The Powerful Dreamer is American

Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent it at customs during my layover between Hong Kong and China. I spent six weeks abroad, and I have to be honest, I saw the world with different eyes. The first time I decided to venture out to the world and backpacked throughout Europe was about 6 years ago, and it was an unforgettable and, obviously, a life-changing experience. I now live between Europe and the U.S. and it has been a beautiful journey. But this time was different... The world is always changing, but it feels like we’re moving at lightspeed in the last three months.

I loved my time in Asia and I was inspired by its temples, nature, and its people. But the entire time I felt a gray cloud over me that never went away and it’s because I am concerned about what’s happening in my country. I tried to ignore it and not open my news apps, but this "man" is everywhere, even on Hong Kong’s MTR (subway). His executive orders, specifically amending the 14th Amendment, which grants American citizenship to all people born in the United States, are completely baffling because the 14th Amendment is the foundation stone of the American Dream. 

I thought about this a lot during my time in Hong Kong because I’m working on my American Dream – trying to figure out how to grow my business – and everyone tells me that in order to scale, I need to send my production to China. As an artisan and beading artist, I obviously feel hesitant to take this step because I don’t want to participate in the same capitalist system that has oppressed and exploited my parents. My art is a reflection of my values: community, compassion, justice, freedom, innovation, creativity, integrity, and courage. While I’m figuring out how to navigate uncharted waters,  I refuse to do it the way “it has always been done” because I know I can create a new path without having to participate in the system that is not only killing people figuratively and literally but also destroying Mother Earth. I just won’t do it. 

I know I can create my own path, and this belief that I CAN AND I WILL has been ingrained in me since I can remember, and it comes from being born and raised in the U.S. I know I am not the only one with dreams; there are millions of dreamers, some live in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and China, but I am convinced that the most powerful dreamers are American. Millions of people come to the U.S. to make their dreams come true because they know that this is the only country where it’s possible. We truly make the impossible possible, we’re innovators, and there is nothing that compares to the creative American spirit. This country wouldn’t have prospered if it weren’t for the 14th Amendment. I know people argue that most countries don’t have birthright citizenship, and neither should we, but the U.S. is not like any other country; it’s different, it was built by slaves and immigrants. And due to its unrivaled multiculturalism, the U.S. has been at the vanguard of the world. 

I’m confident that we, the American people, the most powerful dreamers in the world, will resist and fight the new White House administration like never before. And when the other half of the nation wakes up, we won’t turn them away. We’ll open the gates, stand shoulder to shoulder, and fight like hell for what binds us all: FREEDOM & JUSTICE.

This is a love r/evolution. RESIST. 

Alejandra G.