Migratory Adventures: Beyond Borders

Hello Amaichiin People and Citizens of the World! How are they? Today we will dedicate this space to migration, an adventure from my personal experience. In the last blog I talked to you about "Who am I?" And continuing a little with this topic and my story, today we will talk about migration. So let's start by putting ourselves in context a little.

Definition of Migration: well, as the dictionary says, it is the movement of population that consists of leaving the place of residence to settle in another country or region , generally for economic or social reasons, as well as animals due to food requirements.

Migrations are abundant in times of serious economic crisis; as we see lately in the news with the thousands of Hondurans who left on foot crossing Mexico with their final destination the United States, and the massive migratory exodus of Venezuelans who walk more than 2000 km escaping from Venezuela towards Peru, crossing Colombia and Ecuador.

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In these minutes I will try to tell you my migratory story, the adventure from my personal experience.

After finishing my university studies in the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuela, I returned to the family home in Lechería, on the other side of the country. I exchanged the mountains and mild climate of San Cristóbal for family, beach, sun and sand. A young professional recent graduate, but without a job and still learning what to do with myself. We are talking about the beginnings of an era of changes in Venezuela in every sense, economic and social, after the election of Hugo Chávez Frías to power in the country and the change of the Constitution in 1999.

In Venezuela, unfortunately, it is very difficult for a young person to start life as an independent adult without the help of their parents. You can hardly get a job that pays enough to pay for housing, food and transportation. I, an adventurous boy always looking to learn, wanting to grow and know the world, felt trapped. After long discussions and studies of possibilities with my parents, we came to the conclusion that the best thing for me was to leave home, search, study abroad or try my luck elsewhere in the world.

My first migration attempt was planned for South Africa... yes, imagine, South Africa! A wonderful and beautiful country in all its splendor. Greetings to my beautiful people from South Africa, a country that I had the opportunity to know and visit a few years ago. I was staying at a cousin's house, I work at my cousin's husband's company, we had even talked about a car that my father would buy to help me upon my arrival. The visa or stay permit was stamped in my passport, the flights booked from Caracas to São Paulo, Brazil, and then to Johannesburg. They even organized a farewell party for me...

But, so, so, so... (imagine what happened). Two days before the trip, I decided to cancel everything. Yes, I canceled everything! The flight was canceled and I called my cousin to say: thank you, but I'm not leaving. It scared me at the last minute. I started to think: what am I going to do so far away, alone? It's not like I can grab myself and come visit my parents once a month or even every three months. It costs a lot of money in tickets. What am I going to do there alone? Well, it scared me, and cowardice won me over. So I made the decision to stay home and help my parents, especially with the situation the country was going through. And so I closed the chapter on migration to South Africa.

Some time passed and I got a job. I was at home and between one thing and another, I put aside the desire to leave. In 2002, Venezuela entered a national civic strike. The problems of shortages, price increases and inflation of the authoritarian Chávez government led the country to a national strike by the oil company and many others. Marches in the streets and protests.

On April 11, 2002, Chávez on national television decided to fire and remove from their jobs leaders and workers of PDVSA (Petroleum Company of Venezuela), shouting on television their names and away! That's when my father is fired from his job duties. At that moment, we realized that the situation in Venezuela would not improve, but would go from worse to worse. And I had to put on my pants and leave the country looking for a better future and security for my family.

That young man who was afraid to go alone to South Africa had to take charge and be the head of the family to migrate and protect my mother and sister. Due to travel document problems and the chaotic situation of laying off oil tankers, my father was unable to leave the country at that time and decided to take us out first, leaving me in charge of the family. Imagine the moment we take that first plane. There began a new life, an escape, a way out. A moment that marked our lives and was a decisive point in our daily lives.

(Not knowing that years later, I would embark on another migratory adventure, but this time to Mexico, a story that I will tell one of these days! hehe).

As the definition says, population movement that consists of leaving the place of residence to settle in another country, generally for economic or social reasons and, in this case, chaos political. That's what happened: running away from the country where we were born, that saw us grow, leaving everything behind, taking control of your future, making decisions that would change your life forever. Well, we left Venezuela with a suitcase each, a backpack and millions of mixed feelings. Uncertainty without knowing exactly what to expect or what to do, but ready to reinvent ourselves and grow, with fears, but with desire, with sadness, but determined.

We spent a few days in the United States to be able to analyze the situation a little more and try to plan how and what we are going to do. A moment to relax from the stressful departure from the country and be able to see clearly the future, what was coming our way. In these days we saw and met wonderful people, brilliant human beings who helped us, who guided and supported us on our path.

“There we were, just passing through, but every place visited, every minute spent was immense and very grateful, as it prepared us for our final destination.”

In a future story, I will tell you about the continuation of this journey and my arrival in Canada, our final destination, at that time, if you have questions or would like to know more about my immigration story, do not hesitate to write to me in the comments. Ask questions, suggest topics, and I will very gratefully respond to all of you.

Thank you, Bizz Bizz and until the next adventure… living Canada and the world one adventure at a time! Bye bye!