A few days ago I was at the gym, (I know, I’m always at the gym) but this happened a few days ago! A young man comes to join the gym, and he only speaks Spanish. I happened to be there and I saw my sales colleague struggling to communicate so I volunteered to provide the tour and translate.
As I walked the young man around, he began to tell me that he was here over the summer. I noticed his I.D said Nicaragua, so I asked him how things were over there since I’d seen some stories about protests.
The guy told me that his parents sent him over here for his safety. As I understood it, students were protesting because Social Security was cut for older folks and some wildfires were not being dealt with by the government. The protests got big and eventually escalated. According to the young man, the police had killed about 40 or so students. News reports have listed over 200 dead and thousands injured in the clashes.
He told me that protests were initially about the social security and wildfires, but now that lives were lost, the students and people were protesting for justice. He said the people want justice for the lives lost. Obviously, now it runs much deeper than just social security and trees!
He told me that the cops were targeting young people, so it wasn’t safe for him to be there for now. He’s hoping that over the summer things calm down and he can return back home and go back to school for the fall semester.
Nicaragua hasn’t been front page news for us, we have so many problems here at home, that the rest of the world can easily become drowned out. But I thought it was bizarre that things are so bad there that the young man had to leave the country. I do hope conditions improve for everyone in Nicaragua.
I asked him if he had any problems getting a visa and permission to come on U.S soil, he said no, that his parents took care of that with no issues. I found that very interesting too, you’d think that Trump’s administrations would make it difficult for those folks to come here based on his track record on immigration. I gave the young man my contact information and told him to keep in touch, I’ve yet to hear from him though.
Just a life long New Yorker sharing the journey through my lens. Please take note of a post’s date. The views I express here are subject to change and evolving as I grow and learn.
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