Venezuela, a piece of Heaven on Earth
Stole by some greedy human beings.
The love of my life, the ground where I took my first breath and one of the most resourceful places of our times.
A country that is immersed in the worst crisis that Venezuelans have ever faced. Surprisingly happening in the 21st century.
But I am not going to tell you about what you watch on the news.
I will show you how I see it.
And how I feel about the challenges that we are facing these days.
Well, sorry to say, I am not that breathtaking.
I just left and came back.
My family is immigrant by design.
All of my grandparents arrived in Venezuela when they escaped from war, death, and hunger. Three out of four are from Spain (the other from Italy, which is not a big difference).
That’s why I hold my citizenship from Spain.
It was very easy for me to think that I could have a better life if I lived in a better place. Theoretically, Europe beats Latin America. Surely, living in Spain seems better than living in Venezuela.
I also had a lot of outside pressure. My family and partner were expecting me to make that decision. I was the one supposed to be brave enough to leave everything behind and build a new life for us.
I didn’t want to.
But I pleased them all anyhow. My only guarantee was my ticket to come back home.
I was so sick of listening to all the reasons why I should leave, that I couldn’t bear it anymore. I wish I could say that it was not my fault, but I was the one who wasn’t strong enough to say NO.
Three months. That’s how much I could stay. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that Spain is a bad place, it is AWESOME, I love it. The problem was that I wanted to live in Venezuela.
This is the place where I belong.
I feel much more useful here. We think that life is about happiness (fulfilling ourselves), but it is more about usefulness.
If we are willing to, we can be happy with just being alive. That’s why happiness can’t be the ultimate purpose. Life is not about fulfilled desires, it is about caring for something bigger than ourselves.
Everything in our minds is about ourselves. We are like a toxic partner who never has enough and always wants attention.
When we focus just on ourselves, our ego becomes the driver of our lives.
When we have something else to worry about, our storm becomes a windy sunset. It has a lot to do with what we see every day.
For instance, I am used to seeing families (with babies that are the age of my daughter) gathering around garbage to have lunch. It is not something that I like seeing.
But when you witness people betraying their honor to eat, you stop caring about the scratches you have on your shoes.
And start to care about something bigger than yourself.
When you realize that your misery is bullshit, you start to value life.
We complain about many things, but if we have everything, it is hard to see that we are the luckiest ones.
I am good for something here. Well, many things. When I was living in Spain, I had everything but had no purpose. And I was miserable. I cried every day wishing to come back, to work with my people for the future of Venezuela.
Until I finally did.
The second I arrived home, I promised I would never ever complain about anything regarding my country anymore.
I know I am here by choice.
Even when I was going to give birth to my kid, I stayed. I have to admit that out of fear, I bought airplane tickets to have her in Spain. But when it was time to decide, I knew I wanted my kid to be born in the country of a thousand shades of green.
Everybody but my mom thought I was crazy (even my friends). But I trusted.
The way I do know.
When you choose to live in a place where you can lose your life over your iPhone, you learn to trust.
I must say, I have only had bad luck with a corrupt police officer on a remote beach town. Whom I understand because he risks his life for less than a dollar a day. Even though he was openly stealing from me and my friends, he was extremely kind.
Venezuela is so special that you know why someone is desperate enough to steal from you. Well, maybe most won’t agree, but these are my eyes.
We, humans, are scared by default. Before, I lived in fear, and it stopped me from doing a lot of things. Now, I am fueled by fear, and I have done things that I never thought I would do.
Venezuela is not what you watch on the news, that’s just the ugly part. We have many reasons to feel fear, but we also have many reasons to feel joy. It is a matter of choice. I choose to see the beauty instead of the risks.
We think of ourselves as the last Coke of the desert, but life will continue with or without us. If we die, the worst thing that will happen is a cried river from the ones that are attached to us.
So, why would I feel fear? Because I have a kid?.
The question that I ask myself every day.
No. I can’t teach my daughter to be terrified of life. Even if I leave sooner than I spect, I prefer to show her how to use fear to her favor instead of showing her how to safely wait to die.
I know I am not such a big deal, but my example is. Even to my neighbors.
Fear kept us still while the dictatorship was slowly cooking us. We stood aside watching how our country was being destroyed.
We froze to death instead of fighting for life.
But this year we found a way to overcome that fear and finally, we are getting our country back.
Lately, Venezuela has provided some astonishing images to the course of history. Millions of citizens take the streets every week to save our country from a group of reckless thieves.
It is not new to us.
We have claimed for freedom and progress for a long time. But we were scared to raise our voices a little more. Over these years, we faced many losses, countless deaths and hundreds (maybe more) of political prisoners.
This time is widely different.
The fear that kept us on the edge of a definitive change, turned into fuel to fight until we definitively save our country.
Where I used to see long sad faces, all I see are smiles and motivation. It is more than faith. We can feel the change in our bones and taste the future with the tip of our tongues.
Because we are the ones that changed.
We know that we won’t stop.
I can’t find words to describe the feeling you get when you walk your town with rivers of people who want the same as you. We usually think of freedom, but it is way more than that. We are fighting for a chance.
A chance to grow together. We are sick of disguises and excuses. The only thing we really want is a government that allows us to create, instead of destroying everything they touch.
It took us many years to realize that we are the builders of everything we ask for. Now we are claiming for our right and duty to do it.
I know I will earn some hate after this.
Venezuelans needed Chavez, Maduro, and all their fans to be a better society. I must say, I didn’t have the chance to avoid this disaster, I was twelve years old when this curse (or blessing) was voted for.
It has been two decades since ideas split our country from its roots.
A very clever human being believed so much in his vision that he ran over the basic needs and the human rights of a complete country. Then, he died.
And left a poorly prepared person to run a crashing country.
If you ask me to run a country now, I would tell you to run away before I change my mind. I am not prepared for that task, just like the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.
But he and his predecessor made us better Venezuelans.
Whether we like it or not.
Our country is very resourceful but we were not wise at using our resources. Our worries were not far from our own noses. We never cared about what we had because there was more than enough to everybody.
There is a saying in Venezuela (from our pre-Chavez era) that uses just a few words to show how much we wasted:
Now we know scarcity, something that didn’t exist before.
We learned to share and to live with less. These days, we rely on each other to find progress for all, not just for ourselves.
Soon, when we finally recover our country from this group of greedy beings, we will be ready to cope with the challenges we have ahead. Without wasting a single thing.
I know that in a couple of years I will write about all the visitors that we are happily receiving in our piece of heaven.
The upcoming days, weeks and even months won’t be easy for us. Nothing good in life is. We know this is the final run to start writing a new chapter of Venezuelan (maybe even world) history.
We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the support that we are receiving from the international community. In all matters. And from all Venezuelans that are spread around the world.
We have never been so close. It is almost like we can breathe fresh air.
Free from bullets, violence, blood, tears, and darkness.
We know that precious lives will be lost because the dictatorship is capable of starting a massacre in order to stay. I wish I could tell another story, but that massacre already started on Feb 23rd.
That won’t stop us from chasing our biggest dream, a future for all of us. It gives us even more reasons to stand up for our people.
We feel the fear in their actions and our fear doesn’t stop us anymore.
Now, we own the future that we once gave away.
And we will see our ground flourishing like spring.
Countless pink sunsets, in the most diverse backgrounds that nobody can imagine. Not even Venezuelans. It is always a brand new work of art.
That’s just a bonus gift.
Our true value is in the people. We are quite peculiar and friendly. The warmth of our air is also on our blood. We are like chocolate.
Sweet, good, and unforgettable.
Also, very hard working and resilient beings. We even adapted to the lack of justice. It may not sound good, but that’s how we discovered cooperation.
Which is more important than politics.
We are sick of populism, manipulation, and ideals running our country.
We are interested in creating, helping, living and loving.
We would love to share our paradisiac beaches, mountains, deserts, rainforests, colonial towns, and cities with the world. We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful place. We miss the times when we used our English to speak to tourists.
There are many Venezuelans living everywhere, wishing to come home. When that happens, we will welcome an army of citizens that learned about other cultures, manners, languages, technologies, development, and visions.
We will be even more diverse.
You already know that I am a granddaughter of a migrational movement caused by some reckless people. That’s more than normal here. We are a society filled with incredibly different people, who came here looking for a better future.
And had kids.
We are a mix of Salsa music, in a Chinese restaurant (with waiters that hardly speak Spanish), drinking icy beers while watching a Baseball match.
Soon, you can come to see it with your own eyes. Maybe you fall in love with Venezuela too. I am sure that you will be delighted.
There’s nothing like writing history. That’s the dominant thought I get when I walk kilometers with my elderly neighbors to jell for a change.
A change that we already found within.
We know that we are the ultimate game changers at the end of the darkest chapter. We made a commitment to our country, our people, all the individuals and nations that are supporting us, and to all the lives that were lost or locked in these efforts.
We will honor the souls of the Venezuelans that were killed by somebody they were standing for.
Some years from now, we will remember this as the reborn of a nation.
Based on progress, compassion, respect, trust, education, and love.
I am sure that we will be an example to many oppressed societies that also need a chance.
To change.
How could I not be grateful for such an opportunity?.
Venezuela, a piece of Heaven on Earth
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