Don’t Speak Ill of Venezuelans to Me!

A few Venezuelans who live abroad sometimes have the bad habit of speaking ill of their country and of those of us who are here fighting for a better future.

Among the things they say, there is always the speech meant to strip hope from young people and the not-so-young who are working their hearts out to build a better country for EVERYONE, here in this land of grace that has given them so much and needs them more than ever.

Some of the phrases that sadden me most, and that a few people from abroad tend to repeat, are that “Venezuelans don’t love their country” and that “we like living badly.”

How clearly these people do not see, do not hear, do not breathe, do not taste and do not feel the immense love for our homeland that is pouring off (because we sweat plenty, it’s true!) those of us who have decided to stay here, to wring ourselves out to the very marrow and give the best of ourselves to our country and our people.

I ask: could it be that these people, who talk as if they were true experts on the country and predict hard times, do not believe in God and the Virgin? Could it be that they do not know what Hope (with a capital H) means? Because hope is the fruit of faith, and precisely because Venezuelans have a great deal of faith, they are hard at work praying (a resource that is not used in many parts of the world), but they are also giving every last drop of themselves to offer the best they have to their country.

And do you want me to tell you something? Nobody can stop this country, ladies and gentlemen! Never before have we seen so many people (children, young people, adults, the elderly, people of every background) putting their backs into it, living happily and working through the thousands of setbacks they face every day.

It is true that many of us have aged a few years, because we have set aside our “quality of life” (so fashionable in the media), whether we wanted to or not, to work like mules for a better country and for others (something hard to find in this twenty-first century, when “me” comes first).

And there are many, MANY Venezuelans abroad as well who are working like champions, incapable of speaking ill of their homeland, holding Venezuela’s name high, praying hard for our country and supporting what so many of their brothers and sisters are doing to make things better, so that they can return to their beloved land as soon as possible.

So don’t speak ill of Venezuelans to me! I suggest you offer positive alternatives, and above all I ask that, if you truly love your country, you pray, so that your words build up and do not tear down, so that this homeland where you were born, which gave you so much and to which you owe who you are, can keep moving forward. Because there is nothing like Venezuela! And you know it.