I walk on the street and pray no one will talk to me. I go to restaurants and ask for the easiest food dish to pronounce. I go to the mall and buy clothes that will make me look more American. I go to job interviews knowing they will ask me where I'm from before even asking how to correctly say my name.
As if living in a foreign country for four years hasn't changed me enough, today I face the challenge to wake up planning every move I will make to not give anyone the "wrong impression". It isn't easy being a Latino in Trump's world.
It may sound silly, it may sound exaggerated, but it's certainly not false. This feeling isn't false. The way they look at me isn't fictional. The way they make me feel isn't fake. It is all real. This is how Donald Trump's "opinion" about the Latino community changed the way people see me.
Since his first hate speech against immigrants more than a year ago, I have been feeling discriminated and treated unfairly way more than before. It's like 50% of the population who doesn't agree with his campaign, still catches themselves slightly considering if everything he is saying it's really "that bad."
Trump's way with words is affecting thousand of lives. I, among those, am living proof that his comments has a terrible impact in the Latino community living in the U.S. Any hate speech is powerful enough in the mouth of those who knows how to deliver it and in the ears of those who don't know how to hear it.
Dear supporters of Donald Trump's racism, I am not a rapist, I am not a killer, I am not a criminal, I am not a danger to the country. I am a 22-year-old Latin woman. I am a recently college graduate. I am a human being.
This world is already suffering enough with tragedies caused by hate. It is time to come together. It is time to give a chance to kindness. Maybe words of love are our salvation after all.
