I am an American by choice. That was how the president at the time defined us at the moment of taking the Oath to the Nation and the Constitution during the naturalization ceremony. It felt good!
I still remember my older daughter attending a school event with the local police and fire department in our city when she was about three years old. One of the firemen asked her how she liked living here, and she, angelic and innocent, answered holding his hand: “I like it because you protect us, at the other place there were malandros”. No one present understood the word “malandros”, but everyone got the idea: that innocent, beautiful little girl felt protected, free, and happy.
As some of you may have guessed, we come from Venezuela. Not the Venezuela recently portrayed, allegedly populated mostly by members of the “Tren de Aragua” (TDA), as some notable people intend to make everyone else believe. Not Maduro’s Venezuela, where thousands were killed -students, workers, anyone expressing a different opinion; where even a diaper was almost a luxury, let alone medicine or food (remember those videos presented by journalist Jorge Ramos showing Venezuelans eating from a garbage truck in Caracas?). Not Chavez’s Venezuela, with its endless broadcasts, empty promises of a reconstructed Venezuela, that, according to him, the previous government “had destroyed, plundered, and profited from”; with a rewritten constitution and restructured institutions, all this for them to be more pliable to his desires. No. We came from the Venezuela that was still free and democratic. Not a perfect Venezuela, that never existed, as could be said about any other country, but free and democratic; where you could go to a car fair, or furniture fair, or any goods fair on a weekend in Caracas and see, even buy, goods from all over the world; where the Concorde flew weekly to Caracas, tourists visited from every developed country, and we even dreamed of becoming one ourselves.
We came from that Venezuela. And you may be wondering, if it was that good and prosperous, why leave? Well… circumstances.
For any society to maintain balance it must provide access to health care systems, education, environmental quality, opportunities for employment and business growth, support for those in need, protection of rights, freedoms of expression, and a strong democratic system. This, for all its people. But around the world, it is common to see groups or divisions. Some groups have a lot, others have some, and more have too little. When the separation in the distribution becomes exacerbated – when many people live in slums, with few services, lacking necessities, tired of working a lot for a small pay, and no prospect of a different future, crime begins to emerge. Petty crime at first, then it escalates, and with time, car armed robberies in gas stations, armed home invasions that turn violent or fatal if resisted, and kidnappings. Meanwhile, those who don’t live in the slumps but are not in the privileged group either, find themselves having to play a fine balancing act between long hours at work, busy hours at home, expending at least one entire income on childcare and education (not to mention other expenses like services, rent, transportation, and food), with little to no time or opportunity for relaxation, and no prospect of a different future. As a result, people start taking chances, seeking opportunities, and grasping at options.
Those were our circumstances in Caracas at the beginning of the 1990s, and that’s why we left. Searching for something better for our three kids, the youngest of whom is American by birth. But we also wanted to contribute to this new place. If our tireless work had yielded only a modest return for our family, but the new opportunity promised something better, we were ready to give it everything. And we did.
We brought some money, not much, just the dollars we could get from converting all our small wealth, and selling any goods that we could sell. Enough to put a down payment on a house. Within a month, my husband got a job, not a high-paying one despite his master’s degree, we were immigrants after all, but a job with a sponsorship opportunity. I don’t mention this to boast or claim any superiority, only to show that we did not take any resources from the state or government. We arrived, as we say in Venezuela, already raised, ready to be productive. And we did. I volunteered at my children’s schools, at church, and in the community. We raised our four kids to be useful, responsible, and productive members of society. Each of them is now a professional, one with a master’s, one with a PhD, one an engineer, and one a biologist. The two younger ones were born here, while the rest of us chose the United States of America as our country and home.
In the recent events starting on June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles, and I am not talking about the much anticipated opening of the LAX/Metro Transit Center, but about the protests against ICE invasion of our cities, disrespect for our people, blatant discrimination based on skin color and appearance, abuse of authority and disregard for the human condition, ICE is violating the Constitution by trampling on people’s rights, our right to assembly (when raiding a party and detaining individuals), our right of religion (when seizing people from churches, also another form of trampling our right to assembly); and by bypassing the fourth amendment (when ICE conduct unreasonable searches and seizures); the Sixth amendment (Where is ICE taking those they apprehend? Why are even congressional representatives barred from entry?); The eighth Amendment (cruelty is evident when ICE leave a 12-year-old alone in a California field after detaining both of his farm-working parents). I am not an expert or a lawyer, but the Fourteenth Amendment states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Person -not citizen. Person -not someone not presenting a particular physical appearance.
I am brown. No doubt about it; that is who I am. And that, now, is a problem. For me, for millions of others. I have a photo of my passport, my Social Security card, and my real ID on my phone. But after seeing plenty of videos from areas around my home (I live in a city different from Los Angeles, though still in the same county, but this is happening all over California and the country) showing the way ICE grab anyone who looks brown, with no chance to speak, no chance to show identification, no knowing where they are being taken, I am not sure that, given the situation, I would even have the chance to prove who I am.
God! My dear God! What a sensation, what a sadness, what an impotence, what a feeling of helplessness. Do we Americans realize what we have? (Please, God, don’t let me use the verb in the past tense.) Do we know our constitution? Understand its meaning? Do we know how to respect it? How to defend it?
Do we realize that skipping the law for some is skipping it for all? That letting it slide when it is used against “other” (someone who doesn’t belong to my group, to my community, to my beliefs) means that tomorrow I could be that “other”?
Do we notice when our leaders are bypassing the law or the Constitution to obtain or execute an objective on their agenda? (such as meeting an ICE apprehension quota), Do we pay attention to the moral character of the people we elect at all levels? These individuals have a direct influence on our lives. They make decisions in our towns, counties, states, and at the national level. Are we ignoring the power we are handling them? Are they the right people to determine if an elected Senator, with more votes than the population of 13 states, deserves to be put on his knees, thrown to the floor, and handcuffed?
Do we even vote?
I have been crying on and off in the last few of days. The fear of going outside, of walking, as I usually do and my doctor recommends, or to go to the supermarket or church; and it is a general fear, the streets are mostly quiet.
Also, there is the disappointment. I think about my brother, my sister, and my family who still live in Venezuela, how they have been living like this for so long, feeling oppressed, with no freedom, subject to the whims of a deranged man abusing his authority. This situation is making me to reflect far too much about the Spanish Civil War, where the authoritarianism was exercised in the name of a more moral society; or what happened in Nazi Germany, where the authoritarianism was exercised in the name of a purer society; or Venezuela where the authoritarianism is exercised in the name of a humbler and more popular society. We all know what happened after, or, in some cases, what is still happening. We know the death toll it has taken, and is still taking. We know the deterioration it brought, the lack of progress, the emotional and economic suffering.
And you know what is the saddest thing? Well, exactly this, making that connection, seeing this country similar to those countries in that situation, and I can’t help but cry. I cry for the hard-working immigrant snatched away from his family; for this country, diminished, abused by those who don’t understand how we are all interconnected and interdependent; for the ignorance of those who from afar easily assume the roles of juror and executioner forgetting the humanity of each person, the dignity of each individual. I cry for those who call themselves Christians but don’t stop to analyze each person’s circumstances. Isn’t that why the Founding Fathers insisted on due process, so we could see everyone’s circumstances? Christians, but expecting everyone to share their perspective, isn’t freedom the most precious gift given to us by God? Wasn’t Jesus who cautioned against uprooting the weeds “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them”?
I cry because I am a law-abiding citizen, and I see the law being abused, manipulated, and eroded. And the feeling of impotence, the helplessness seeing this great nation driven like this toward destruction, sectarianism, injustice, lack of freedom, and mediocrity in the name of “making it great again” makes me want to scream out loud to my fellow Americans: Come! See! This is the path we are following! This is where others went before! This is the consequence!
Let’s stop in time. Let’s obey the law, all of us! Let’s be accountable, all of us! Let’s be responsible, all of us, each in our role!
Let’s read, understand, and practice what is written in the constitution, for something it was written as well as it could be.
This is not the end of the story; this is how I feel today. I pray for this country, for its leaders, for its people. I know others pray too, maybe for the opposite of what I pray for, and that is ok. I just want justice and freedom for all.
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