show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., and Saturdays at 7 a.m. on Comcast Channel 3 and Verizon Channel 38. It can also be watched online at www.Lynntv.org.
