Left Venezuela For Better Life In USA?

everything can change just like that you
can tell by their looks
yes venezuelan all of them there’s a
problem in venezuela and they can seek
asylum here
like as big as this what are you doing
and i was like i wanted to hold your
hand worst thing is when a girl does
this i think you just need one bad
person to destroy this
one it’s hard to understand how
venezuelan
became like that what do you want to
tell us citizens
that say have never left the country i
told them the country is changing every
day
do you think here still has that freedom
this is serious this really happened
[Music]
good morning guys in this video we’re
going to go to the biggest
venezuelan community outside of
venezuela to meet a local woman
who fled the economic crisis in her
country three years ago
we’re gonna get into her world her take
on us culture
how venezuelans adjust to america
and get our point of view on all sorts
of topics
relating to venezuela should be an
interesting journey
let’s do this
[Music]
here we are city place at doral looks
like a nice
beautiful shopping mall and michelle
i think this is her this is the place
i’m jim nice to meet you jim jim i was
told you’re the boyfriend right yes i’m
the boyfriend
okay and you’re from venezuela no yes
i’m 26 years old so everything i know
since i was four years old is the
government of the
the actual government right so but my
grandparents and
my parents they live a different
venezuela that i never
experienced you know interesting and
a more prosperous yes better off
venezuela okay
yes and by that time
maybe a few people move here
or invest here in the usa or in other
countries
and that’s the first group that moved
here when everything
started going bad the first group have
money have money okay because they use
like
they were a little bit more smart smart
and they saw their perspective
of what’s going to happen in venezuela
so they were looking they were looking
out like 10 years in advance and seeing
something’s not happening right they
invest their money here
but the recent group of venezuelans
moving here
they don’t have the same uh financial
status
as the first group so michelle looks
quite nice around here
what’s going on it doesn’t look like uh
an immigrant
community from what i’ve seen like what
i know about doral is like
so many years ago it was like a
warehouse place
like not really like it looks today and
then
the venezuelan community they just move
here and they
claim like this is gonna be orlan here
in miami or in the u.s and they start
creating all these
like nice city with all these venezuelan
identity
identity everywhere and you can find
arepas in cachables which is a
venezuelan food
everywhere just every two minutes there
is a restaurant
all right are we gonna we’re gonna go to
a restaurant oh for sure okay
jim you hungry back there you’ve been
sort of like the uh the odd man out
let’s get you in on this
i’m starving yes i’m obsessed with
venezuela
when i just met him he i asked him
to test uh what arepa
it’s better venezuela north colombia
because this is a battle we have
venezuelans in colombia that
they claim that the arepa is theirs and
we know
arepas you probably don’t want to think
this since you made the move here which
isn’t easy uh
do you think the u.s could lose that
place that’s attracting all the people
for the opportunities you know you saw
it happen in one country
with the country you’re from is are
is the u.s immune from that or can it
happen here can it happen
anywhere do you i think it can happen
anywhere i think you just need one bad
person to destroy the
one whole country it’s that simple one
bad person today i’m trying to believe
in my country
that’s what happened in my country so
who is the bad person chavez
it was okay in her
in his time like things were good you’d
go outside it was safe there was
opportunity
you could go on vacation every year and
then
yeah yeah and then bad administration
comes in
bad leader and that all goes away yes
wow what happened like he didn’t like
the private
industry at the private you know
property
so they start thinking okay maybe if i
give
this to the people that don’t have a lot
uh we can
do better and he really believed
his idea in his idea okay you know
but it wasn’t great and i think he never
realized
it wasn’t going anywhere he just become
blind by power
and that’s when everything went really
really bad
that’s what happens when people get
power
right they’re blinded exactly so guys
the power it should be only four years
and then move on
yeah guys doral boulevard should i take
a right here yes
okay you can see the gate in there
this is a nicer neighborhood most of
it’s gated up guys we can’t go in to see
the homes but you’re saying most of this
is venezuelan
yes i’m sure
maybe no hundred percent only refunds
but
but yeah venezuelan business owners like
per capita is
really our business owners per capita
and doral is really high
like a lot of people there’s a lot of
entrepreneurs here
there is because as i told you earlier
like we
we come here so many venezuelans come
here with uh high expectations
and they want to be like better and they
want to
develop their own opportunities like uh
taking advantage of the
economy of the uss yeah i studied
economics so i’m not an expert but
i feel that a lot of people that come
from a socialist
economy that didn’t do well would be
more interested in entrepreneurship
because the opposite of pure socialism
is free market is is becoming an
entrepreneur
so if you’re leaving a country because
you don’t like the economy
you go for the opposite right and that’s
what is
more available in this country versus
where a lot of people came in venezuela
what happened
at some point was like the government
say let’s take from the rich people to
give it to the poor people
right and that’s in theory socialism
right uh but what i think in my
experience uh
coming from a country with this kind of
government is that
that only gets people lazy like
if the the poor people say why why i
will have
to work if the government is going to
give me right what i need and then the
people that were saying why i have to
work
if the government is going to take it
out of me so
at the end nobody really worked and
that’s how
a country get destroyed basically
yeah i don’t know the solution at all i
think it’s important to distinguish
between
pure socialism and social programs right
so we have medicare and medicaid those
are social programs
yes and you can argue that they’re
serving a community of people
in a good way but we’re not a complete
socialist
economy sure i think that’s something
that’s really important to think about
so
like there can be social programs that
help people yes we want to help the poor
and the elderly
yes but converting the whole country
into
a pure social estate like venezuela did
uh at least in this example it didn’t
work too well well that said guys we’re
going here where uh
not physical therapy or the wax place
but
is that it pedal no
cornea what is this called
[Music]
and does it feel a little bit like
venezuela a lot like
oh yeah yeah i can safely say that over
60 percent of venezuela
michelle i’ll just do what you recommend
here that’s
uh on the coast uh the
beaches near that are to my in my
opinion the most beautiful beaches in
venezuela
breathtaking i’ve been there once hope
to go back
how many years have you lived here uh i
came in 2003.
care thank you guys i got i got this
please
you know what i’ve noticed michelle
since you walked in here like your
frequency
you just got started floating because
you’re getting close to your food
right right first of all food that kind
of my food yeah and i just feel like
home you feel a piece of home in this
environment yes
totally date sounds like super serious
and that’s very uh
an american thing like dates are super
serious
i think like how are you going to meet a
person for the first time and say this
is a day
it’s like kind of sunless and so what
you decided to call it was
a friendly encounter i felt like i
already failed because i asked her on a
date
and she was like we can have a friendly
encounter and i was like oh
gosh i don’t want to be friends
you’re too pretty i can’t do it
but to me dave friendzone already
and in that friendly encounter we were
friendly
yes we were friendly and chilly was well
behaved he was a very
honorable guy he did this move i’m gonna
tell you
it was covered right so he was going to
the bathroom and the lady in the
bathroom said you cannot get in if you
don’t have a mask
so what he did was he take off his shirt
and put it as a mask
and then he come back to me without
without shirt showing me
are you serious this is serious this
really happened
and i was like doesn’t have no shirts no
service i wanted to protect the public
by putting my shirt on my face
yeah and then you just forget to put it
on back and he
walked to me without sure like so sorry
i forgot well tim’s in good shape i see
why he’s doing it and i was like what is
he trying to do like impress me with
a body shape or something like that in a
first encounter
when when the guy you’re with takes his
shirt off and wraps his
uh wraps around his face
that’s risky jim you know that was like
that was like
the failure of that move was like a 98
yeah i’ll tell you what though when
you’re in lockdown for four months
and you haven’t seen anybody
you’re like oh food okay should be
pausing the story yeah
okay and those are empanadas but they’re
not like
that then this is something the
restaurant do
like they do it small but the real
empanadas are like
as big as this okay so uh i put my shirt
back
and i’m like we’re walking towards the
water
so we’re just we’re going to go to the
beach and i reach out my hand to hold
her hand
and she looks at me like that
what are you doing and i was like i
wanted to hold your hand
like why why
i was like what is this guy trying to do
like he was trying his
best but very is his shirt still off at
this time
no no i think he put it and he was like
trying to
grab my hand like this like my boyfriend
like whoa yes he’s like a boy
the worst thing is when he went quick is
when a girl does
this when she does this oh
that’s like you’re done how did you pull
this thing around
okay so here’s the moment i knew it was
i was in good shape
so i’m facing out of the water she’s
facing me and a big wave hits her
and she goes ugh and like
oh she strokes my abs with her hand
like oh and i was like oh
and i was like what was that it was the
water the water pushed me and i have to
stop
against something you know so in that
moment i was like
all right i got this i’m in good shape
yeah i’m not in the friend zone yet
uh yeah just like oh sorry the wave
pushed me
i was like yeah sure yeah sure it did
i’m just observing i’m not judging it’s
not the healthiest
a lot of pride
so what do we have in here chicken we
have chicken
avocado
[Music]
what i’m gathering so far is the
venezuelans here
obviously have their very strong
identity in this
this little establishments like this are
little
venezuelan nation states where they can
feel at home
and comfortable and it’s like
it’s like mom’s home cooking or
something you can see michelle and this
man connecting over some venezuelan tv
show
or movie and even though we’re in the
united states and it’s it’s suburbian
looking here
mostly parking lots roads industrial
buildings
it’s got the uh i guess the essence
of the home country in these in these
environments
it’s like everybody’s friendly and they
just show you things and
i think for most of venezuelan people
their goal is make you laugh like we’re
happy people and we like to
share that happiness jim do you agree
yeah
i think so if you make me laugh you got
me
all right good job job jim’s a comedian
it worked
right guys what are we getting into now
well you were talking about warehouses
before we’re going to a storage unit
where they have an immigration support
office
yes it’s like a foundation and equals
prices
immigration office in the u-haul
building
i guess so all right
that’s that’s miami’s style huh yes
apparently well
there’s some things behind the scenes
these are the the owners of the business
yes
well the director okay the directors
all right guys sometimes in these videos
don’t really know what i’m getting into
exactly but
i think it should be interesting hello
your name
daniel daniel peter nice meeting you you
too daniel thank you for coming
thank you i’m curious what you guys are
doing here
daniel and marty what’s going on here i
see a lot of things i see a venezuelan
flag
we have all sorts of products clothes
shoes
uh everything jewelry
good coffee cup selection to go
strollers what’s going on well the idea
is to help people okay in need
that come from the state from mainly
from venezuela
okay so this is a non-profit
organization that supports venezuelan
immigration
and now are many coming here now many
venezuelans coming here now
they’re coming and you’re not you
and you’re not you’re not here you don’t
look at their citizenship or their
status or anything you’re just helping
is that correct exactly okay i don’t
know the legality with all this stuff
i’m not sure how it works if they are um
in a undetermined legal status
we can guide you to get the right track
to get everything legal okay so
what’s happening now from my
understanding guys this is a
new thing for me just as well as most of
you i’m talking to the audience here
most are seeking asylum is that correct
yeah that’s correct
and how do they do it they go through
central america up through mexico some
of them
come through the border from central
america to mexico some others
came by plane but how can you come by
plane you can’t uh
you need a passport to get through the
visa and everything some of them
got passport okay uh remember that um
venezuelan american populations not only
based on the state some of them went
down to the south to argentina and chile
okay and then start coming from
argentina over america to the states
okay bye boss by
walking and how can they claim asylum
what’s that once they get to the yeah
but what’s the reasoning because
the government’s so you have to have
uh a legal reason to support your
argument so
okay i’m i’ve been you know uh
accused from something i didn’t do i’m
just an opposite
to the opposition to from the government
so
let’s go over here better light um so
from my understanding if someone is
maybe a threat to the government or
speaking poorly against the government
then there’s a problem in venezuela and
they can seek asylum here
they can ask for a sign they can ask and
then the government decide
once evaluate your case if you qualify
for the asylum or not
so they can come in they come into the
country
and then their court their court hearing
or whatever is pending
like then they deal with that when the
job comes okay and so you’re here to
help
everyone who needs it venezuelans that
live here venezuelans just came in
yep correct okay are things that bad in
venezuela at the very
at this very moment well if you hard to
say
if you think that more than 4.5
million of people has immigrated from
venezuela you can imagine
how tough could be living down there
right man
helping people yeah is the best okay
when you realize when when you get a
smile yeah
when you got you know when you got we
got tears look at that
goosebumps oh yeah because it is amazing
man it’s amazing
because the first that you receive is
love
yeah blessings
but because when you receive make
your you know you’re feeling like it
okay nothing
is too hard to be here
because if you can find someone to
support you
you can feel like okay i’m feeling like
at home a lot of games you get a lot
here
imagine this when you were you’re just a
kid
yeah you left your country yeah you left
your toys yeah your toys are part of you
yeah so what do you need
of course you need something something
to you know
to feel like like it like at home yeah
how does it make you feel feel michelle
to see this
this is amazing and it’s another reality
like
for many venezuelans maybe there is like
when you came here in a different
situation and you’re lucky
because that’s how i’m feeling right now
actually lucky like that i came here
and then they are poor and you know like
with everything i need and i
i never really need like help from
another mm-hmm that makes me feel lucky
and sometimes we don’t realize that and
seeing this is like the reality
of the reality it is because most people
think that miami
miami is you know like like you see it
in the medium oh this is miami
the greater business no man we have
people in need here in
venezuela in need in miami i told him
early like the lately wave of venezuelan
moving here is the people in more need
because you know three years ago when
venezuela started moving to usa they
have like
money to invest here and they have a
different style of life
like the people that is moving now from
venezuela here it’s
it’s a completely different situation
completely different circumstance
and that’s the people that need this
kind of comment what’s uh
been bendiga that’s like god bless you
god bless you
okay thank you god bless you
and look at this
right it’s baby time yeah
we also support people that is coming
with you know
pregnant babies it’s why it’s hard to
understand how venezuelan situation
became like that
so if if we as venezuela
are getting tough time to understand
that
imagine how tough is to explain you guys
right how do we get there so it’s
confusing for you
yeah yeah it’s even for us okay so it’s
confusing
fully confusing for me i told them the
country is changing every day
every day venezuela is a little bit more
different yeah in
every way okay if you imagine that
something’s gonna be
can you know can can go deep
and then you imagine there’s a burn of
that deepness
no no you can go deeper than that and
that’s the case in venezuela
so you feel like every time you hit the
bottom it’s not the bottom
it’s not the bottom there’s another
button
deeper than that so leaving like that is
hard to imagine here in the state no
matter how words you live here
how how bad is your life here you don’t
have the way to imagine that
what do you want to tell us citizens
that say have never left the country
that don’t have much of this worldly
experience is there any advice you could
give maybe my one and only advice
is don’t be
afraid to be free
don’t be afraid to be free what do you
mean by that well
freedom is not that simple as you
can feel it it’s not so it’s a valuable
thing
much more valuable than you take it for
granted
freedom is something that you have to
take care because freedom is not only
your ability to speak of
freedom is your possibility to realize
your life to get your dreams and made it
true yeah and right now venezuela is not
longer that country used to be that
country that’s why
30 years ago you received people wealthy
people here right
and now then the second wave was
something like the middle class people
and professional people like us
and now you’re getting the most
the people in really in need yeah so
it’s it’s tough to understand why
that became like that but the only
explanation
is we took the wrong political decision
by electing the wrong guy and the wrong
team
and that makes venezuela
in the way that it is right now
so when you are in democracy
voting is your one and only weapon
to protect democracy to protect your
freedom
so you have to be wise
making the decision on who is the people
that you elect
to rule the country because it can
change quickly everything can change
just like that but the us has a balance
of powers
of course that’s the beauty is that more
of a protective duties have more
protection you think
and i wish
that people understand that that balance
is what makes the government really work
if you don’t have that balance
yeah you’re gonna be just
in one side of the game and you need to
be playing on both sides of the game
well it makes things inefficient
democracy is messy
but it slows up that process of one
person taking over and tanking the
country overnight well i wouldn’t say
that democracy is
messy people is messy
yeah okay we’re humans exactly exactly
that we have to work in that yeah and
recognize what
what what did wrong yeah and once you
realize that
work on fixing so the americans and that
have never left
you’re talking about freedom do you
think here still has
that freedom oh man yes
still has it 100 no no maybe not 100
because okay that is not true yeah
freedom
is try to find it so keep it find it
keep it fighting for that fight for your
freedom yeah
and doesn’t mean goes
and fight physically yeah no
yeah the ideas yeah
defend your ideas protect your idea by
doing the right thing
yeah but i like freedom is a very hard
word to define
yeah but i like your definition of
realizing who you want to be
in this life being able to bring out who
you are
that’s what that to me is also my why
once you
are able to conquer your dreams yeah
all your environments did the same if
you
if you work hard yeah to
make you a better person you
for sure will be part of the change of
the world
because you’re changing once you change
everyone else is on a tent
so that’s the only the people you
interact with you bring them up those
people you bring them up
yeah everyone instead of the negative
exactly instead of i’m stealing
something
all the way around yeah it’s all the way
around
good wisdom i didn’t know what i was
getting into here but now i got
a great conversation thank you my friend
thank you
thank you for passing by yeah no please
i won’t let the
wall know that venezuela awareness
program is just one
organization that supports venezuelan
people okay
but that we are and guys i’ll leave that
link down below in the description
of this video you’re a legend thank you
no you are
no no i i got lucky these wonderful
people
brought me into this environment thank
you introduce me to you
and we’re still in doral yeah
here we are downtown but all we found it
we didn’t know this existed can we be
honest can you guys both be honest did
you know this existed the first time
i’ve been here
the insides okay it’s actually quite
nice quite clean
coming in here relaxed
i can’t tell my finger like venezuelan
bands
you can tell by their looks venezuelan
all of them
this couple here is like two venezuelan
he’s greenville you see that he’s gringo
she’s venezuelan yeah
okay he’s gringo this guy this guy
with everyone else here
yeah family over here hundred percent
okay 100 venezuelan so
you venezuelans have created a nice
community or a nice environment i’d say
it’s clean
and your retail isn’t shut down which is
interesting
yeah like most cities i’ve been in
america with this many spaces
something shut down or for lease these
days
just because of the pandemic right don’t
see it here
all right guys that’s the end of the
road little sliver
of venezuela in the usa
thank you michelle thank you jim oh one
more thing you guys got a podcast
right link down below and it’s about
relationships
bilingual relationships right yes yes
and bicultural
yeah just having fun getting to know
each other as a bicultural couple as
well
so check it out for some fun stories
link below
thanks you guys thank you until the next
one
[Music]
you