Opinion: We are being terrorized. But we will stand together

I was sitting in my car, waiting for my daughter and scrolling through Instagram when I came across a video of a teenager speaking at a city council meeting.

Manny Issai Chavez spoke out with a broken voice, between tears, nervous smiles and desperation, asking for help. When he said he was afraid of his parents being taken away from him by masked men with bulletproof vests, tears started rolling down my face.

“I might not be able to say goodbye to them if they go to work,” Chavez said. 

I broke down crying just as my daughter got in the car. I wiped my tears away as she asked me what was wrong.

I put my phone away and turned the car on. 

“Nothing,” I said. “I just saw a sad video.”

I drove off, containing my tears as best I could, because I didn’t want her to worry. I’m trying to shield her from this pain that our Latino communities are suffering, but I’m failing. As I drove away and my hands held on to the steering wheel, I felt suddenly incapable of moving forward.

I stared at the white truck in front of me. 

How can we let this happen?

How can we just drive away and keep going on with our lives? Plan what’s for dinner, fold the laundry, do anything at all, while people are literally disappearing in front of us?

Because of the color of our skin, because we speak Spanish, because we don’t make enough money, because we work “unskilled” jobs, are we unworthy of this land?

How could the Supreme Court, which is supposed to safeguard the Constitution to protect us from a tyrant, throw us to the wolves this way? 

They are building centers for babies. Even seasoned reporter and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow broke down reading this news live. 

What stuck with me about Chavez’s speech was when he said, “We have a president that acts like a child.” Even a child knows the president exhibits childish behavior. His immature, playful mannerisms, as he moves his arms up and down to the YMCA tune, like a puppet, make me think of this essay from Elise Loehnen titled “The Trickster” where she compares him to the Greek archetype.  

Loehnen writes, “Here’s the thing about the depravity of this administration—and this particular president’s ability to pull our attention to his antics 24/7. We are living in the age of transparency and he is showing us—repetitively, compulsively, outrageously—what’s been present but unacknowledged. He is exploiting our system’s weaknesses and illustrating how ripe it is for mass corruption—unabashedly and overtly.”

Loehnen quotes Michael Meade’s Why the World Doesn’t End, which came out in 2012:

“Tricksters play essential roles in folk myths throughout the world. They throw dirt as well as toss rocks; they play with feces and throw it at people, even at god.”

What this description of the president reveals is that he is exposing everything that is already broken within the system, and now it’s our chance to push for change.

On Wednesday, I felt hopeful as Democrats swept through elections throughout different states. But hope is so fragile, it must be handled with care, and it is so hard to hold on to it right now. 

They are terrorizing us in every way they can.

I don’t know how we’re supposed to live this way. 

But as I saw Zohran Mamdani take the stage as New York’s future mayor, I am inspired by his resolve to be unafraid of what’s ahead. 

When I watched Tefi Pessoa from The Cut do a rapid-fire video with Mamdani, she asked him what’s a movie or show that changed how he saw the world. She mentioned “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was hers. I don’t know if it changed how I see the world but I always think of one particular quote from Buffy that reminds me of how the fight is a daily struggle but it must be done: “Strong is fighting. It's hard and it's painful and it's every day. It’s what we have to do, and we can do it together.” 

We need to stand strong with our communities. We stand strong with Manny and his family in Oregon, we stand strong with the family of Gabriel Garcia Aviles and the immigrants detained by ICE in LA, Chicago, New York, Oregon, Colorado and everywhere our people are being terrorized. We will keep fighting, together.