Therefore, I will try to just share my experience and feelings about everything that has been going on in America regarding this past election.
I cannot stop feeling that I have gone through this in my past and that I can recognize certain events going on here that feel very similar to what I had to experience in my childhood growing up in Venezuela.
To have a representative of a country lead with threats, hate, and fear is very smart for them as a candidate, but very damaging for the country. It is very easy to be able to identify the two main groups a country is divided in, identify the main problem the country is facing and pick one of those groups to take all the blame for the crisis.
I know the Obama administration did not result in an economic growth for America; I think we can all agree on that. It was especially damaging for small-local businesses, which is what this country needs more of to grow economically. But I cannot believe how many people very easily followed the idea to “Buy American. Hire an American” from Donald Trump and simply put all the blame for the ‘economic crisis’ this country is facing on foreigners. “They are taking all the jobs,” is what I have seen many Trump supporters say. To what I automatically think “Really? Have you even researched the professions most work visas are currently being sent to?” I’m guessing not, because then you would have seen that these are jobs this country needs to fulfill and get from other countries, because there is just a few number of Americans studying these fields and doing these jobs, like engineering and bilingual teaching. For anyone who studied any other field it is almost impossible to get a work visa. Believe me, I know this. Why? Because it costs at least $10,000 for a company only to hire you, not to mention there are signing to basically being scrutinized by the U.S. government in all aspects. Do you really think a company would go through all of this if they had Americans to fulfill these jobs? I was talking with an immigration lawyer this morning about all of this and not only did she tell me about how frightened all of her clients are, but she said “If Trump cancels these work visas, specially the H1Bs, this country is going bankrupt. He has no idea how much revenue these jobs bring into this country.”
Leaving the work visas aside --- all of this nonsense on banning certain individuals from entering the country, even if they are U.S. residents and insulting minorities, not only is illegal but is awakening feelings of hate and reject from certain individuals, which is inevitable, because this is how dividing a country works and I have seen this happened with my own eyes and experienced it first hand.
When Chávez entered power back in 1999, he focused on blaming the upper and middle class on everything that was wrong in Venezuela, and poisoned the minds of the lower class with hate towards the rest of the country saying we were the reason they have been ignored for many years and that he will be the one to give them power. I remember a few years after that election my mom and I were exiting a shopping center we visited often, when the doorman, who was always very nice to us and always asked us about our day and our families said to us after we asked him how his day was going “I have nothing to say to you. I hate you, because you are white,” I am almost certain he also called us “Yankees,” but I could not hear very well, because my mom rushed me out of the mall. “Yankees” was a term used very often by Chávez referring to the upper class of the country; this is also a term used to disparagingly describe Americans in certain Latin american countries. “Yankees” -- I am sorry, but I don’t have one single white(american) gene in my body; I never understood why he chose that term. I am seeing this happen now in the U.S.; people calling Mexicans “rapists,” Muslims being called “terrorists” anD banned from entering the country, individuals demanding immigrants on the streets to speak American (English). These are all phrases I could look up right now online and find Donald Trump saying.
When I came to this country I felt welcomed. I felt safe. Even after dealing with some racism here and there, I did not feel judged by the majority. I feel very sad and worried after seeing how this election process has rapidly changed this country into something it was not back in 2008 when I first came. I get emotional only by thinking I might have to leave this country sooner than I wanted, because I have worked so hard to be able to achieve that “American dream,” of not only being successful after long hours of work, dedication and many sacrifices, but of living in a place full of solidarity, empathy, respect, security and without invisible barriers among its citizens.