To the Young People Who Are Staying

Last week I wrote to the young people who are leaving. Today I write to those who are staying. Writing to the young people who are fighting in Venezuela is something I consider more than a duty. Being a journalist mother who has lived through this last decade of our history following the news day by day, while raising six children born between 1993 and 2001, gives me some knowledge of how our children have grown up and how they have developed values and virtues in their youth.

Because, as Andrés Eloy Blanco said, when you have one child you have the child of your house and the child of the whole street; when you have two, you have all the children of the earth… And I can add that “when you have six children, at this moment in our history, you feel like the mother of thousands of heroes who are holding Venezuela’s name high.”

Naturally, I won’t have space to talk about all the virtues our young people have developed in these years. I will speak of the most important ones, which many of us adults would do well to try to imitate. • “All-terrain” patience and fortitude: If there is one thing that characterizes the great majority of Venezuelan young people, it is their great patience and fortitude in facing the countless problems they live with every day, from the moment they get up until they go to bed. It is just as if they lived in a boxing ring. Problems here, problems there. And as if that weren’t enough, they have had to put up with heaps of negativity, complaints everywhere, hopelessness, hatred, lies and more from some adults who, unfortunately, have not set a very good example.

They have faced all this with a gallantry I call “all-terrain,” because they rise above everything and never lose heart in their eagerness to prepare themselves well in their schools or universities, seminaries or barracks, or in their jobs, for those who help support their families. And besides, they strive to fulfill their duties, to defend their rights and to be at the service of those who need them most.

A young Venezuelan who is eighteen today has practically been facing very hard trials since he or she became aware of the world, if they have not already passed on to the next life as a result of crime or repression.

And here I open a small parenthesis to quote something a Venezuelan mother told me a few days after the murder of her only three children: “The pain I feel is immense. I feel as if my heart had been torn out. But deep down I feel peace, because they died as martyrs, and I know they are already enjoying eternal happiness.”

The fact is that our young people have become brave and ready for anything, so that someday true justice and peace may reign in their country, which they love with all their soul. And I ask you: what do you think can come from these marvelous young people who are being forged in struggle, patience and fortitude? • Joy and solidarity: I would like those who believe that happiness lies in pleasure and comfort to explain to me why, when you see so many young people helping in the poor neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and shelters, they radiate a contagious joy.

Why do many of them bring encouragement and the will to live to everyone who crosses their path? Because these young people have learned what Jesus Christ said: “We have come to serve and not to be served.”

How many Venezuelan young people do we know who have set aside their plans, their interests, their things… to go and give themselves to others and help those who need it most?

We need only go back a few months and remember all the young people who, last Christmas, gave up their plans for fun to go to the shelters and help our fellow citizens left homeless by the floods, with the greatest joy in the world. And that is just one tiny example. • A faith that is a joy to see: What a joy it is to see the enormous number of young people who fill the churches on Sundays and the religious celebrations that are held so often in our country! It is common to see them praying and asking God for help, because they, who are also humble, know that only He can give them the fortitude, wisdom and hope to keep fighting tirelessly to build a better country for all.

I imagine how happy God must feel to see this immense number of young people seeking Him and getting to know Him, when in some so-called “developed” countries people want to know very little about Him (there is a reason John Paul II called us the Continent of Hope).

I encourage you, kids, to stay on that path and to become more knowledgeable every day about your faith and beliefs, because that will help you live as people of integrity, and will give you more tools to defend truth and values, and above all to live fully happy lives. • Absolute trust: In the face of some people’s hopelessness, it is striking to see so many young people convinced that what they are doing will soon bear fruit. They know that the better they prepare themselves, the harder they strive to practice the values their families taught them, the more they think of others and the less of themselves, the more they are fertilizing an excellent harvest that will soon bear fruit.

Hence their trust and hope, which for some who torment themselves and are paralyzed by the bad news of each day is truly inexplicable.

The list of virtues could go on forever, because our young people are intelligent, creative, magnanimous, authentic leaders… and best of all, the great majority of them are using their abilities to build a better country for all.

But above all, our young people have great hearts, peaceful by nature. Hearts with room for everyone, without quarrels, without grudges. Hearts so big, so big, that they will never allow the hatred some want to sow to triumph over the love they are ready to give.

Keep it up, kids, showing your greatness, fortitude, patience, perseverance and love. You are our great hope, our great example, and the strength some of us need to keep living in good spirits in this wonderful country, fighting for a better nation for all.