The presidential election in the United States in a few weeks will be played out in a handful of pivotal states, including Nevada and Arizona, where the Republican and Democratic candidates remain neck and neck. The series offers a political journey to cross these zones of fierce struggle. First case: Las Vegas, city of an American-Quebecer.
For Caroline Lauzon, originally from Lanaudière, circus artist based in Las Vegas for two decades, the American dream is now a reality confirmed even in her sleep.
“A while ago I woke up and said to myself: “AyoyeI spoke in English in my dream!” » says the Quebecer who has been naturalized American since 2013 in French. “ This is it. When you think about it, I stayed in Canada for twenty years and I’ve been here for twenty years. I am fifty-fiftyhalf and half, and, want, don’t want, even if I am still very good in French and I don’t want to lose it, my life happens here. And I now dream in English. »
“Here” means Las Vegas, Nevada. Caroline Lauzon had arranged the meeting with Rosalie, “the English café”, according to the establishment with a terrace overlooking a parking lot and expressways, surrounded by the usual generic shops of shopping centers, including a waffle restaurant. The owner of Rosalie, himself of French origin, sells pretty good pastries, even better coffee and even Quebec beer from Unibroue.
The long interview extended over three hours made it possible to understand that the very high level performer embodies quite well the American dream of prosperity obtained through work and determination. At the same time, certain more or less nightmarish socio-political failings of her host society, constantly revealed by the current electoral campaign, worry and distress her.
Artists lean to the left, it’s well known, and circus performers are no exception. “The circus is a very multicultural environment, open to diversity,” summarizes Mme Lauzon. She will vote for all the Democratic candidates, she makes no secret of it. Even more so in the presidency, now that Kamala Harris has replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
“As soon as we leave this artistic circle, the ambient conservatism becomes obvious. Religion is everywhere. Abortion is a divisive subject. There is plenty of hypocrisy and contradictions. Conservatives defend individual freedom, but want to decide what a woman does with her body. They are ready to shooter someone walking on their lawn. Election ads are fierce. Candidates lie all the time. Some media too. We are really far from Quebec here. I admit, it gets a little heavy sometimes. »
The transformation of his adopted society over two decades adds to the desolation. “Sometimes I sit and think we had a black president a decade ago. We felt so much hope. The move we’ve taken since… We realize that, ultimately, people are much more racist than we thought, much more to the right, much more steadfast in their religious principles. Donald Trump gives them the right to take responsibility for themselves. It is “Yes, we can”but on the other side, that of redneck “, she said, quoting the slogan of Barack Obama’s campaign in 2009.
The shamelessness with which insulting remarks about immigrants are made saddens the immigrant, perhaps more than anything else. “I was raised in Quebec with free school and free hospital. I have never had an ounce of misery or anxiety in this life. I was very lucky. I was born in the right place. People born on the other side of the border were not so lucky. They just want a better place in the sun. »
Damn winter
Caroline Lauzon landed in this world full of contradictions, both marvelous and tormenting, for the love of athletic and aesthetic performances. She comes from a family of athletes and began to develop a passion for gymnastics and then diving very early on. A “loss of figures” problem (like the one that affected supergymnast Simone Biles) caused the Canadian champion to miss the Olympic selection for the Athens Games in 2004. She then converted to an acrobat and joined the show O by Cirque du Soleil (CDS) in 2005. The aquatic enchantment created in 1998 is still on display at the Bellagio casino.
“I took a break from O for two years to work in Los Angeles on the show Iris of the CDS. THE show was super beautiful, but it was not successful. Afterwards, I returned to Montreal for six months, in winter, which convinced me that I wanted to live in the sun and near the desert. I came back to Nevada and was very fortunate to be able to continue performing there for so long without getting injured. It’s a very demanding job. This year I’m going to do something like 478 shows. »
The trapeze artist has just committed to another year of performance, and she will see what happens next. The veteran in her early forties wants this job because she loves her show and because the CDS offers her and her daughter, Maïa, good medical coverage in a country without a universal public health system.
Moving towards real estate
Mme Lauzon actually works two full-time jobs. She took advantage of her maternity leave in 2016-2017 to train as a real estate agent and obtain her professional license. Initially, she only thought about investing in real estate herself and avoiding brokerage fees. The pandemic convinced her to dive professionally.
His adopted city deprived of tourists collapsed for a few months in 2020, but the real estate market quickly bubbled with falling interest rates and an influx of teleworkers, the majority from California. The average price of a residence has increased by around 35% since the start of the decade and has become a social and electoral issue in Nevada, as in many other states where the dream of owning property is dashed for the youngest. a house.
“Even today, 50% of our clients in Las Vegas are from California,” says the real estate agent. For the price of a condo in Los Angeles, you can have a large house here, with an office, land and a swimming pool. Nevada does not tax companies, which has caused many headquarters to move here. Property taxes are very low. »
She takes out her phone and finds a concrete example: a house worth around US$475,000, with annual municipal taxes of US$1,300, or around CA$1,800. It’s half as much as in Montreal. In addition, it is possible to negotiate 30-year fixed mortgage loans there.
His efforts are paying off. She sells around twenty houses per year, some luxurious for more than a million. She herself now owns two in Las Vegas, in addition to a condo bought for a few tens of thousands of dollars ten years ago in Utah, at the foot of a ski slope. In short, the American dream works quite well for the one who arrived and stayed in Las Vegas, a dreamlike and sometimes nightmarish city…
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.Duty.