Gustavo Silva: Business Owner – Latino Community Activist

Gustavo Silva Photo by Renato Rotolo

My name is Gustavo Silva. I have been in Asheville since 1989. My trade is construction. I was born in Uruguay, South America.

Uruguay is not a province of Mexico like some people believe. Back in the 1970s, for political reasons, I was forced to interrupt my college career and move to Argentina where my daughter, Cassandra, was born. Today she lives in New York City after attending Barnard College in Manhattan and the University of Chicago. Community and independent media, like Urban News and WPVM radio station, give local people the opportunity and right to express publicly. Because of programs like this, the community listens, discusses, and learns to cope with daily and changing challenges.



Americans
are blessed with freedom of speech. My friends in Asheville listen to
me in shock when I tell them about the torture, kidnapping, death, and
genocide that occurred back in the 1970s and 80s under the military
regimes in Latin America. We have a combined total of 300 years of
bloody dictatorship and financial collapse in that region in the last
century. That, in the long run, created a massive exodus of people.


The different
administrations in Washington have always cooperated with the
dictatorships of Latin American and covered up the fact. The
corruption, bribery, and grief are the powerful forces that come with
it. The manipulation and misleading of information by some has affected
this country and will continue to do so in many ways including
undocumented immigration, which is not an accident.


Many good faith
American people are unaware that this problem is taking place and that
this conspiracy will have very serious consequences for the future. If
I was an American born citizen, I would – instead of blaming the people
South of the border; I would look north to Washington.


At the present,
legislators and their allies write and pass legislation that favor the
already powerful few, therefore bringing even more corruption to Latin
America and disgracing millions of family farmers and honest
hardworking people. As a concerned citizen, I spend time visiting low
income undocumented families who share my values, work hard, want the
best for their families, and go to church. There I discover the
majorities not only pay sales tax, but income tax as well every Friday
when they receive a paycheck.


Ironically, they
support the local and North Carolina economy by spending their hard
earned money daily, and nobody cares about their legal status. Honest
people, like the majority in this country, have an opportunity to
become part of the solution instead of creating more division.


Finding a way to
pass a comprehensive immigration reform where everyone is accountable
becomes a part of the working economy so people will not have to live
in the shadows of fear. Yes we can — Only one AMERICA.