Final Stretch, 15 & 16. Forgetting Our Own History.

It's official! As of next Saturday, no masks will be required outside in all of Spain. We'll still be obliged to wear them inside, in public spaces, and we are told to not get very close together, but we don't have to wear those stifling pieces of paper or cloth in the hot summer sun! So, on the day when I go for my second shot, I can go without that bothersome mask, just pop it on when I get inside.

My husband got his second shot last week; according to the studies, he should reach full immunity by this week. I'm getting mine next Saturday, so I should reach my full immunity by the middle of July. Oh, how heavenly not to have to worry that we might end up on a respirator if we get ill! 

The studies also show that, while vaccinated people can still transmit the virus if they are infected by it, and are asymptomatic, they don't transmit as much viral load as someone who is unvaccinated. That helps explain why contagion is going down as vaccinations are going up, despite the negligence on the part of many who insist on living as if nothing untoward were happening. So, maybe by the end of the summer we'll reach the level of immunity that will leave Covid being simply a bad cold, like its human coronavirus cousins.  

Today, June 19th, is now a holiday in the United States, Juneteenth, when the ex-slaves of Galveston, Texas, were told that the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, had already set them free. It's a good thing that it has become a holiday, now. But it should be accompanied by a change in the embedded racism that still exists. Education is the best way to bring about that change, but the entrenchment of so many Republican state legislatures that won't allow teachers to explain that racism, means that we will still have to wait at least another generation to begin to erase the stain of racism.

Spain is not entirely free of such a stain, either. Vox is the expression of that hatred of the other based on skin and origin that too many still harbor. The other day, Isabel Ayuso was voted regional president of Madrid region by its legislature. Among the newly elected representatives, was Serigne Mbayé, originally from Senegal. Mbayé, 46 years old, took the perilous boat journey to Tenerife in 2006. He worked, like so many others, as a mantero, a person selling illegal fakes of brand names. (Manteros use a sheet, with a rope threaded through the edges. They spread out the sheet, arrange their wares on it, and sell wherever they can. If a policeman appears, they pull the rope together, close up the sheet with their merchandise, and run.) He later got papers stating he was finally a legal immigrant, got regular jobs, and became a Spanish citizen. In 2015, he and his brother-in-law started an organic vegan restaurant paired with an ecology-friendly farm. This year, he was included in the list of representatives from the Podemos party that ran for election in the regional elections of Madrid. 

During her discourse, Rocío Monasterio, the regional head of Vox, asked the new president, Ayuso, to strike down all the gender and LGBT laws in the region. Then, she set her sights on Mbayé, as she began her discourse about crime. As usual, she equated immigration with delinquency, and she pointed out Mbayé. "Podemos quiere hacer de la foto de Mbayé un símbolo, es un símbolo de su abandono de la clase trabajadora. Él, además, entró de forma ilegal y se lucró durante años”. ("Podemos wants to make the photo of Mbayé a symbol, it's a symbol of their abandon of the working class. He, as well, entered illegally, and enriched himself for years.")

She continued, “Ustedes suben los impuestos y las facturas de la luz. Nos hablan de comercios y de pymes. En España no hay problema racial ninguno. Deroguen las leyes de violencia de género. ¿Saben una cosa? Cuando los maltratadores y violadores se enteren de las leyes que tenemos aquí, se van a declarar mujeres”. ("You raise taxes and the electric bills. You talk to us of shops and small companies. In Spain there is no racial problem. Strike down the gender laws. You know something? When the beaters and rapists find out about the laws we have here, they will declare themselves women.") With that discourse she underscored quite clearly Vox's beliefs. It's no secret one of Monasterio's comrades in Vox declared that if they ever came to power, they would deport Mbayé, citizenship notwithstanding.

Mbayé asked to intervene, and was allowed to do so. He then asked Monasterio to retract her words, saying, “Esto no está permitido. La señora Monasterio me ha atacado. Soy español, como ella, le pido que retire esas palabras racistas. El racismo no cabe en esta Cámara ni en España”. ("This is not allowed. Ms Monasterio has attacked me. I am Spanish, like her, and I ask her to take back those racist words. Racism has no place in this chamber nor in Spain.") Of course, she stood by her words. 

People like Monasterio and her fellow haters of the Vox party make me nauseous. That there is a sizable amount of people in Spain that applaud them and their dribble, is perturbing. Too many people forget that we are, essentially, a country of emigrants. We have forgotten the experiences of those who emigrated to Cuba at the beginning of the twentieth century, escaping misery, to find themselves cutting cane sugar with a machete in similar misery, tricked into becoming slaves. Or those who joined the crews working on the Panama Canal, earning a little money, some of which was sent to their starving families, here, to put some food in their swollen bellies. Or those who went as servants to rich folk who mistreated them. How many of those emigrants denied themselves an extra helping of food to be able to send money home to their families that were so desperate for it? But, those who vote for Vox have forgotten all that. Or, perhaps their families were lucky enough not to have suffered it. 

We were not so different from today's undocumented immigrants.

Life continues.