2020 is not yet over
It’s been a long year…
Today I return to my beloved Mexico, after having left it behind for so long. Today I return to see how it is painted in colors and its lights are turned on. I return to see the glances of Mexicans who have fought against the crisis every day.
Every year, generally has tense and decisive moments, but in almost twelve months we have faced changes that have twisted the course of the world, paradigms have changed and it is hard to believe that we are in a situation that has exposed all possible scenarios at once. But there is no time to lose, only moments to remember. And why remember them? Believe it or not, everything we have experienced has radically changed the depths of our being. To remember today is not necessarily to live again, but to recognize that it has not been easy but that we are still here.
A pandemic that is still boiling, waves of changes and social movements around the world, a grueling presidential campaign and a lot of history behind 2020. The first days of the year set the pace of what awaited us. But nobody knew. The first weeks of January represented moments of tension between the US and Iran, with massive protests and threats of war. While, in China, a strange new virus was beginning to spread. Its presence was only a silent clock that couldn’t wait to bring the world to its knees. And so, without any other knowledge, February arrives, with the surprise that the political event against Trump was over. But amid the supposed calm, it didn’t take long for a storm of commotion to hit the sports world with the death of NBA legend Kobe Briant, his daughter and 7 other people. And this is how we return to what became the center of attention around the world, terrifying every mind and every scientist: the silent Chinese virus.
In March and the coming months, what could be described as hell breaks loose. In the shadow of the quiet and deadly virus, what was about to come was more scandalous and heartbreaking. Mysterious moments of emptiness, surprisingly desolate streets, markets and the economy began to see their rapid decline, until with no more time to lose, the World Health Organization declares the coronavirus as what today and for a long time we will know as: a pandemic. The airports stopped their entrances, the long-awaited Olympics changed their dates, the hospitals did not have space for one more; and the world was afraid. Worldwide cases of sick people reached 1 million, while medical workers leave their homes to take care of those who are close to giving up their lives. Many were already getting tired. Movements against governments expressed their opposition to the lockdown. But that is not all.
Months later, a racial crisis awakens all those who were already falling asleep. From one minute to the next, floodgates of outrage opened the streets that were once empty. The plead for justice begins. Months pass and while some mourn what they have lost, others start their lives tentatively to be surprised by the fact that China had reported its first day without new cases of sickness. And while this might bring hope, the strangest things kept happening around the world. Giant wasps appear from Japan to the United States, people visited the parks sitting in circles to avoid contact. By then, some of us will have heard the hopeful rumors of a vaccine. But, we didn’t need a vaccine to feel alive or to feel like the world wasn’t really falling apart. We needed to smile again, to look at each other in the supermarket, to sing and to share a glass of wine with someone. We needed to remember that after so many fallen, we were still living. Because when we wanted to leave our houses in search of something that would make us feel at home, we would remember that home had never left and that we had not realized it. Many did not understand that, by setting fire to and destroying shops and premises, things would not change, that this would only bring anguish and fear to their families. Meanwhile, others managed to give a deep meaning to what had taken loved from them.
Well, it was time to see the world give up and stop fighting. It was time to see us on our knees. Today, we have a little less than a month left to face the uncertainty of a new year, to know the fear of not knowing what awaits us, and also to know the magic of surprises and new beginnings. There will be just a few days left for us as a family to sit down to thank for having survived so long and to wonder if what we learned was little or was more than enough. When December is over, I want to see that my Mexico is painted with joy once more. I want to see that it is not satisfied, that it is not saddened, but that it fights while singing for justice. I want to see that the lights of christms are not only by tradition, but that they light up the soul and heart of all Mexicans who firmly believe that 2021 will bring great challenges, and unbelivable happiness.
