Carman: The world watches nervously as Election Day nears

It was less than 24 hours after we had returned from a lovely bike trip in Portugal, basking in the glow of our days of pedaling along the cliffs above the coast and blissful, sweet memories of too many pasteis de nata, when Trump came to Aurora to burn the place down. 

News coverage was nonstop on local media with clips from the candidate rallying his supporters to mass bigotry and hatred, saying Aurora had been “conquered” by Venezuelan gangs and that our governor is “pathetic.”

“I already have that tightness in my chest that I had throughout the whole Trump administration,” my husband said as we drove to pick up our dog. We switched the car stereo from news to music and tried to think about something else. 

Can we all live through that nightmare again?

On the day we arrived in Lisbon last month, friends from Carbondale were there starting an intensive Portuguese language program to prepare for their new expat life in the country. Even if Trump doesn’t win the election, they felt they had to take a break from life in the U.S.

For so many of us — including fellow travelers we met from across the EU — the number of American voters who can support him after all his lies, his crimes, his cruelties and his vendettas is just too disturbing.

There also was the day we shared lunch with a woman named Ivy in the little beach town of São Martinho do Porto, where she introduced us to her group of expat friends who had built new lives far from the chaos at home.

Ivy, who had retired after 20 years in the military, moved to Portugal nearly three years ago. A self-assured single Black woman with a decent pension and a sense of adventure, she left the U.S. because she simply could not tolerate the racism anymore. 

She, too, was looking for relief from that tightness in her chest and found it in a little town where she could have a bowlful of steamed clams and a glass of great wine for less than €10 and — more importantly — be treated with dignity and respect.

She was keenly aware of the irony. Portugal, after all, initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 15^th century and dominated it for centuries. The difference was, she said, the country has acknowledged its horrific history, has built monuments so that generations would never forget about it and has worked to make amends by welcoming people of color from around the world.

Meanwhile in the U.S., slavery still exists, she said. “Just look at the prisons.”

We met a former teacher-turned adventure guide who spoke of the widespread anxiety across the continent over a potential second Trump administration. José said Europeans worried about him crashing the global economy and enabling more Russian aggression throughout the region. Portugal, he said, was still struggling to recover from the Great Recession at the end of the Bush administration and desperately needed international stability.

A couple from Ireland on a getaway to Cascais before the arrival of their first child spoke of the recent polling they’d seen on the presidential race in the U.S. and how hard it was to understand Trump’s appeal. They knew the intricacies of the Electoral College system better than most Americans and wondered what would happen in the swing states. Like us, they were counting the days until the ugly campaign season was over. 

It seems the whole world is following this election closely, trying to understand what’s happening and who Americans are anymore.

They are questions we struggled to answer. 

Back home, I looked for a place to buy some of the signature egg custard pastries we’d enjoyed, trying to make the vacation last a little longer. To my surprise, I discovered pasteis de nata at a bakery at the Source in RiNo.

The baker, Ismael de Sousa, has been producing the little rounds of decadent deliciousness with his friend, Jésus Brazón, at Reunion Bread since 2019. Both were semifinalists for a James Beard award in 2023.

In a profile last year in 5280 magazine, de Sousa spoke of being reared in a Portuguese family in Venezuela. He went to medical school and worked in pharmaceuticals before he decided to leave his home country to follow his passion. He enrolled in culinary school in London and never looked back.

After working in Miami, he came to Denver, bringing his skills to the community where he found that wonderful food makes people happy.

Brazón also came to the U.S. from Caracas. Before he came to Denver, he worked as a teacher and then he and his dad opened a Venezuelan bakery in Miami in 2014.

While Trump was slandering Venezuelans a few miles away, de Sousa and Brazón’s little Brighton Boulevard bakery was filling the air with the aroma of fresh baked breads and pastries. They were bringing jobs and revenues to our city. They were drawing national attention and acclaim to Colorado’s often-overlooked culinary scene.

They are not “sick people” “poisoning our blood.” They are not “stone-cold killers.” They are not “animals,” as Trump repeatedly declares.

They are talented, hard-working people who enhance our culture, enrich the fabric of our delightfully diverse city and bring us joy. 

For their sake and that of the whole world, let’s hope decency prevails and the nightmare Trump era comes to an ignominious end on Nov. 5.

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