Jose and Adriana Gonzalez are proof that the American Dream is alive and well. After only seven years in the United States, Jose Gonzalez is once again living out his dreams as an entrepreneur. Once the proprietor of a small business in Mexico, Gonzalez was forced to hang up his business in a land where he would not only have to overcome the obstacles of adapting to a different culture, but a severe language barrier. “It was tough at first, not really knowing how to speak the language, but I decided to push myself to learn the language and break past the language barrier,” he says.

While learning English as a second language, Gonzalez found employment as a construction worker to help support his family. After several years of putting in long, hard hours for a major Chicago construction company, Jose Gonzalez would have an epiphany. In addition to reminiscing and pining for the time when he was self-employed, the former business owner began to take stock of his community in Cicero, Ill., and noticed that “something was missing.”

Missing from the myriad of shopping stores, restaurants both family-owned and fast food and Panaderias (bakeries), was an “embroidery and silk screening” shop. Although unfamiliar with the industry and process, Gonzalez saw opportunity and decided to seize the moment. Without a moment’s hesitation and spurred on by “not wanting to work for someone else for the rest of [his] life,” he made the crucial decision to share with Adriana his dream of starting such a business.

Adriana, offering both moral and tangible support championed her husband on in achieving his aspirations. Hence, Disenos Bamm Bamm embroidery and silk screening shop was born. After two years in business, Gonzalez’s dream has flourished into a 12-staff personnel of high-end embroiders and designers. The company now supplies schools, sports teams and companies with bold, eye-catching and sharp authentic logo designs that highlight an individual’s, or company’s distinctiveness.