Joan Velasquez

Wayne asked me to share with you my personal view of "What does it mean to me to be an American." So I thought quite a bit about that. And I think that Barack Obama’s campaign mantra of “Yes, we can” really reflects the core of who we are as a people and what it means to be an American.  That profound sense of confidence and optimism that we can do almost anything we set our minds to.  For me, this “yes we can” attitude has shaped my life in ways that I would like to briefly share with you.

First, the U.S. has been for me, as it has for many, a land of incredible opportunity. My parents were poor farmers who didn’t own the land they tilled. At age two, I contracted polio as did thousands of other children during years of epidemics.  I became completely paralyzed and was placed in an iron lung for several weeks.  My parents couldn’t possibly pay for my medical bills.  But I was given the opportunity to live. The state of Minnesota sent me to the Mayo clinic, arguably the best medical institution in the world, where I received acute care and then rehab for nearly a year. The opportunity that is available to presidents and kings from all over the world was also given to me, a child of tenant farmers. During months of therapy to regain use of each muscle group, the therapist would place a penny in the palm of my hand and tell me that when I learned to squeeze it, it would be mine.  Her constant message to me was “yes you can – yes, you will,” and yes, I did. 

The United States of America:
 The land of opportunity where almost anything is possible. 

Secondly, what it means to me to be an American is to have the right to express my opinions in public without fear.  As a college student I marched in protest against the Vietnam war and entered the Peace Corps with confidence that I could serve this country and still speak out against its policies.  While living in Bolivia, I became acutely aware of the consequences for those who don’t have this protection.  One of our close friends, a medical student named Edgar Paz – his last name translates as Peace – was shot by police during a peaceful protest and thousands of young people who spoke out against their governments in Chile and Argentina became known as the desaparecidos – the disappeared – because they were captured by the authorities and never heard from again.

Freedom of speech:
 Yes we can speak out against our own government
 and create change without making war.

And the third thing that being an American means to me:  that this land has the capacity for great compassion and generosity and can represent hope to those who live with grinding poverty and oppression in other parts of the world.

The vision of the Great Society – that we could eliminate poverty – inspired my generation.  That our government placed such high value on social service that it paid for me to get a master’s degree in social work, that it helped prepare me for a career in working with the most disadvantaged in this country, again showed that we could direct this country’s resources toward the common good – and yes, we did and yes we still can.

After years of working in our own professions, Segundo and I started the non-profit, Mano a Mano that many of you have supported so generously.  Mano a Mano literally began as a kitchen table operation with the intention of collecting a portion of the incredible surplus which becomes waste in our health care system and sending it to Bolivia where it could make the difference between life and death.  From its simple initial vision,  Mano a Mano has grown to where we now have 94 community health clinics, as well as having built schools, housing for teachers, roads and agricultural water reservoirs.  An astonishing – Yes we can”  story.

The U. S. is still a beacon of hope and light in the world, the country of “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, that millions struggle to enter every year, confident that this struggle will create unimaginable opportunity for their families, just as it did for Segundo’s and for mine. And that embodies what it means to me to be an American.