“Me Fui”: Making the Difficult Decision to Leave
Over the weekend, I came across this video featuring Venezuelan singer, Reymar Perdomo, and it moved me to tears. In the song, Reymar opens up about her experience fleeing Venezuela for Peru to escape the turmoil that had consumed her home country. She describes the hardships that she faced when crossing four countries to reach Peru, and then living on the streets for months in search of opportunity.
I think this video would be an excellent resource for either ESL or Spanish Language teachers for various reasons. First, Reymar’s song, passionately and movingly portrays the thoughts and experiences that many refugees or immigrants have upon making the difficult decision to leave their home country. Second, the crisis in Venezuela is a “thick topic” that can be unpacked in various ways: historically, politically, economically, and socially. Lastly, I am sure that many immigrants and/or refugees in an ESL course have gone through a similar experience and would benefit from having teachers who advocate for them by providing a space for them to express their pain (Ennser-Kananen, 2016).
I attempted to translate the chorus into English below. If you would like a full translation of the song, please email me at kswanson@miis.edu
Y me fui (yo me fui, yo me fui), me fui (ay, me fui)
Con mi cabeza llena de dudas, pero me fui
Y aquí estoy, creyendo en mi
Acordándome de todo aquello que un día fui
and I left, I left
with my head filled with doubt, but I left
and here I am, believing in myself
remembering all I once was
If you are interested in learning more about this song, you can read this interesting article as well.
Kalina, goosebumps! She’s got some serious pipes. Great post. Thank you for sharing this. I am officially off of social media, but I feel like the amount of discussion about the issues in Venezuela has kind of become less and less frequent – despite the fact that the political, social, economic problemas have not really improved much. I always think about how as a population, especially on social media, the world becomes fixated on an issue for a couple of days and then becomes uninvested in it once posts stop being circulated. I myself admit that I hadn’t thought about Venezuela in a long time, but I remember when I taught online and had many students from Venezuela who would share their stories about escaping their homeland with me.
While I was in Brazil, I remember Brazilians being afraid that Jair Bolsonaro was going to invade Venezuela or go into war with the Venezuelans. There has been much military-related violence at the border.
I found an article that talks about the violence between Brazil-Venezuela-Colombia.
http://theconversation.com/brazil-and-venezuela-clash-over-migrants-humanitarian-aid-and-closed-borders-112913
Kalina, how did you see the effects of what’s going on in Venezuela impact Colombia? (If you felt like you did). I was very much so in the interior of Brazil, and Brazil is huge, so I was pretty far away from this violence and conflict – but people were still talking about the situation. Did you find yourself in a similar circumstance?
Thanks Kate for your comments! I definitely felt and saw the impact of Venezuela’s crisis in Colombia. I remember meeting a panhandler on the street in Bogota. She was with her daughter asking for money. We got to talking and she told me that she used to be a doctor and had her MD from a university in Venezuela. Now, her degrees were worth nothing and she took to begging for money in the streets so she could feed her family. That was when it really hit me. I think people look down on refugees and think, well they must have done something wrong to be in the awful situation that they are in now. It’s hard for people to imagine that sometimes horrible things happen to good people and our responsibility as humans is to share our wealth and help the less fortunate. I still think about her and wonder how her family is doing.
Here are the lyrics! Thanks Kalina for translating it!
I forced my eyes shut to not see reality
Creating excuses to not listen
I shielded myself and did not react
but late or early I needed to leave
and my mother helped me, she threw me out
She told me, “my Darling, it’s with Good intentions
I am your mother and I want to see you fly high
and you will not if I have you in my arms”
And I said, “How the fuck did this happen
Leaving my house, my family, my affections
leaving my land and my friends
Why don’t you all come with me?”
and I cried, I screamed, and I kicked
but life made me understand
So I grabbed my guitar and my luggage
And I said Maduro, motherfucker!
and I left, I left
with my head full of doubts, but I left
and here I am, believing in myself
remembering all that I once was
saying goodbye was hard in the terminal
I cried all that one can cry in a year
but I left for the border
wait, because now my odyssey begins
They robbed me, they took my luggage
I was left with the money because I had it in my hand
I kept moving forward, I cannot go back
If God arranged this for me it’s because I can do it
and that’s how I kept going, hiking in the night and day
I crossed four countries in five days
running to the trout, eating very little
not speaking much and crying softly
but I arrived, as everyone should know
well, that is what was told anyways
I don’t know if this is temporary, I don’t know if this is forever
I don’t know if this is too little, but for me it’s enough
and I left, I left
with my head full of doubts, but I left
and here I am, believing in myself
remembering all that I once was
I won’t stop, I will keep fighting
well, I will continue making music and the people will listen
being an immigrant is not being screwed
and whoever says it is, say it from the outside
now I walk across the world dropping tears
breathing deeply and my flag in my hand
because if we are all brothers
and we are all products of Latin America
and I left, I left
with my head full of doubts, but I left
and here I am, believing in myself
remembering all that I once was
and I left, I left
with my head full of doubts, but I left
and here I am, believing in myself
remembering all that I once was
I left
I left
I bring your light and your aroma inside of me
I left I left, but I will return
remembering all that I once was
I left
I believe in myself, I believe in you, I believe in the strong town