Louis interview

The speaker believes that America represents freedom, liberty, and the opportunity to achieve dreams. They define American identity as a diverse melting pot of cultures and languages. They feel most American when reading about the founding fathers and the Constitution, but least American after 2016 due to division and misinformation spread by Trump. They discuss their favorite stories about U.S. history, including a visit to Disneyland that inspired them to move to America. They also express concern about the lack of knowledge about world history among Americans. The speaker believes their intersectionality of American identity and other identities has made them more understanding, compassionate, and patient. They express disappointment in the current state of the country and believe that education and upbringing play a significant role in people's perceptions and reactions to politics. First question is, what does America mean to you? The world. Do I have to explain, or I can just say one sentence? Just whatever you think. It can be a paragraph, it could be a sentence, just whatever. It means, to me, it means freedom. It means liberty, and it means the place where you can make your dreams come true. Thank you. Okay. The next question is, how would you define American identity? A colorful, full of different cultures, languages, and many opportunities. What is the question again? How you can define American identity? Yeah, how would you define American identity? A melting pot, colorful, a salad, where, you know, if you have, the analogy would be a salad, where if you have, if you eat a tomato, it doesn't taste so good. If you eat lettuce, it's not so good. But if you put everything together, all the different ingredients, it's something delightful and delicious to enjoy. I would definitely agree. And then, when do you feel most American, and when do you feel least American? I feel most American when I read the history about the founding fathers, when I read the Constitution, when I read about the Constitution, when I read about the ideals, the philosophy on where America was founded on, the foundation. When I feel it, when I read about it, when, which is one of the reasons why I came here. When I feel the least is in 2016, when Trump started talking about division and spreading misinformation, untruthful things, and I've been here for 35 years, up until 2016, I always felt that I was part of the same ideals, the same society, but after he started spreading this nonsense, then I started seeing change in the way people, not everyone, I have to say, people who are less, what is it, less cultured, they're less educated, or less educated people, I started to feel some kind of rejection, like three times so far, but again, I don't interact with so many people, uneducated people, but when I do with Americans, about three times, they have been kind of degrading, sometimes they make degrading comments, and again, that started after 2016, I feel. So I'm kind of following, like, going off of that, what do you think some of your favorite or most important stories or lessons you have about U.S. and world history? Are there any you'd like to share? Okay, can you repeat the question? Yeah, so what are some of your favorite or most important stories or lessons you would like to share about U.S. and world history? Okay, about the U.S., well, you know, this is an anecdote, when I first came to the U.S. as a tourist with my parents, we went to Disneyland, and there was a theater in Disneyland, and it was called Great Moment with Mr. Lincoln, and when I listened to it, I was moved, touched, motivated, and I wanted to be part of this great world, meaning the U.S. That's when I first became inspired to come here, even though there was no need for me to come here, the ideals, as I said, you know, from the U.S. was based on, you know, it attracted me powerfully, and so that's why I, you know, that's when I started thinking about moving here. Then I came here, and I was, you know, I knew how to write English, but I didn't know how to speak it, so I started learning, and then everything started from there. About world history, you want to know how the U.S. fits, how I see it, how it fits in the world? Yeah. Okay, how it fits in the world at U.S.? I think we still have many, many things to learn from other countries. I think many people know, well, I think, I think, you know, even though we are an advanced country, a first world country, I still see a lot of lack of knowledge about what happened in, you know, about history, world history. I don't think, I don't know if we don't teach that in school, but I see that pretty much everywhere, where people don't know anything about, say, World War II, about Vietnam War, about World War I, about the Renaissance, about, you know, how we became to, as humanity, how we became to where we are now. I think we are not as well educated as they are in Europe or other countries. I don't think education is so good to where we can make a true assessment of the world. And that's why also we, right now at this point, we are like many, you know, I don't know how many millions of people, you know, believe what Trump says. You know, because it's a lack of education, the lack of knowledge, the lack of desire to go back and fact check, the lack of, the fear that, you know, and I don't think we know anything about Hitler. I don't think we know enough about our founding fathers. We don't know about, you know, how the world evolved, world history. Yeah. That's how I perceive the U.S. You know, as I said, a great portion of people, they do know, right? They travel. But I see that too, that many people travel, but they don't, they have no idea what they are seeing when they go overseas, when they go to other countries, when they go to Mexico, when they go to, when they travel to, say, to Europe, to Asia. They don't know anything about the dynasties. They don't know about, you know, Egypt. They don't have full knowledge of everything. They just go, oh, it's nice. Again, that's my perception, okay? Because I have traveled for many years with different people from the U.S., and that's what I see, or they say that the tour guide is explaining everything, and they're just walking around taking a lot of selfies and taking a lot of pictures, but they don't even know why they are there or what they're looking at or why they should be admiring certain things or appreciate them. Yeah, yeah. And then the last question I have for you is, how has the intersectionality of your American identity and your other identities, like, form who you are today? It makes me a stronger person with a wide, more tolerant, more with a wider view of why things are happening and being more understanding and compassionate, because instead of criticizing what I see, I just feel bad for the people. As I said, I feel compassion. I feel we can do much, much, much better because we have the means to do it. I don't think we are focusing on the right things, and that makes me, as I said, that makes me more understanding, more patient, more knowledgeable, more, I would say, yeah, I don't know if I want to use the word tolerant, but what would be another word for that? As I said, I feel compassion instead of feeling upset or mad. I just feel disappointed. I feel, you know, sad. It saddens me to see how, you know, we could be number one in everything. I think right now, you know, Europe is more advanced than we are. The technology, you know, if you go there, you have been there. If you go there, they are more advanced, you know, in, say, Sweden, in Norway, even, you know, France and other places. Technologically, they're more advanced. Japan. But that's how we feel. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to add? About any of the questions so far? No. If I have the questions before, I will, you know, maybe write something down. No, no. It's good to hear it straight from you. Don't worry. You did amazing. Thank you so much. Well, it's just, I guess it's coming from my heart. Yeah. It's my perception. That's, you know, the thing that we have to understand, right? It's my perception. But, you know, maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong in many areas that I don't understand how people, you know, people's reactions to, I guess, like politics right now. Yeah. It's definitely hard out there right now. Yes. It'll be an interesting November for sure. Can you vote now? No, unfortunately. There are some people in my class who can vote, though, so that's good. But again, it also depends, you know, okay, so that's another thing I left out, is the upbringing, right? You know, you might come from lots of money, but also if you don't have the culture, if you don't have the education, if you were, you know, raised, you know, with different, a different vision of the world, then, you know, that has to do a lot with it. Yeah. The upbringing. Yeah. And I see many things. I see many, many different things, like in the Midwest, right? People, I feel that they are victims. They support the system that victimizes. You know, when you, as I said, when you check, you know, all these states, they depend on assistance that they get from California, from New York, from other states that, you know, they don't support. Avant-garde states. Yeah. Did I say too much? No, you did amazing. Like I said, that was great. My best interview yet, I'd say. Well, you can use it if you want. Thank you. I definitely will. Okay. Maybe you can fix the board or something. I don't know. It's up to you. Yeah. But you know, you know my, you know my sentiment, right? My feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much, Luis. My pleasure. I thought it was tomorrow. Oh, I'm sorry. Eric must have gotten the date wrong. I said, okay, I will be waiting tomorrow at 2 p.m. Oh, I'm sorry. And he said, okay. That's why I was working, as I said, in the garage right now. I'll yell at him for that one. No, don't yell at him. I'll just give him some grief. I love him so much. Yeah, me too. Okay. Well, if you need anything, just give me a call. You have my number. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you so much. You take care and stay wonderful. And stay wonderful just like your dad. Thank you, Luis. I'm telling you about the upbringing. Yeah. Okay. See you then. Bye, Luis. Thank you. Bye.