1/ I had the most peculiar experience traveling and listening to several Lyft and Uber drivers from different places in the last couple of days. I was amazed at how their personal stories wonderfully connect to each other and to me.
2/Lately I have not been particularly inclined to share in social media but this felt worth noting down for my own benefit and, I think, worth sharing here
3/ The last times I have visited Miami I’ve been picked up by Venezuelan Lyft drivers. I have been driven at 4.30am, while is still dark, by former well to do young ladies raised like a princess back in Venezuela who now hustle with grit and focus
4/ I have heard drivers cry throughout the entire ride telling me about the hardship of emigrating and how they can’t fail because everyone back home depends on them, the weight of the responsibility overwhelming them at times
5/ Once they hear my accent, once they know where I am from people outpour it all. There is a deep sadness that binds Venezuelan together in exile that will mark the national conciseness forever
6/ My last Lyft driver turned out to be a former political prisoner who spent ~5 years in a Venezuelan prison. He was witness to rape, torture and all sort of brutal violence. What he had to do to survive inside a Venezuelan jail would brake the strongest and most resilient
7/ He was a successful businessman back home. He is a big guy and one can sense a well of intense inner strength in him. But you can also tell that something in him has been broken
8/ He had a cell phone while in prison and managed to record snippets of how life was inside. He showed some of it to me.
9/ It reminded me of a documentary I saw decades ago back in Venezuela about Venezuelan prisons call Alerta (Alert). I was probably a bit too young to see it then and the images haunt my nightmares for years to come
10/ The videos the Lyft driver show me where as terrifying, if not more. The stories he shared are the stuff of horror stories. He cried as he showed me all of this. This big, confident guy broke down completely
11/ Have you ever seen documentary about prisons in USA? Think of Venezuelan prisons as a far more infra-human, lawless and cruel place
12/ After Miami I went to Chile. Every single Uber driver commented on my nationality as soon as they heard my accent
13/ Chile has been particularly receptive to Venezuelan immigration so there are plenty of us down there. I can’t help to feel a deep sense of gratitude toward the Chilean people for taking so many of us in
14/ There are now enough Venezuelans there that their presence has become a topic of daily conversation. There has been a immigration avalanche of Venezuelans and Haitians so all conversations are a benchmark of the quality of this two different nationalities
15/ Some hate Venezuelans and Haitians. some love one but not the other. Everyone has an opinion. What is common is that we are both part of the “immigrant group”
16/ Two countries, Venezuela and Haiti, so very different only a decade or two ago, are now together as immigrants. Both nations witness to the power of political destruction at home. Both said too many times “it can’t get worst” only to be surprised
17/ For the most part, Venezuelans are doing well in Chile. It is amazing to see Venezuelan entrepreneurs everywhere in Chile. There is everything from Venezuelan restaurants to Venezuelan barbershop promoting the “Venezuelan haircut”
18/ I was truly inspired by Venezuelan hustling to find a place in Chile and I am confident Chile is and will be better for it
19/ Back in Miami a guy who immigrated to the US from Haiti when he was 16 picked me up at the airport. I tell him am just came back from Chile. He tells me the story of his cousin
20/ His cousin was born outside of his uncle marriage and was left alone in Haiti while the rest of the family moved to the US. Somehow, 5 years ago he manages to leave Haiti and moves to…. Chile. He finds a lot of Haitian there, and a lot of Venezuelans.
21/ He learn Spanish and find a way to make a very modest but decent living. While in Chile he finds his cousin - the one driving me - on Facebook and start a relationship. Watching his cousin go from abject poverty in Haiti to progressively better jobs in the US inspires him.
22/ He decide he wants to move form Chile to the US. It took him close to 4 months to go from Chile to the US by land and water. He crossed jungles and lakes at night and stopped in 12 countries until he got the US
23/ He has been in the US for 3 years, with a work permit. Today he is a store manager making $70k a year. He now supports his father (my drivers’ uncle) who had to retire early
24/ I was overtaken by a sense of deep gratitude for the US as a country that can take an immigrant who escaped abject poverty, crossing 12 countries to get here and reward his hard work and talent with a fulfilling and well paid job
25/ What strikes me the most however is that Venezuelans like Haiti and like many other nations, a nation spread across the globe. In Chile, the US, and many other countries. That label is part of our identity. It is part of what defines our vital, day to day experience
26/ The mass Venezuelan migration has intertwined our story and identity to that of the other nations, both those who host us and those who wonder like we do now. But all this stories, instead of depressing me like they used to, somehow now inspire me
27/ For the first time I can see, emerging from the sadness of the Venezuelan out-rooting, the rebirth of the Venezuelan identity. A more expansive, humble and connected identity is being formed inside and outside of the national borders
28/ People across the world are working shoulder to shoulder with Venezuelan. They are are discovering our food, our music, our grit and our humor. Through partnership and friendships the world is changing us and we are changing them
29/ We are smaller and more humble, but also now part of a larger word. We are further from each other and the land we where born and raised, but now have family and friends everywhere.
30/ We are better for it, the countries that embraced us a better for it and hopefully, in time, so will Venezuela
