Sit With Aqsa

Heidy De La Cruz, the voice behind The American Dream in the Eyes of Immigrants, on learning to dream for little Heidy and the faith that holds all of it together.

I get to sit with the woman who has been sharing your dreams for a while now, in particular, the immigrants' dreams.

Heidy De La Cruz started working at the age of 14, and since then she has been like a river, nourishing and supporting every person who came into her life. I asked her if she ever got to ask her parents about their dreams, because it did seem like she has been carrying the weight of those dreams on her shoulders, even if it was never said out loud.

That made me think she must have given thought to her own dream too, right? But when I asked her this, she said, "no, little Heidy has been surviving and not dreaming," and that is so powerful and worth sitting with.

I think that line explains a lot about the stories she chooses to tell. Most of us, when we see immigrants, carry this perception that their life must have changed for the better because they are in the US, right? But that's barely scratching the surface. She talked about how some people, even if their home country does not provide huge opportunities, go from having a well known position to reaching a level where they start questioning themselves, and that does have a toll.

That is when it hit for her, the last nail in the coffin, when she had a conversation with her husband about what it was like for him when he moved to the US at the age of 9. And it's true, that emotional journey and that vulnerability reached so many people that her podcast has won two awards, is recognized as top 5% globally, and is the number one immigrant podcast on GoodPods, reaching 100+ countries.

And yet that is only one part of her life. Apart from a full time job, she is a wife and a mother of two, she has a second podcast with Latina CEOs, and a weekly Substack newsletter, so the question we all have on our minds is, "how does she do it all?"

What I noticed is that she does not hide the weight of it. She openly shares her struggles so people can see that things like imposter syndrome, stress, and even anxiety reach the people you think have it all together.

Even after all of this, all she mentioned was that faith has been the ultimate anchor in her life. Even though she is serving others and highlighting their stories for people to find solace, she derives her worth from God instead, and that hit home so deep.

That is where I found myself in her story. I am a Muslim, and finding Islam later in life has made me learn about God in a way that I end up learning about myself. It's weird how Heidy, a totally different person with a different background and a different upbringing, somehow had something that connected us even miles away.

I also asked her about a post-it note her daughter left her that said, "love yourself no matter what, if someone tries to put you down remember you're a baddie, diva and queen, and don't let them dim your sparkle," and that was so pure, especially coming from her daughter. We sometimes strive to make sure our kids don't see our lows or struggles, but this is the prime example of how she is mothering her daughter, and how her daughter is growing up to be a woman who understands emotions, knows how hard her mother works, acknowledges it, and still chooses to help her see her worth.

This is the story of Heidy, a woman sharing the dreams of immigrants, and throughout that process, as she mentioned on her Substack, she is healing little Heidy, the same little Heidy who was surviving and not dreaming.

Find Heidy: https://www.heidydelacruz.com/ | https://intomythoughts.substack.com/ | https://open.spotify.com/show/1cieU8Wg7IRJG33nn0cAzP

Sit With Aqsa is a podcast of conversations with ordinary people and the stories they carry. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WK8hcZxKPNg?si=5HFhLBGrYuACsgEI

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