This work aims to argue that subjective reasons can explain Brazilian immigration to South Florida, besides the political-economic motivations other authors usually describe. Its subject is the Brazilian immigration to South Florida. The oral history showed that immigrants usually do not declare personal reasons to immigrate because they feel guilty when they leave Brazil. The objective motivations are socially acceptable because they are based on the idea of Brazil as a country of natural beauty and United States as a land of opportunities. This idea is part of a collective memory that immigrants carry.