#It is sick that “Expropiese” is an actual meme made to cope

[lucecolinauwu]

I am a firm believer that silence perpetuates injustices because if nobody knows, nobody can do anything about it and thanks to the internet your story can be anonymous so if you don't feel comfortable saying it in real life you can say it like this so it's out there anyway, so here I come.

I am a born and raised Venezuelan, at least for the first 9 to 10 of my life, I have a lot of family on both sides that roots in Venezuela for the most part going back to generations, the only not Venezuelan blood relative that I have is my maternal grandfather who was from Italy, and he lived till the day he died on Venezuelan floor.

Every weekend my mom, my siblings, and I would go to my great-grandmother's house to visit our family, every weekend you would see my brother and I running and playing over there, and every weekend my parents would laugh because I ask my dad for his card to buy bread and sugar for my great-grandmother and the aunts that live with her.

I used to play around the church we used to go to, walk with my grandmother and brother around, help my mom arrange flowers for festivals, talk and play with neighbors whose families had been living in those houses for generations.

Then my dad, who was always firmly against Maduro, wanted to start a business; collecting and recycling plastic. He purchased the machines and a property to start, both he and my mom had good jobs, and he started to receive threats, they would send threats alongside photos of my mom with us in a random place.

So, when I was around 9-10 years old, my family and I had to basically flee Venezuela, I was not told at the time why because of my age, but, oh lord, how do you tell a child people are threatening their life because one of their parents wanted to start a business and they didn't like the "president"?

How do you tell a child that they will not see their family and community for a really long time if ever? That you are going to change everything they have ever known? That someone has stepped on every freedom one can have? That the government can just take everything from you just because?

Maduro has forced countless Venezuelans out of their country, because of greed, nothing more.