Mariana Reads (And Reviews): Lovesick Baker

Not A Chapter, Just A Message From Mariana

Dear readers,

           I am writing to you knowing that I will not be able to write the review for the next chapter in "Lovesick Baker" and everyone knows the reason. As a Spanish-speaking, female, demi-pan, Latina immigrant, this whole election was hanging over my head. I, living in a southern state, had already known hate and slurs and glares just because I spoke in Spanish too loudly to my friends and family, but I didn't believe that it could actually get worse. When this whole campaign started, I didn't believe that that man could actually pass the primaries. He emanated too much hate and I foolishly believed that the people who judged me, my family, and some of my friends only because of where we came from and what we spoke. I, obviously, was wrong. He continued to instill hate towards anybody who wasn't white, straight, middle-aged, Christian, and male. He's accused by 12 women of sexual assault and nobody blinked an eye, and I could only ask: 'How?' He told me and hundred of thousands more like me that we were as human as a rock, that we were just murderers and rapists. That we, just because we had hope for a better future after crossing the border, either by La Frontera, by boat, or by airplane. That all of the love we feel for this country is immediately discredited by being born in another country. He told the whole of the Islamic religion (2.7 million people, by the way) away just because of a small group in their religion, just because they believed in a god that wasn't ours. He spoke in favor of LGBT+ rights, but just looking at Mike Pence's history in that matter makes every statement that man made a moot point, believing in conversion and shock therapy, said that same-sex couples signified societal collapse of marriage and family, opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that would've brought equality towards people of any sexual orientation, and opposed the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  As of Nov. 12, 200 hate crimes have happened since election Night. That's 50 every day. That man got the endorsement of both a prominent member of the KKK  and an official newspaper of the same hate organization. He even got an endorsement of a prominent Neo-Nazi, for God's sake! Can we forget that he has measured both his female opponents and public figures in a 1-10 measure? Can we forget that instead of building bridges between Mexico and the US, he only wants to build walls? Can we forget that he said that a federal judge can't be fair in a lawsuit against that man because he is "Mexican"? Can we forget that Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women? Can we forget that he called African-American communities "war-zones" and "hell"? Can we forget that he re-circulated racist and anti-Semitic tweets? I just found out that I live just an hour and a half from an anti-immigration and native extremism group, and believe me, nothing hurts more than knowing that the country that is now your home believes that you are nothing more than the scum of the earth. There was a jump from 72 to 190 KKK groups since 2014 and the number of hate groups jumped from 783 to 892, and I honestly fear for my life. Maybe it's just remnants of the society that I was born on, in which you had to be sharp just to feed yourself, not be killed by the 'malandros', and pray to God not to get sick because the medicines there were few and expensive. I didn't know freedom 'till I came to the US, and after a lifetime of hate, I felt relieved, as if I were breathing for the first time. Here it was my first non-rigged election. Here it was the first time I didn't live in a political system where the opposition from the president wasn't sent to jail because they spoke against the government. This country, this beautiful, amazing country is the first democracy I ever lived in, and I love it for that. I honestly don't want to go back to my home country, at least not until it's safe to even be in, and I know that I will be having wrinkles and a headful of gray hairs before that happens, it's just a horrible truth that I will have to live with for the rest of my days, because when I have children, I will only have a handful of stories to tell them about where I came from. And horribly, I'm OK with it. I came here both because my mother wanted me to have a future and also so that my children and the children after them can live in a place where they are proud to be whatever they want and to love whoever they want. I always empathized with that one scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", where the mother of the protagonist tells her that she went away from her home country to give her a life so that she could live it, and it always reminds me of what my mother says about coming here just to finally start living. And that's what the American Dream is for me. Maybe you won't see the effects of all the hard work you are putting to make a better life for yourself in this uncharted territory, but your children and grandchildren certainly will. But then came this man, with his ideology of hate, and blew all of that away. With his harsh words and harsher followers, he is imposing a rhetoric against everything that is different. But one of the most important things we must remember is that there is, and always will be, hope for the future. That election night, I was singing "Deliver Us" the whole time, and when I saw that that man was now the future POTUS, I started sobbing the lyrics of "The World Turned Upside Down", but now we must start to work hard to make a path to ourselves. We must start singing "Carry On Wayward Son" at full volume, and who knows? Maybe even a little bit of "The Hanging Tree", but there is one thing that we must not be: We must not be silent. We must speak out against what we believe is wrong. We must speak out when that man tries to divide us with his speeches. We must speak out for those 12 women who have allegations of sexual assault by the tiny hands of that man. We must stay alive, we must fight back when everybody says that it's not possible for you to do what you want, that you can't speak what you want, that you can't believe what you want, that you can't be what you want, that you can't love what you want. I don't know about you, but even in adversity, I will fight the naysayers and make them understand that I will live through, that I will fight back, and that I will stay alive because I was born unto this earth to live my life, and I swear to God that I will do that.

Your fearful, but hopeful and alive friend,

Mariana