Yesterday, when filming for our documentary, I had a moment of realization. It was when I was talking to Cesario's wife, Juana. Although our languages were different, I tried asking her about their economic situation and if their income was enough for all the basic expenses such as food, water and health. Juana kept saying that it was enough, that they had survived with this income for many years. But, as I had the opportunity to look at their house, clothes, means of transportation and they all seemed to prove her wrong. Luckily, Cleida came in when noticing that we weren't able to communicate that well and she started translating what I was trying to say in Quechua for Juana to understand. I saw how her facial expressions started to change, I realized she didn't understand me at all and now she was explaining to Cleida about their situation. "It's not that their income is enough for all of the expenses, but they are used to this. They have conformed to what they have," Cleida told me. Conformity was the word that stood out to me when hearing this explanation. What is conformity? It has more than one meaning, but the one I will be talking about is the acceptance of your actions and/or possessions without complaining. I believe we all have a different life style and we conform to it. For example, many families have a house and a good education. They have had this life style for many years and they cannot imagine themselves without these two "basic" possessions. On the other hand, there are hundreds of families out there that cannot afford either a house nor a good education. But, in both scenarios, they have conformed to what they have and after many generations it becomes normal. This is exactly what happened to Cesario and his family. They are used to living with limited amounts of food, so some months they can eat and some they cannot. They are also used to living without any health insurance, without education for their kids, and without a stable means of transportation. Comparing their life style to mine, these are all extremely important and a need. But for them, these are more like luxuries; things they can dream about but can't have it. That's why when I asked Juana if their income was enough, she said yes, because for them their life style allows them to survive. This realization really made me think about how we perceive things. We all have a different perspective on what is necessary for a pleasing life style, right? For some it might be a grain of rice, a house, a family, a car, education, or 1 million dollars. So what is actually necessary? This is something that no one can answer. There is not a right or wrong answer. In my opinion, having a family is the biggest necessity we have, caring so much about them that all the material things become insignificant, such as having a house or an education. My opinion was changed by this realization, I've always thought that these are necessities but they are actually all luxuries. The only thing we do need is people that care for us to push us to accomplishing our goals and being happy, a family. So, from now on I am going to value my parents and my brothers and sisters even more but also value all the luxuries I have and enjoy them because there are so many families that have no access to them. And I encourage you to do so as well because we are extremely lucky to have everything we do.
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March 2017
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