Venezuela: Our Beloved Homeland

Here in Venezuela there are many of us, young people and some not so young, who have decided to “grin and bear it” and “give it all we’ve got” (and we say we are staying right here).

We have understood, down to the marrow, that we will not see that thing called “quality of life” for a looong time.

Plenty of us know (and we are very clear about it) that we will most likely never see the country we dream of with our own eyes.

But Venezuela, right now, has a generation (of all ages) devoted to planting and watering “the trees,” with strong roots, so that those who come after us can sit and enjoy their shade. It is simply that this generation (of which I am a part) did not get the shade. We got the sun full in the face, right in the face; and hot, really hot; so hot that it burns, and sometimes what you feel like doing is running away.

But we do not run away, because we know this is our homeland. As a priest said at Mass last Sunday: “The homeland is a material and spiritual space where present, past and future generations live together, bound by a historical and cultural thread; and whoever loves God must love his homeland, because God created Venezuela before He created us, and He entrusted it to us when He chose for us to be born in this corner of the world.”

“And since we are the owners of these natural and human marvels that God has given us, it is our duty to defend them,” he said. That is why there are still plenty of us in this country (some because they cannot leave, others because they chose to stay) suffering, and enjoying it at the same time, trying to encourage and form a younger generation who are here, studying at our universities (with their problems, no doubt about it) or finding ways to work in a country where nothing is easy!

Those of us who are here are going through a great deal, but we can be happy, because we know this is our Homeland and that right now it needs us more than ever. Is that hard for some people to understand? Maybe. But that does not take away the happiness we feel in knowing that we are doing what we ought to do.

Because we know that this is our homeland, that our people are here, and that our people need us. And that explains this incomprehensible happiness, because there is nothing more satisfying in life than fighting and suffering for what you love, especially when it means giving encouragement and hope to the children and young people who are here, being formed and ready to give the best of themselves.

Every day you hear more wonderful stories about these young people, from every social class, who are here and who are staying here; and about some who have even come back by their own choice.

Living in Venezuela unleashes very strange passions. It is like an intense mixture of love and pain that not even the most idyllic romance could promise us. For my part, I can only say that my happiness is right here, in my beloved Venezuela, because without Her and without my Venezuelan children and young people, I cannot live! As simple as that!