The nonverbal language of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

Today, trillions of words are posted on social media, but we forget about the so-called “non-verbal language”: the language of gestures, which has its own particular grammar. This is seen in the two U.S. presidential candidates: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. In both cases, their gestures speak more loudly than their words. While the Democrat presents a joyful vision with her laughter, Trump presents a more somber outlook with his furrowed brow and clenched fist.

It is the politics of happiness against fear, of hope against discouragement. It is the difference between looking towards the future or to the past. We are at a time of democratic despair, as tyranny and corruption loom over us. Democracy, as Gustavo Krause has written, is nourished by its own weakness, by the peaceful clash of ideas, by divergence and pluralism. Despotism, on the other hand, is static, rigid and does not accept pressure. It breaks social cohesion and creates victims. Just look at Venezuela and the crisis that has it in a chokehold.

In the game of words and language, the present and the future are sometimes hidden, almost magically. On the one hand, there is the language of dictionaries, and on the other, symbolic, non-verbal language. In the political battle to win the White House — the outcome of which could determine whether the world sees peace or a new world war — it’s no laughing matter that Trump is known for his clenched fist and threats of war, while Harris — who would be the first woman to lead the great empire — is known for her joyful and laud laughter. It is a battle between war and peace.

Language, both written and non-verbal, is what characterizes Homo Sapiens; it is the visible essence of thought. As are colors and gestures. This reminds me of my childhood, when I began to learn letters and understand colors from my father, who was a teacher in a rural town at a time when Spain was starving and bloodied by the civil war.

In the absence of books, my father — from whom I got my love of words, both prose and poetry — taught us outside of class. He took us to a garden to explain the richness of colors: the green of lettuce, the yellow of peaches and ripe figs, the violet-red of grapes. And he went further: he told us that the five vowels of the alphabet could be happy or sad. It was a game, but that’s how we learned to interpret a language that transcended words. He told us that of the five vowels, a was the first and the happiest, and u was the last and the saddest. And we played at analyzing our names.

My father’s game has reminded me of today’s political battle between Kamala and Trump, of the difference between a cackle that evokes joy and peace, and the grumble of a clenched fist. Kamala with her laughter and her commitment to peace is a word that evokes freedom and joy; Trump with his sharp and violent gestures is calling for a fight and war.

To continue the game, the letter a in Kamala’s name evokes achievement, aspiration, affirmation, while the u in Trump’s name brings to mind unhappiness, uncertainty and unrest. It is the last and darkest of the vowels.

We are living in a new world, even in when it comes to language, which fascinates and frightens us at the same time. And it is language that defines us. It can save us or kill us. Language and gestures. That is why the looming political battle for the White House, which will undoubtedly affect the entire planet, is full of symbolism and unknowns.

There is little doubt that if the U.S. elections are won by Trump’s scowl, the world will darken. Better for them to be won by Kamala’s luminous laugh, by the a that admires and assists freedom and democracy. Not the lead of the closed fist of Trump, a name that even evokes night over day. It evokes that u that my father described as hard and sad, the last of the vowels. It evokes umbrage, usurpers and ultras.

Ah, peace is spelled with an a.

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