The Current Fragmenting of the U.S.A (and how the 2020 Election can stop it), Part 2
In case you missed Part 1 and the Prologue, you can find it right here: The Green God
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Chapter 2: USA Deserves to be Che'd: How American Fears and Greed Severed an Entire Hemisphere
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Check if this sounds familiar: the uncaring government has connections to a select few constantly making money off their decisions. Most of the wealth, resources, and prosperity is being enjoyed by a small percentage of citizens in the country. The government doesn’t like the free press or any anti-administrative talk and makes efforts to silence it while pouring out tons of fake news to create the illusion that everything is going fine. Even though the country is making money, the poor and middle class is receiving none of it; while their leader is profiting off the pain and corruption along with his friends, and striking down any groups or individual dissidents.
Sounds like the United States today, right?
Well, this is actually Cuba during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista----before Che and Fidel Castro started a revolution and drove him AND the country making them this way---the United States of America.
Complete contrary to popular belief, Cuba was NOT going well at all for Cubans before Fidel Castro took over, and the main reason why the rivalry between him and the United States began was because Castro’s government stopped taking bribes and favors from the American government and effectively drove them all out. Havana was Caribbean Las Vegas to American mobsters and politicians, and that era was over after the Cuban Revolution. Argue all you want about what happened afterwards (which of course….also wasn’t good, as Castro definitely backed away from his initial promises), but this is one of the strongest examples of a Latin American country’s existence being poisoned by their larger, richer neighbor constantly profiting off of poorer growing Latin nations.
The United States today is Cuba during a dictatorship period, and therefore should be and deserves to be Che’d.
Few years ago, on a day off in particular while exploring Epcot, I was at the Mexican Pavilion to watch the mariachi perform (They are absolutely awesome by the way). The last song they chose was what is notoriously considered as Venezuela’s unofficial national anthem: Alma Llanera, written in 1914 and to this day a massive staple of Venezuelan social events and parties---usually being the closeout song. They performed it beautifully, as usual, but what was different was this one woman. Even as I type it, it brings me chills and tears to remember her reaction.
She was singing in joy and in pain along with the band. She had behaved with amusement throughout the performances, but at this moment, all her emotions poured out. She was done, gone, didn’t care who was watching her weeping. After the performance was over and the crowd mostly dispersed, the lady went up to the mariachi and shook their hands and talked to them for a bit. I don’t know how to explain to you, how I know, but her story was exposed as the song played, and as she clearly was lost in the moment.
This woman misses her home, and clearly, she’s in pain as to what has become of Venezuela.
The United States in the past century has become a top destination for displaced Latin American immigrants, but the part of the story that history books don’t point out often is that the United States is responsible a majority of the problems that Latin Americans around the hemisphere face when dealing with their governments sometimes damaging their own homelands.
The most understated section of United States history is their horrendous behavior towards Latin American countries and Latin Americans in general, which has resulted in mass displacements in a variety of countries on this hemisphere. This has been ALWAYS a part of American history, starting with the United States essentially stealing land from Mexico to committing a literal 9/11 on foreign soil (Look up Chile’s September 11th terrorist attack, which was funded by a socialist-fearing CIA) to Reagan basically helping destroy Central America, Bush Sr. literally invading Panama and displacing the very dictator they had been helping for years, and even as recently as just a few days ago when the United States went after Bolivian elections and it backfired completely.
You go through the list of Central American and Caribbean countries, and you’ll see dirty American fingerprints all over them: USA-supported dictatorships (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Chile, Panama, Paraguay), USA-supported and funded governments engaging in war against their own people (Guatemala, Argentina, El Salvador, and Cuba—also United States has bombed Puerto Rico on at least one occasion), CIA-linked assassinations, coups, and terrorist attacks (Che’s assassination in Bolivia, deadly bombing of a Cuban flight, Chile’s 9/11, Dominican Republic Civil War, coup against Peron, potentially a coup against Morales in Bolivia), and we also can’t ignore the sanctions that harms the people more than the governments (Cuba, Venezuela) and the United States’ continuing avoidance of tackling the drug wars properly (which hurts Mexico and Central America).
Everything I have mentioned here has happened within the past century, which makes all the sense in the world why the Latino population has grown so much in the United States----because a majority, nearly all of us, are refugees, are immigrants that have seen our homelands struggle, are people who want a proper future for our families. Even myself, I am the grandson of a political prisoner and refugee escaping an American-supported dictatorship. Yet to this day, the Latin American struggle remains severely underrepresented in American politics, and is not accepted with the seriousness it deserves. Your two biggest groups of immigrants entering the United States are: those fleeing the violence and war in the Middle East, and those seeking a new life from the ashes of cruel decisions that shattered their homelands in Latin American countries.
Venezuela’s current displacement of its people is among the biggest in recorded history. Mexico is encountering one of the most violent years in its entire history thanks to the El Chapo arrest developing additional turf wars. In a perfect world, all our Latino homelands are fine and improving and thriving (and there are examples of good overall success: Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, soon Bolivia), and there’s no need for the desperation to seek a better life in a country with the resources to provide said life. Nobody scours through a foreign country for days and weeks by the mercy of God while walking on foot and among strangers in caravans and secret journeys if it’s not because there literally is no other choice.
Yet the United States government’s current attitude towards Latin American immigrants and refugees is simply: “don’t bother trying to come here, we’re making it very hard for you to even attempt this.” Of course the best example of this have been the family separations at the border under Trump’s shitty no-tolerance policy—-which has resulted in hundreds of kids still unable to reach their parents. But the thing is, and like it or not, the United States has a responsibility to fulfill to help those that have been displaced mainly because most of the chaos that is happening today is because of the United States itself.
Venezuela and Cuba are rocked with horrifying sanctions that exist only because the United States’ Republican leaders will condemn anything leftist until they die----even though they wouldn’t bat an eye and cooperate with other countries also with sketchy behavior (Saudi Arabia, China, Israel, China—and this is worthy of repetition because their history is especially rough). Cuba’s tourism right now is in tatters because cruise lines can no longer dock in Cuban coastal cities. Think about the displacements we see in South America when compared to the displacements of Europe in the past three decades. The era of European immigrants going across the Atlantic for a new life in America is over. Time to grow up and see the new realities.
Why do you think there’s so much more movement happening on this side of the world? Why do you see so many structural government shifts on this side when compared to Europe and West/South Asia? And why do you think we haven’t seen a Latin American Union similar to the European Union, which has allowed for the continent to grow? Take a guess.
Of course, we can make the argument that it should be up to the governments on the Latin American countries to provide the necessary changes. Yes, very valid in today’s world where we should also be demanding better from governments like Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Not totally wrong there, if we had better and stronger politicians on our homelands this could ease most of the pain. But take the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, Bolivia, among others: ALL of them changed their government, picked a leader with a different approach, but was met with hostility from the big bad leftist-fearing shadow of the United States. So how can a place like Cuba recover from a Batista dictatorship that saw 75% of their island essentially belong to the U.S., if the U.S. is trying to overthrow it from the getgo and then ultimately hammer the island with sanctions and a black mark that sticks to anyone that is linked to Castro?
How can Guatemala or Nicaragua improve if the U.S. funds their wars and escalates their conflicts because there are some leftists in power? How could Chile become a better version of itself if the CIA literally came in and destroyed the capital city and forced their president to commit suicide? How can the Dominican Republic improve from the post-Trujillo days if the United States didn’t approve of a democratically-elected leader and came in to shift power to a Diet Country Club version of Trujillo?
Let’s fast-forward to today, after politicians and presidents from BOTH political parties have done more harm than good to all their neighbors underneath them in the entire hemisphere. But under the Trump Administration, the discontent and mistreatment towards Latin Americans reaching the lowest of lows:
*deep breath*
We have tent cities at the Mexican border with Trump’s internationally illegal behavior of restricting refugees from even entering the country for an opportunity, we have permanent family separations (unlike what you were told, was created during THIS term) as a way to dissuade refugees from trying to enter, we have Border Patrol and ICE revving up their tactics and outright malicious behavior, ICE detention centers spreading disease, extreme discomfort, and even unnecessary surgeries on their frightened victims, we have the Trump Administration blaming Mexico for “sending their worst,” and bullying their Southern neighbors to becoming the placeholder for refugees and immigrants and immediately putting them in danger---
*deep breath*
We have Trump cultists carrying out crimes and even massacres under the misguided grumblings of said president (Never forget El Paso), an overall increase in hate crimes, racist attacks, and incarceration against Latin Americans nationwide especially at the border with the infamous cages and aluminum foil and helpless Latinos trapped like sardines, a dangerous increase in anti-Latino sentiment amongst THEIR OWN PEOPLE (the unfortunate adapt or die approach)---
*deep breath*
Sanctions levied against an already-damaged Venezuela and an impoverished Cuba just to spite their governments, removal of all progress between the U.S. and Cuba under Obama, refusing to even help Major League Baseball try to safely transport Cuban baseball players, Trump publicly calling certain Latin American places shithole nations, Trump also constantly using dog-whistle approaches to scare his core fanbase with the caravan horror stories about criminals and rapists, and in even one incident largely forgotten, claiming there was a “discarded prayer rug found at the border,” and lastly increasing his demands to re-open the country after it was discovered that a majority of the victims of the coronavirus were not his people, but actually Latinos and Black Americans.
Yes, ALL this has happened in the last four years. It might be hard to remember all the injustices, but they did happen, and continue to happen.
Of course, I will never compare and claim that one oppression of a population is bigger than another, because of course Latin Americans were never slaves like Black Americans for centuries. And even though Latin Americans’ land loss in North America doesn’t compare to the land lost by Native Americans, it is undeniable the mistreatment we’ve seen in recent years. As a matter of fact, Canadian courts ruled in favor for refugees fleeing to the Canadian border because the mistreatment in the United States, a place that’s supposed to be a safe haven, was seen as equally a worse option than staying in the country of origin.
Latin Americans are the biggest rising force in the United States, and part of the keys to improve this country is for the government to start accepting us as a powerhouse minority group to be reckoned with, and one that deserves respect, restitution, help, and most importantly a seat at the table. It is impossible to undo all the damage of the past century, but at the very least while each of these affected countries tries to work towards improvement, Latin Americans in the United States needs to be protected from the racism, bigotry, and boogeyman persona created by the Trump Administration. These sticky stereotypes and misconceptions about Latin Americans has to cease, and a strong component to this is to start respecting differing views on how a country should be run.
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s democratic socialist ways has its similarities to other leftist, socialist and Marxist viewpoints held by the very same politicians and leaders that the United States has feared over the past several generations. Part of the solution for improvement is to accept foreign ideas, listen to ideas that were considered scary in the past, try to comprehend that this diverse country may not want to continue running in the same way anymore. Maybe Latin Americans can provide the keys for actual improvement, instead of relying on broken government systems that turns elections into sporting events and gives us idiots like Bush, and celebrities like Reagan and Trump. Look at how well Brazil did under Lula, look at Evo Morales’ changes to Bolivia, and in an understated story, Ecuador was able to curb gang violence via unique methods.
It makes no sense for the country that is diversifying fast being run by the same dated mindsets, by the same types of politicians, and by people that skip entire lines of required progress and have no place being allowed to decide what is best for the 60 million Latin Americans that live within the American borders. It also makes less sense to not try to actually develop stronger relationships with Latin America in general. There are ways to be involved without trying to interfere and change up their entire damn government.
Trade deals, softer, more organized stances on immigration, more willingness to work on tackling major problems plaguing the hemisphere (the drug wars, the drug cartels, the ruthless gangs scattered in Central America that originated in California), global warming, deforestation, extreme poverty that we’re seeing in Venezuela and that we’ve seen for too long in places like the Brazilian favelas, and an overall stronger understanding of the diverse cultures and people you’ll find from the Mexican border all the way down to the Patagonia area. I’d love to see official apologies left and right, especially to Chile, but another way to “apologize” is to mend the destroyed bridges. Peace among worlds, stronger understanding among neighboring nations leads to an overall improved environment altogether. Outside of the United Kingdom (which has ALREADY dropped in global standing and they haven’t even fully left yet), the European Union is a good example of this.
Immigration is a HUGE issue I demand to see fixed to better not just America, but all of Latin America. Those tent cities at the Mexican border relying on a financially-struggling Mexican government to protect have to go, all those people deserve to be moved to American soil as we seek solutions to all the problems connected to each refugee, immigrant and aspiring American. We need to better the process, spend more money to create an efficient system to allow those who want to come here, to come here and immediately begin returning the favor to the United States through taxes, work, and by bringing their culture to the melting pot. Most important, ICE has to be dismantled completely.
Side-Note: The United States globally is 145th in population density, which makes the U.S.A. less crowded by size than places like Puerto Rico, Guam, Ireland, Japan, Colombia, Honduras, Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, and EVEN MEXICO. So the next person that argues that the country is too full to fit more people is going to be slapped across the face with this factoid.
Latin Americans are here to stay, and in the next half-century barring additional earth-shattering events like this year’s pandemic, might become the largest demographic in the United States entirely---scattering themselves all over the Southern line from California to Florida. But it boils down to what happens in the hemisphere. We’ve already seen Mexico in the midst of its problems see their displacement numbers drop, as Mexicans are not flocking to the United States like in the past. Who knows, maybe Venezuelans will return to their homeland, maybe we’ll see more Colombians return to a country that has finally fully shed itself from the brutal Pablo Escobar and civil war days. Maybe we’ll see an improved Central America, a stronger Caribbean, a Brazil that can return to its Lula time period of drastic changes.
But until then, the United States HAS to stop reverting to its coup-infested ways *looks at Bolivia* and work on improving its own relations with the Latin Americans living here---especially after a history of horrendous actions and a Trump Administration that has completely damaged the way the rest of the country looks at Latinos and Latinas. You cannot be considered a top-tier country if you consistently make life difficult for an entire demographic that actually dominates an entire continent.
Nosotros merecemos mucho mucho mejor