Clinical lycanthropy

I went to see it today; I had to see it with my own eyes. It was still there, graffiti but you could still see it. Build the wall Trump 2016- it read, on the bridge of my university crossing the Mississippi River. I understand very clearly that I am but a guest in your country, and I will act accordingly. A guess does not tell you how to run your house. Mexicans believe that peace comes from the respect one gives to the others (we are told this since we are young). Mexico has a history of respecting other nation’s sovereignty, and it has acted accordingly (Protesting against the annexation of Austria by the Nazi regime in 1938, ending diplomatic relations with Francos Spain in 1939, speaking against the embargo of Cuba sine 1960, voting against the Iraq War in 2004). I plan to respect that tradition today.

So I will not tell what to do or what to think instead I will tell you how I feel and what I have learned about living in the USA for 14 months. I have never understood the people who hate you without ever meeting you. Who hate so profoundly the country you come from and the culture you represent that they want to build a wall to segregate you from them. What is so profoundly wrong about me? About my country? About my culture? What is so undesirable about us that we have been categorized as murderers and rapists. Would they say the same if they know more about me, about Mexico? Would it make any difference to see one of the amazing volcanos painted by Dr. Atl? Would it make any difference if the read Rosario Castellanos’ intimate poetry? Or Nellie Campobello’s dances, or Sor Juana's philosophy, or Ibargüengoitia’s incredible sense of humor, or the smell of burnt tortilla, or the gritty city of Huerta.

The simple fact is that a lot Americans don't care, and I think that is what makes me the saddest. Both conservative and liberal Americans, for the most part, do not care. They don´t care about any of this. Spanish is too hard; subtitles are too tiresome; other people's beliefs too strange and other cultures too alien. Nothing is worth the bother, or awareness of just asking: who is that other human?

I have found in this land great friendships that I hope to treasure my entire life. It is with this that I hold on to hope for the future and ask you to tell others about us. Tell them that a wall is no solution. Tell them that the most militaries border (it has been compared to North Korea-South Korea border, the Israeli-Gaza strip border and Pakistan-Afghanistan border, among others.) between to country that has been in peace for more than a century is unstable. Tell them that you have met a Mexican and that you consider him your equal. Please just tell others that. Maybe if others know me, they wouldn't hate me or fear me. And maybe if they know me and know of others like me, we would not need to hide in fear. And maybe, just maybe we could survive this dark period in our history together.