I love to travel, I love to see that world, try new dishes, understanding different between cultures, dance, religion, art, landscapes and parties. See what a nation can share with me, however I will never forget where I’m from.
My country: Brazil;
My state: Bahia;
My hometown: Salvador;
The neighbor that I was born and grew up: Liberdade.
It’s not just about remember or not, it’s about to be proud of it, to be Brazilian. I’m not proud of a corrupted country that come from small actions like having a fake student card to the fact that a politician takes millions of our money that should be used for education, health care and security for supplying his own interests. I’m not proud because we’re the country that has the biggest amount of people killed by murder (58000 people in 2014) in the world or because we’re a country that (84%) of people believe in god that has a essence is about to split love, but we have more homophobic crimes than any other part of the world (326 people in 2014) because we don’t believe in this kind of love. I’m not happy with the fact that one for which 4 people doesn't have job (25%) in the age between 18 - 24 years old. Either the fact that a big amount of people is still racist even after centuries of slavery, having the shame prize to be the biggest traffic of African slaves in the world! Almost 10 millions of African slaves, 10 times bigger than the slave traffic in Brazil.
If you ask me if I would like to be born in any other country in world, I would say that I wouldn’t change my passport for none in the world. Even being in the “first world”, that easily I could get back something (education, health care and security) from the system (government) from every drop of sweat that I would be invested in work and taxes.
After 10 days in Brazil I could remember how simple is our life. How we can be happy with no so many things, how friendly and helpful we can be with people that we don’t even know. I missed the shine in the eyes, this kind of happiness that come before the smile and we can see naturally in the face, showing a perfect draw with all of small expressions in the face that lips and eyes are the “protagonists”.
I remember a song from Calle 13, called as Latinoamerica that says: “Somos un pueblo sin piernas, pero que camina” it means that we don’t have legs, but we’re still walking. If you have the chance, watch the video. I don’t know other countries in Latin America but I guess that we aren’t that different. In Brazil I see that even without the perfect system, good opportunities, good environment, we’re still fighting for having a better future. Wherever we’re.
I’m leaving back to Spain now, but I’m still fighting for my future. I’ll be hungry for knowledge, interest in making stronger my conceptions about life, society, understanding and respecting more and more everything that is different of me (Culture, religion, gender, sexuality, color skin…). After while I hope to be able to offer something to the world, to my country, to my state, to my hometown, to my neighbor. Wherever I could reach.
I do believe in a better future for us, in different ways. If you think that I’m Utopian, you’re completely right. Even when the majority of people don’t believe that in the future things can get better, you still can do it. Once you believe on it, you’re able to think how you can make the impossible become real.
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/09/violent-deaths-in-brazil-surge-to-peak-of-58000-amid-olympic-safety-fears
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/most.people.believe.in.god.international.poll.finds/27898.htm
