Show me your media and I’ll know what country you’re in. Is it always about elections in America and are they always referred to as America? Then you are in the Netherlands. Excitement about American presidents, their entourages, and elections is part of popular culture here.
Unfortunately, when you assimilate, you don’t always have a choice about which characteristics of Native people you will or won’t accept, so for years I’ve been drowning in news reports about elections in America as a fly to the dunghill. . Then I feel dirty, especially when my father calls from Uruguay.
The other day I blurted out a non-news item about Jill Biden.
Him: Who?
Me: Joe’s wife.
Him: Grandfather?
He knows European leaders better than I do, but Michelle O, Nancy B. Or Melania D. A former anarchist socialist might steal from him. He always knew the only role on the political USA soap that South American countries have traditionally had to deal with: Minister of Defense, according to Abba, Minister of Invasion.
It’s a stain on the family name that I have ready knowledge of Kamala Harris’ dances, what George Clooney said about her, or Taylor Swift’s importance to Empire’s campaign. I’m trying to hide all this nonsense from my father, but as a Dutch media consumer it’s not easy to talk about international politics without spewing some superficial garbage that is thrown at us every day. I risk saying “United States” instead of “Estados Unidos.” It would break my father’s heart. America is a continent consisting of North, Central and South America. The Dutch media landscape is full of so-called ‘American experts’ who linguistically cannot distinguish between the Americas and America. Blindly in love with their favorite upland, they co-operate in using the continent’s name. That’s all we need for your information.
For every slip I make over the phone, my father rains down the facts: “America invests 820 billion in weapons annually. China and Russia together did not reach a quarter of that. The United States is the only country that has actually used nuclear weapons. They would rather protect their guns there than their children. In 240 years, there was no war in the country for fifteen years, and the rest of the time there was bloodshed from Vietnam to Ukraine. You don’t end wars with arms deliveries, you end them at negotiating tables.
Kamala said on TV:God bless America.”
I said: “At least her topography is good.”
My father sighed: “What are they doing to you there?”
Carolina Trujillo is a writer.