11/9

I love horror, but I don’t like living in fear. In horror fiction you plunge into your deepest inner fears, but in the end you come out the other side with the release to know anything can be overcome. Now… unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way.

What I feel right now is similar to the way I felt after the 9/11 attacks. I’m stunned. I’m frightened. First thing I did this morning was look at the results of the US election. What I (and everyone else I know) had feared, came to pass: Fear won over reason. I am not a citizen of this country, even if I live here. But my children and my husband are. Having to tell my daughter that Donald Trump was becoming her next president was not easy. I could see it in her eyes, filling with tears of fear and incomprehension: she felt as frightened as I did. I told her everything was going to be alright, that the president of this country has no absolute power. But I didn’t say that the second branch of power is also dominated by the same party.

History Repeating Itself?

I am an immigrant in this country. I am also Mexican, and a woman. Those are three groups the now President has been attacking over an over during his campaign. I can’t help but think of similar situations that have happened in the history of human kind: from the persecution of Jews and Christians by the Romans, to the Spanish inquisition and the fleeing of Moors and Jews, to Hitler in Germany. It all begins with giving the common people a sense that they are surrounded by a particular group of people they must watch out for, therefore living in fear of one another. And it is always the product of financial interests by the group in power. People who wash their hands of the blood and play moving us around like chess pieces.

I’m deeply disturbed by what I’m seeing. I’ve been in this country long enough to live two full presidencies: republican and democrat. I might not be American, but this country has become my home. I am afraid of what the next years will be like for me. And that is not a figure of speech.

And, What Now?

I’d love to say the answer lays in coming together. I’d love to give the magic solution to make people stop hate and come to their senses. Many think we have to educate. And yes, Plato and his allegory of the cave may say that knowledge is like providing light to the slaves to make them aware of their chains, but the truth is that education has become increasingly unattainable for everyone. And I don’t see that situation changing at all in the near future: it is not in the ruling party’s best interest.

So, now what? Should we just shrug and moan? Not at all. I think we can all do our best from what we do. As a writer and director, I’ll try and do my best to use the tools I have to try and reach as many people as I can. I want to change the story, try to avoid history from repeating itself. I guess that the only saving grace of what just has happened is that most of the entertainment and art world are opposed to our new President and all he represents. Let’s make our voices heard. Let’s stop the blindness and the fear.