LUHV in the Time of Coronavirus
A Statement by Silvia Lucci
When I was a child, I lived in a low-income suburb of the skirts of Buenos Aires. I never knew that I was poor until much later when society told me. In those times, we knew everyone in our neighborhood, and we were definitely in each other's business. For example since there were no telephones, older neighbors would feel responsible to return you home holding your arm high to your door, which you knew would be opened by a frowny mother that will immediately side with the neighbor.
I didn't know then that my community was raising me. That when you are poor, you instinctively pool your resources together and depend on each other to survive. One of those neighbors was Doña Elisa, alias “everybody’s nana”. Since I could walk, I was doing some kind of “mandado” (chore) for her and “tio” (uncle). Of course, there was no blood relationship, but they were part of our family. My mom would ask me to buy their bread or some vegetables at the corner stand so she didn’t have to do it. And we all (I, and other kids from the pueblo) happily did as we were told, because we knew that she would reward us with a ripe juicy piece of fruit. Which was hard to come by since we had already razed all the neighborhood trees early in the season. Actually, we would get sick of eating green fruit. See, the mission was to get to them before any other kid, but if you waited for the fruit to ripen they would all be snatched up. The satisfaction or the ‘honor’ was just so big that you didn’t care to find yourself in front of your door with your arm held high waiting for the punishment, beside the stomach pain. So, we happily ate those plums green and suffered through it. However, Doña Eliza’s fruit had a fence, her fruit were carefully protected to use as rewards. And nobody, nobody would ever even think about jumping that fence. I knew I was special for her, or maybe she made us all feel like that, but she made me feel loved, and this is my story so I’m sticking to it.
I didn’t understand that in my mind I was learning a sense of community, that everyone was an important part of that community, and everyone had a role to make that neighborhood work. Everyone was protecting everyone, because we knew each other, and strangers were easily identified. My mom spent months at a time alone when my father traveled for work, and someone from the community would always be keeping an eye on us, so that nobody jumped our decrepit fence.
Today, we find ourselves paradoxically in similar circumstances, and I really hope that my family today learns that we need each other to survive, and I mean the bigger family, the entire community. We ALL can get COVID so we need each other to protect our communities. We need to think of every member of our community, because each one is a fundamental part of the fabric. After years and maybe generations of living a “ME” society, we need to work together. Wear our masks, stay apart, follow the directions. For those that have to work, our nurses, and doctors, the ones putting their lives in the line for us, we will keep an eye on their families while they are gone.
Part of my mission is to restore that sense of community, we are not alone, and like in my childhood we will need each and everyone of us to be responsible for each other. If we forget the vulnerable members of our society… we can not survive COVID together.
I’m sure that after the fear settles down, we can all find those that need their bread picked up, and the reward of a simple smile would be enough, even behind a mask. If we work together, we may appease those fears and ride through these terrible times together.
-Silvia Lucci, Founder and Owner of LUHV FOOD
There is a new website that connects “able” people with those in need, our seniors, our disabled, our veterans, our sick, and those that pay the highest prices. The site is https://invisiblehandsdeliver.org/ They beautifully responded to protect those members of our society that are in desperate need. It is in these moments that you see the single thread that makes us. Let’s all of us develop a new sense of community where we take care of each other, to protect our communities for the next generation. Let’s not forget that one day we will have to recall the stories about what we did during the times of COVID.