Given how people gave Alexham a hard time about his God Bless America post, to put things in perspective, I thought I would share a traditional song from Venezuela that we learned since we were very little. The translation of the song is mine and is meant to be literal and by no means an impressive attempt on my part to do justice to the rhymes contained in the song. The lyrics may not make as much sense when translated, but keep in mind that it is a traditional song and that it was written in a way so it would rhyme in Spanish.
Viva Venezuela mi patria querida
quién la libertó mi hermano fue Simón Bolívar
(Viva Venezuela my dear country
that was liberated by my brother Simón Bolívar)
Gracias a la providencia
demos los venezolanos
que nos dio a ese ser humano
para nuestra independencia
(Let us Venezuelans give thanks
to the providence
That gave us that human being
For our independence)
Cuando Bolívar nació
Venezuela pegó un grito
diciendo que había nacido
un segundo Jesucristo
(When Bolívar was born
Venezuela proclaimed
That a second Jesus Christ had been born)
Bolívar no está muerto
siempre estará en la memoria
por eso lo recordamos
y así lo dice la historia
(Bolívar is not dead,
He will always be in our memory
That is why we remember him
And so says history)
My point with this post is that I only know about Venezuela, because I was born and raised there, but I’m sure that many countries have their different ways of understanding themselves as “blessed” or “chosen” by God in a special way. I remember growing up how many of our teachers boasted of how beautiful Venezuela was because of its diverse landscapes and natural beauty (take Angel Falls, for instance). It is a common conversation for Venezuelans to share their pride in our strategic geographic location that brought us no significant natural disasters: hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. These were considered “special blessings” given to Venezuela and no other country compared to it.
That being said, I had no problem with Alexham’s post, simply because he just copied and pasted a song that we are all familiar with and that has its parallels in other cultures as well. Parenthetically, I do have a problem nonetheless with singing that song at Mass–something we never did back in Venezuela with similar songs.
In my opinion, what makes Venezuela and the United States different in this regard is the extent to which that “divine election” extends to their respective governments and economic systems. In other words, even before Chávez, Venezuelans never thought that they had the best government or the best socio-economic structure that was supposed to be immune to criticism. Of course, Venezuela is a third-world country, so it is not as if we could claim that our system was ideal, but nonetheless we were taught since we were very young to be critical about the current systems and to always work towards a more just system. It was almost as if the blessings God may have given to Venezuela stopped at the beautiful mountains, beaches, and rivers. These blessings did not extend to our government and its policies–we were always taught that there was a lot of work to do to improve what we had–it was almost drilled in our minds. As young teenagers we dreamed of changing our country in order to stop the neglect and injustices done to the needy.
I simply don’t see that in America for the most part. I don’t intend to make generalizations here and I apologize if this sounds unfair, but I am basing myself on anecdotal evidence and years of conversations I have had with coworkers, friends, fellow parishioners, and so on. On a daily basis (at work and at school) I see people who conform to the paradigms that have been already set before them and they don’t even dare to ask questions about how the current system could be made better, because in their minds it already is–since they live in America it cannot get any better. For the most part, I see people who are passive–content with what they have and with what they are able to get. The majority of Americans simply don’t seem to care about where their income taxes end up or about who makes the decisions about their lives in Capitol Hill day in and day out. It only suffices to look at election turnouts to prove my point.
In short, I don’t have much of a problem with the phrase “God bless America,” because I am sure that many other countries share this notion as well. What I do have a problem with is when that phrase translates into a status quo in the lives of Americans who believe that the current system cannot and should not be challenged, because it is so “divinely inspired”, so to speak, that it was made immune to criticism since its inception.
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