Wealth & Money Quote by Antonio Banderas

Banderas frames immigration as both humility and accomplishment, compressing a whole American-myth arc into two clean beats: arrived broke; now, look. The opening phrase, "honor and privilege", is doing double duty. It’s gratitude, sure, but it’s also a preemptive disarming of suspicion: the immigrant who announces reverence for the host country can speak about struggle without being read as resentful or demanding. That matters in a culture where immigrants are often asked to perform thankfulness as the price of legitimacy.

The detail "almost no money in my pocket" is a small, cinematic prop. It’s vivid enough to feel real, but not so specific that it becomes a sob story. He’s signaling risk and vulnerability, the moment before the montage begins. Then comes the understatement that gives the line its bite: "A lot has happened since then". That vagueness is strategic. For a celebrity, naming the highlights can sound like bragging; leaving them unspoken lets the audience supply the glittering résumé themselves. The subtext is, You already know the ending, which makes the origin story more credible.

Contextually, Banderas is a European actor who entered Hollywood as an outsider, with language barriers and typecasting pressures. The quote quietly insists on assimilation-by-labor, not assimilation-by-erasure: he’s not apologizing for where he’s from, just marking the distance traveled. It’s a polished version of resilience, tailored for a public sphere that loves uplift but gets skittish around politics.