Dear USA,
I wanted to start my letter by telling you how proud I am to be living within your borders. I was born in sunny California with great expectations to make a beautiful life in the land of the free. You see, my father is a Mexican immigrant. He immigrated with his family to the United States from Mexico when he was a mere 2 years old. His father had a burning desire to give his family a better life in this country. I’m sure you’re wondering if they swam across the border or jumped over high fences to get to the land of the red, white, and blue. Well, let me assure you, my grandfather drove across the border legally with 8 or 9 children in tow. Yes, my father comes from a large family. There were a total of 12 children and I’m sure my grandmother and grandfather were beside themselves that the youngest were born rightful citizens of the USA.
My father was raised in East L.A. in a small 2 bedroom home. The children would sleep horizontally in beds to get their rest for the night. Although their pockets were bare, my grandfather and grandmother raised their children to rise above their means. One of the greatest gifts my grandfather gave to his children was the teaching of hard work and that nothing in this country comes without a cost. At the age of 18, my father joined your military, the Air Force. During his service he was sent to work overseas in the blazing heat of Southern Spain.
I’m so happy that God had his hand over my family since the beginning. While my father was stationed in Southern Spain, he met one of the most beautiful Spaniards he had ever laid his eyes on. My mami was hot! She had the most beautiful, thick, long dark hair that hung gently over her shoulders. With large dark eyes and lashes for days – she spewed grace. Blissfully in love, they married young and after bearing their first child, moved to California to grow their family. USA, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited they were to have had 2 more daughters, myself included, in California. When my younger sister and I were born in the states, we became first generation Americans. Talk about pride! My mother still bleeds red and yellow but, for my father, this was something special.
My father, like his before, taught my sisters and I that in this country we could achieve every good thing we set our hearts on as long as we worked hard for our successes. My father is now a network engineer. His siblings have all risen above poverty and have earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. My sisters and I, we’ve all gone on to a university and have carried on the Caraza name with pride. I’m pretty sure my Grandpa, mi abuelo, would have been proud.
As you can see, USA, my family, we’re like a poster board family of what can be achieved in this country. A successful life, built on hard work.
USA, here’s where my story starts to turn. When it came time to raise my own family, I was more than excited to give them the same beautiful gifts of freedom and peace that were given to me. I wanted to give my children the same carefree life of living in a country that cares for its people that I had. Unfortunately, USA, over the years my heart has been hurt by you on more than one occasion. I’m not sure if you know, but there are many people governing this nation that don’t seem to care for me or my family. That hurts me. Particularly because I used to trust you and well, now I can’t.
You see, I’ve learned that many things have changed in this world since my youth. I can no longer drive to the local hamburger stand to grab my kids a burger because our food industry is so completely tarnished. Chickens are fed arsenic, 80% of antibiotic use in this nation are used on animals that wreck havoc on our bodies, and then there’s the whole GMO thing.
Why, why do you insist on taking money to fatten the pockets of agricultural giants knowing well that the use of GMO seeds is hurting your own people? Why? Can you tell me why money is more important than the breath of a child? Did you know that most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe? In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs.
What makes me more sad is that you’ve started playing on the ignorance of your own people.
In the U.S., your government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created the seeds and profit from their sale. I hate to say it, USA, but do you think I’m foolish? Do you think I don’t realize that these studies are skewed in the favor of these agricultural giants.
According to a former pro-gmo scientist, Dr. Thierry Vrain,
“There are no long-term feeding studies performed in these countries [US and Canada] to demonstrate the claims that engineered corn and soya are safe. All we have are scientific studies out of Europe and Russia, showing that rats fed engineered food die prematurely.
These studies show that proteins produced by engineered plants are different than what they should be. Inserting a gene in a genome using this technology can and does result in damaged proteins. The scientific literature is full of studies showing that engineered corn and soya contain toxic or allergenic proteins.
… I refute the claims of the biotechnology companies that their engineered crops yield more, that they require less pesticide applications, that they have no impact on the environment and of course that they are safe to eat.”
It beaks my heart that this doesn’t bother you at all. That my health and that of my family doesn’t hold as high a precedence as the money in your pocket. I will not be disrespectful to you, my father raised me above that; however, this is what you have shown me – I can’t trust you.
Its taken me years of research to to make the appropriate changes for the sake of my children’s health but do you know what really breaks my heart? It’s the fact that so many families in this country live day to day in ignorance of what they’re feeding their families. Here’s a great example of the power of marketing that you allow. These families are doing the best that they can but they just don’t know about the true state of our industrial food system. It’s not their fault – they just trust you.
Besides the state of our food industry, it makes me cringe to think that I now have to research every personal product that lines the store shelves because you have allowed more than 80,000 chemicals on the market that have never been properly studied to see if they’re toxic to our health. What made me tear is seeing other countries around our world that have taken the health of their citizens into great consideration.
Why? Do you care about us? You’re seeing that obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, among others are at an all time high and yet, you can’t seem to correlate that the foods we put into our bodies and the toxins that we place on our living and breathing skin have anything to do with it.
Yet, you ban raw milk for the safety of your people? I don’t get it, USA. My family has worked so hard to be here. I’m just not sure what my grandpa would think about you today.
Well, here’s the thing USA, I still love you. I do.
But I’ve realized that I can’t trust you.
Praise God, only He is my hope. You’re still a great country to live and raise a family in so I thank you for that and will continue to live a patriotic life waving the red, white, and blue every Fourth of July. However, I’ll continue to use my freedom of speech in educating people as far and as wide as I can to your industrial food system and to the nature of toxins. I will raise my children to be bright thinkers that maybe one day they can create change for the benefit of people.
Well, USA. Thanks for letting me vent a little. I still love you, but I don’t trust you.
Diana
To those of you desiring to learn more about our industrial food system to be able to make changes for the health and well being of your family, check out my FREE 28 Day Grace Filled Journey to Real Food here. It’s a 28 day email series that will explain to you everything you need to know about our food system and the simple changes you can begin to start nourishing your family with real food. It includes 3 weeks of menu plans, resources, charts, and more. This is my blessing to you. If you know anyone that can benefit from this, please share this post so that it can reach those near and far.
I enjoyed reading this, but I do have a few constructive criticisms.
First, I see these as two separate stories rather than one being related to the next, in particular “how” they were woven, because, for me, it actually lost the real ‘point’.
Hearing the history of your family was very nice – and I’m sure most Americans (most) can definitely relate as many of us have the same or similar stories.
I know that this was a letter written “to” the USA, so I understand the use of the word “your” in reference; however, I do want to make an additional point that so often immigrants still keep a mindset of separation (not so much in the Hispanic cultures but certainly in others) and I just want to say that once someone comes here, they need to take ownership and realize it becomes a “we” and an “our” and it becomes “the” government, and not “your”.
I became distrustful of the our country over 40 years ago and have become increasingly sickened by the corruption; and the purposeful poisoning of our foods; our environments and our minds. Other countries are definitely not like this, and if I were able, I would leave. Do I love America? Of course I do. My father was in WW2 and his father, an immigrant, fought in WW1. At that time, we fought for the same things and the right things and good and right, and moral was the goal. Not so anymore, particularly with this Presidential administration. It’s the culmination of all that is evil.
What I’m saying is you don’t have to be an immigrant to be saddened and distrustful of what’s going on here. I realized how fooled, and how brainwashed we are when I was only 16 and sent for a summer to 10 countries to live and my eyes were opened then. I have friends, and family members who live in other countries, and have never returned. I see why.
What saddens me more than how ignorant the American people are about our food and etc, is how ignorant and blind they are about who is in the White House..and what it means. But the Bible tells us that so many will be completely blind to these things.
If you are familiar at all with Robyn O’Brien http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxAustin-Robyn-OBrien-2011 then you will see those who are fighting for us all.
What’s scary is many people are resorting to growing their own food, and then being JAILED for doing so.
These are scary times..
powerful post you come from a special family hugs and i want labeling
Hello Diana, Thanks for the article. I haven’t read much about the controversy, so honestly don’t know for sure what I think. But I was curious enough to check Wikipedia for two things: 1) the average life expectancy of Americans vs. EU countries, 2) the murder rate. From glancing over the charts, it appears that most EU countries have a life expectancy slightly higher than Americans: 0-3 years, though Denmark was slightly behind us. This, despite the fact that the murder rate in the USA is considerably higher. If the Europeans have food which is that much healthier, wouldn’t we expect a much bigger difference in life expectancy? Of course, there are many other factors contributing to life-expectancy, and there are issues of quality of life based on health. I’m short on time, but is there a fairly short set of “pro and con” articles debating this issue? Thanks. Ed
I don’t think current life expectancy is an appropriate measure for the issues discussed in this article, such as exposure to toxins and chemicals in our food supply. The generation now in their 80s and 90s grew up on real food with much less chemical exposure than we have now. Their life expectancy is obviously going to be higher than the generations raised on trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. I think other health metrics, such as obesity rate, heart disease rate, rate of diabetes in children, C-section rate, etc. would be better measures of our current health status.
Dear Diana, I already posted my response to your eloquent and very articulate letter on FB, but again wanted to thank you here. I’ve felt so frustrated and helpless about the situation you spoke about and there is so much more about this country that I DO NOT TRUST! This is not the American we grew up in. Although I’m probably much older than you @ 66, we deal with the same issues nonetheless. This country has rapidly changed to a very corrupt and greedy land, where the citizens matter not for the most part. If we mattered the enabling of Monsatan’s toxic products and seeds would not keep happening and take priority over good health and well being of we who reside here. I live in a senior complex where people with health challenges also reside. Early in May I gave a presentation to some people who chose to come and listen to what I had to say about our food industry. The GMO’s, carrageenan, azodicarbonamide, etc.! Whether it made any difference to people, I’m not sure; but felt it was necessary to do. I started a petition on FB for the purpose of ceasing the sales of ROUNDUP, but it didn’t go very far. There is so much apathy in this country and people here don’t stand up as in other countries in attempt to cause change to take place. We can only then do the best we can to avoid that which is bothersome to we and our families.
You have a lovely family and I thank you for writing this wonderful and so right on point letter! Take care, sincerely, Linda in MI
I have to say I agree with you totally! My grandparents owned a dairy farm and their diet, and mine when I stayed with them, consisted of eggs, bacon, milk, biscuits, cornbread, fried chicken and all of those other foods that supposedly contribute to obesity and high cholesterol, etc. However, all of those items were raised and grown right there on the dairy, and along with my Grandma’s “truck garden” fed us a wonderful, great tasting, healthy diet! No additives, no preservatives, no hormones, no GMO seeds, etc. I have used what I learned from my grandparents and my family is much healthier for it!
Hello Diana:
I really enjoy your blog and web-site and your message. I have recently created my own blog/web-site called http://www.billyfarm.com and hope you have a chance to take a look and provide me with your feedback. I believe you are delivering a very important message with this post – one that needs to be echoed over and over again. I have set forth below a letter I sent out a few months ago to a number of local publications serving the “slow food”/”sustainable agriculture” community calling on them to pick up this message and begin to run with it. Since you are now doing this important work on your site, I have included it with this comment:
“I need your help in educating people about the precarious nature of their food safety network.
Unfortunately today, it is impossible for many people to be able to feed their families with good wholesome food that does not contain chemicals, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms. The real tragedy is that many of these people do not even now they are stuck in this situation and they have become “living experiments” for the big agriculture/big food industry.
We believe the best way to guarantee that people are properly educated and empowered to feed their families nutritious, diverse, and wholesome foods is through a sustained, grass roots, campaign at a very local level.
The one local level where this can be accomplished with the greatest degree of certainty is in our own back yards and urban greenscapes.
It is the mission of Buxton Hollow Farm to empower individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities, to grow their own organic, nutritious vegetables, herbs, and fruits.
Buxton Hollow Farm is employing a three-prong approach to fulfill this mission.
First, Buxton Hollow Farm, located in North Smithfield, RI, is advocating the use and application of Buxton Hollow Farm’s OMRI Certified and Organic Balanced Compost Tea – a simple, non-labor intensive, yet powerful organic gardening tool.
Second, this Spring Buxton Hollow Farm is launching its test micro-farm, called “Billy”, in Westport, MA to experiment with, and show ordinary people how to utilize, various organic gardening methods in order for them to meet their personal food safety goals.
Third, Buxton Hollow Farm will be incorporating a non-profit “Center for Sustainable Organic Agriculture”. A center-of-excellence designed to research, discover, and teach the best sustainable, organic agriculture methods possible – methods that can be brought to scale at a state and National level.
However, we desperately need your help and time is not on anyone’s side. You can be instrumental in delivering this timely and important message. We humbly request your assistance.
Best regards,
Richard Stang”
Thanks again Diana and God Bless
I agree with your views on the safety of our food system and I work hard to feed my family real food. However, I feel your letter is a little off base. You seem to expect a level of trust from government that is unhealthy. We should not blindly trust any government. The government is not our parent, there to look out for every detail of our lives. We, as members of the most free society in the world, have a great level of personal responsibility to provide the best for our families. Let us not make the mistake of giving so much power to the government that they have influence over every aspect of our lives. This is necessary for the preservation of our liberty.
I honestly thought you were going to address the broken immigration system, the “left/right divide” on the issue, and the volatile/divisive fires fanned by the mainstream media propaganda, etc.
Diana, bravo. There is not a lot we can do to fight the “giants”. Prayer, for sure, but you are choosing to educate! That is what we need to do: learn and then TALK about what we’ve learned. Years ago, I read “The Good Fat Cookbook” by Fran McCullough. What an education! My daughter-in-law read it, but now, with encouragement from people like YOU, she is choosing to feed her family wisely!
Blessings on you!
I completely agree with you that our hope is found in God alone. Thanks for the good read!
Living here in California, I witnessed first-hand how big business (Monsanto, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, etc.) buy the vote of the people by fooling them. We had a vote about labeling foods that contained Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) which lost. Why? Because big business ran TV ads saying that if this labeling law passed, the cost of groceries would almost double, which, of course, isn’t true. At a time when people were losing jobs, houses, etc., a higher grocery bill struck fear in their hearts! Shame on those companies for lying – and shame on our government for allowing this!
Your article touched me. I agree with you and am also saddened at the downward progression of our nation. The Word tells us that things will get worse before the end of this age. Thanks for standing in the gap and for teaching the truth.
Beautifully written. I agree 100%. This brought tears to my eyes because this is so very true. I’m so thankful for God using people like you to inform and educate on health in today’s world. Thank you. You are certainly a blessing to my family and many others!
God is our only hope! Thank you for the heart-felt story of your family.