We Quickly Made Travel Plans This Year

My name is Sofia. My husband Juan and our two children Anne, and Charlie moved to LA from Venezuela six years ago. It took all the money we had to get here but it’s not safe to live in Venezuela now that Maduro has seized control. He is one truly nasty dictator. When my brother disappeared a year ago, I knew we had to get out. I know Trump is also nasty but so far he isn’t killing or disappearing the people off the streets, at least not yet.

We’ve made good friends here. Sue and José are here in LA from Venezuela as well. We commiserate about loosing our country together. We both grew up there. It helps just knowing them. I don’t feel quite so lonely. I miss my home, my country so much. I miss my mom every minute of every day. I miss her hugs that make everything feel safe. I miss everyone speaking my language. I miss everyone looking like me. I want to go back but I know it’s likely I would be arrested for no reason and disappeared. My mom is still living in Valencia. She’s able to get by on the money we send to her. She doesn’t go out very much. It’s not very safe out there.

The kids like their teachers here and they are doing well in school. The weather is quite pleasant. Both Juan and I work for Bezos at Amazon. The pay isn’t great and the job requires long hours, but it’s steady. The heavy lifting is hard on my back, the work is slightly mind numbing but that’s ok. It pays the bills. We understand that Jeff needs the money so we try our best to help him out. We are undocumented which limits our job choices. That hasn’t been a problem until just recently. Now, it’s a huge problem.

Suddenly a lot of ICE agents descended on LA last week. It was terrifying. It’s beginning to feel like Venezuela here. That’s not good. Trust me, that’s not good at all.

I tried to get through this protest area yesterday. It was insane, so crowded, so loud, so scary. I don’t think the horses were thrilled either. I can tell because they don’t like their eyes and noses covered but I guess it’s needed in case someone took a swat at their face. If that happened I bet the horse would rear up and that cop would find himself sitting on his ass down close and personal with those dangerous protesters holding up their phones in self-defense.

I am guessing the cops on horseback are scared too. When I am calm, I can picture that 30 year old cop in his regular street clothes tossing a baseball with his 8 year old son that he adores.

In ICE’s imagination they likely view the protesters as The Other - The Enemy, an attacking army complete with long swords and rifles instead of Apple phones. Our imaginations can make other people look terrifyingly dangerous even when they are not. I understand that, but it’s scary being seen as less than human.

People that have joined ICE see the world as a very dangerous place. For them there are only two kinds of people: people who believe like them and The Other, meaning Americans like you and me.

ICE is shooting at people with rubber bullets. From the screams I hear I would say those rubber bullets aren’t the soft, gentle kind they want to believe they are. Ouch! I’m sure there is no chance that pudgy white cop chose this kid to shoot at because he is black. That cop looks ‘justified’ with himself. Slightly righteous? The black cop behind him looks a little unnerved at the unnecessary violence, but maybe my interpretation is just that - my interpretation of a tense moment.

An ICE guy pointed a Taser at this kid in a hotdog costume. The kid was just standing there. Masked protesters were standing around waiting for the action movie to begin. They needed chairs, popcorn and a coke to watch the show: The Wild West Standoff riding into town. Would three military men with very long rifles be strong enough to withstand an assault by an unarmed kid wearing a hotdog costume? The hot dog kid didn’t look that dangerous, especially since he had pulled his arms in to cover his crotch. Boy, that Taser would definitely hurt. Might cramp his dating future, assuming he wasn’t jailed for his costume alone. Just noticed the hotdog kid is Latino. Why was he singled out instead of the much bigger white guy wearing a mask?

My kids Sofia and Juan were able to avoid being picked up. Our kids were in school when the police on horseback road through the protesters. I realized I hadn’t made plans for someone to take care of my kids if Juan and I were picked up and deported. Now our friends that could help take care of them are in hiding. We can’t contact them. We’re on our own. What if we’re picked up and are children were left behind?

We didn’t dare go in the school to find our kids so we waited around the corner out of site for school to get out. Finally Anne and Charlie came out. Anne was crying. She said that some ICE men had come into the school and grabbed her friend Maria. She was screaming as they took her out.

“What’s going to happen to her, Mom?”

Being in LA isn’t working out as well as we had hoped. Amazon needed us to work to make money for Jeff but Jeff can’t protect us so we decided to leave LA.

We thought about trying Palestine. I had heard that there was work available but then a friend said there wasn’t a lot of food there. The world is feeling a little dangerous right now. Where should we go where we can just live and raise our kids?

We decided to visit the United Kingdom. We have read a lot about the country and thought that Scotland might be an excellent country to go to. Plus my athletic son, Charlie, has always wanted to learn the Highland Step dance. This was our chance.

But how to get there? That was the challenge. We decided to go to France first and then take a boat to the United Kingdom. But, alas ICE is in France as well. ICE is everywhere. Are there ICE breeding grounds somewhere in the world? As my grandson would say, Idonno. Those ICE men seem to just magically appear.

Well, here we are trying to catch a boat for the UK … really hoping all the way to Scotland though … we’ll see where we finally land.

Good thing I was able to get these life jackets. I suck at swimming and I never had the chance to take Anne and Charlie to the Y to learn how to swim. Such a bummer now.

Juan is doing such a great job carrying Anne and holding onto Charlie. I bet this friendly ICE guy just wanted to make sure our life vests were securely fastened. I saw a guy trying to get on the boat but he didn’t make it. Fortunately he has his life vest on. I’m sure he’ll be fine.

We are on our way to Scotland now. I hope we will find safety there and that Charlie can learn to dance. There are good people out there, people who believe that everyone is a human being that deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. But I really hope that my family can return home to Venezuela. There’s no place like home.

I have always been an optimistic person even in times of trouble. I believe that my people will regain control of Venezuela and throw Maduro in prison where he belongs. Maduro is less violent than Vicente Gomez, ‘The Catfish’. Thanks to the U.S. Navy, they helped him seize power in a coup. Gomez ruled Venezuela either directly or through puppet presidents for 27 ugly years. His regime was one of inconceivable medieval brutality. He was known to hang prisoners by meathooks through their throats or testicles.

Venezuela, my home, has lived under violent dictators for decades. Even under Trump, America looks so peaceful, but I don’t want to live in America. I just want to go home and live in peace.

c