As Chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom at the University of Virginia, Nickolaus Cabrera (Pre-Med, Class of 2023) is at the forefront of the political and cultural battles affecting not only the university but America at large. Even the long-awaited return to Grounds in the Fall Semester of 2021 did not put an end to all this turmoil. Nonetheless, Nick and YAF continued on their mission to promote traditional American values among students and give a voice to the Conservative body at UVA. Join Nick and me as we look at an exciting semester, and discuss Cancel Culture and the future of Conservative campus activism.
Nick, thank you for taking the time for this interview. Before we get to the questions, I would like our readers to get to know you a bit better. How did you become a conservative?
That’s a good question. There are a lot of things that influenced it. First of all, my family. I grew up in a Roman Catholic household with two loving parents. They didn’t have the best childhood, but they took what they could from it and raised four amazing children. Truly, they lived the American Dream. My father came all the way from Puerto Rico to New York. He barely finished high school and had no college degree – he chose trade school instead. He then met my mom, who also didn’t go to college. And now they’re living so comfortably. To me, this is what America is all about: being able to work your way up. Seeing what they have overcome and achieved in life has made me realize that you have to work for what you want. That’s definitely one of the main reasons why I am conservative. Some of the other reasons are that I value life. I read the Bible every day. And there are so many other reasons, but mostly it is my upbringing that influenced me.
That’s an amazing story. However, I feel like many of those values you mentioned have come under attack in recent years, especially in academia. Do you think there still is space for Conservative ideas in academic discourse here at UVA?
I think there still is a lot of space for Conservative ideas in the academic discourse. But these days, you have to be brave to express that you are a Conservative. On college campuses, we have to deal with Cancel Culture. As a student myself, it was obvious last year and still obvious this year.
With a climate like that: what is it like being a Conservative on campus?
We definitely get a lot of flak for standing up for our values. When we paint Beta Bridge, it gets defaced in less than an hour. We get up to a thousand hate comments on our Instagram posts. It’s these kinds of things that try to silence the conservative voices. If people would become more understanding, or at least more willing to listen to the other point of view, we would be more able to have a productive political discourse on a more academic level. But now, every time we as Conservatives try to speak out, we get ridiculed. We get threats. Our families get threats. These are things that YAF members have experienced in the past and continue experiencing. But that’s why I believe it is so important to be conservative and be open about it.
That is some very heavy stuff, indeed. The more you’ve got to appreciate what YAF is doing at UVA. Of course, the fall of 2021 marked the return to grounds, and YAF has been very active over the semester. What were some of your favorite moments?
First of all, we haven’t been silent last year either. We did a lot of activism and campaigns despite the pandemic. However, this year we could finally host live speaker events again. We hosted one of our biggest events ever, “In Defense of Mr. Jefferson.” We hosted Congressman Chip Roy of Texas and National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry. They talked about America’s founding principles; how it is OK to acknowledge the bad of slavery but still value these principles. These days many people have a very negative view of Thomas Jefferson. His statue was recently torn down in New York City. With this event, we hoped to give the public a clearer understanding of who he was as an individual. We also hosted a lecture by former Congresswoman Mia Love. She is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and became the first black Republican Congresswoman. She talked about the real issues that are going on today. Like Critical Race Theory in our schools, how the role of masculinity and femininity have come under attack, this idea that you can choose your gender. As a daughter of Haitian immigrants, she is the epitome of the American Dream. To see where she came from and where she is now is insane. Bringing on all these different speakers, we are trying to get the public to listen to alternative ideas – even if they don’t want to hear them.
I want to dig in a bit deeper on the Thomas Jefferson part. I have witnessed a lot of resentment against Jefferson at UVA. Not only from students but also from professors. Many people say that his statue shouldn’t be up there at the Rotunda and that UVA should no longer embrace its Jeffersonian heritage. How do you feel when lecturers talk like this?
I think it is unfortunate. Let me put it this way: I came to this university because it is Mr. Jefferson’s university, and I will still call it Mr. Jefferson’s university, no matter what. He founded this place. His statue should stand there in front of the Rotunda for eternity, for as long as it stands naturally. If you are a professor at UVA, you can easily be a professor at any other university. That’s one of the things I love about America: the freedom of choice. You can always choose to work here or to work there. You can go to school here at UVA, Mr. Jefferson’s university, or you could have chosen any other university. To be preaching that Thomas Jefferson is an evil person is just harmful. Sure, we need to acknowledge the past – this is what we did with the Memorial to the Enslaved Laborers right next to the Rotunda – but also move forward in a positive direction.
Besides your activism in YAF, you are also on the Student Council. I can imagine your presence caused quite an uproar there.
I was one of the First-Year representatives. Before I was elected, I wasn’t really open about my Conservative believes. I came into college to be Pre-Med; that’s still what I am doing. My passion is helping people. I love astronomy and chemistry, the sciences. But I still have my Conservative viewpoints. I went into the Student Council with an open mind. But the things that people were saying, doing, or voting on had no concrete reasons. Or no concrete causes. So, I spoke out about it. I received a lot of ridicule, but there were also many people who had my back. After a while, more and more people came to the Student Council meetings. At one time, we had over 400 attendees on Zoom. It was an all-time high for the Student Council. Just that alone shows that we have way more support from the student body than you might think.
That’s a fascinating point. Would you say that this very aggressive group of leftists among students and professors creates a climate of fear that hinders free speech? Do you think there are many closeted YAF-supporters at UVA?
Oh, I know for a fact there are a ton. But I hate that phrase “closet Conservative” because it really shouldn’t be that way. Just look at Virginia. We had around 52% of Virginians supporting Glenn Youngkin. So right now, there is a Conservative majority here in the Commonwealth. People should not be afraid about what they are saying. We should foster the idea that it is OK to have intellectual diversity. A lot of times, these radical campus leftists display these horrific ideas. You know, like trying to abolish the university police department. Meanwhile, a girl got shot at Boylan Heights. Meanwhile, creepers are watching through window blinds all across the grounds. It is appalling to me. We need a force to combat these ideas; in a peaceful way. Intellectual diversity is a necessity on campus.
As you mentioned Glenn Youngkin and the election this November: Youngkin ran heavily on the issue of education. All these radical racial and sexual ideologies are no longer just taught at the university level. They are trickling down to elementary schools and even pre-schools. Do you think that education is an important issue for the Conservative movement? Or, what other topics should Conservative politicians focus on in the coming elections?
Right now, I believe it should be Covid-19. These vaccine mandates are unconstitutional. It is absurd that students may have to choose between their decision not to get vaccinated and their education. Right now, we see nurses lose their jobs over the vaccine mandate, even though we have severely understaffed hospitals. It has never been that way. But I feel like we are transforming into a society in which the citizens become more and more complicit with the government’s orders – this is dangerous. That is how socialist countries rise. But there still are many people left with common sense.
But as you mentioned, we have radical left-wing world views infiltrating our education. Critical Race Theory started in college, but it has trickled down even to kindergartens. Children are forced to read sexually explicit books. These don’t belong in schools. It is OK if you want to be who you want to be. But don’t try to change society according to your individual values. You shouldn’t implement these radical worldviews on children. Children are vulnerable. We are in our learning phase until age twelve. These are our vital years of learning from our parents, learning from our culture. So, when we teach them that a man can be a woman and a woman can be a man, children lose any concrete understanding of what it means to be a man or a woman. But there are reasons to be a man or a woman. I mean, look at the 1940s. Traditional family roles – that’s what made us win World Wars. While the women and children were at home, the men went off to fight the war. I am not saying that it has to be that way, but I believe we, as a society, should realize again that traditional values are good.
Therefore, all these harmful ideologies have no place in our schools.
With all of these issues going on, what are your plans for YAF at UVA?
We’re just not going to stop. For the next year, we will continue hosting speakers. We have also planned to bring back our Free Speech Ball. We will be rolling around a giant beach ball in the middle of winter to encourage free speech and open dialogue. We also plan to host a Back the Blue rally in May as the radical left calls to abolish the UPD as we speak. Additionally, we will always keep an eye open for any other issues that might come up.
As you have talked a lot about free speech, this is your moment. If you had one message to the UVA community, what would it be?
I think first and foremost, we need to start opening our minds. As a Conservative, I don’t believe that I will ever hold any liberal viewpoints, but that doesn’t mean I am afraid to listen to them. It doesn’t mean that I am afraid to have a conversation with a Democrat or with a Democratic Socialist. I believe we need more conversations and less bickering between individuals. If I had one message for the University of Virginia at large, it would be to keep working hard. Keep Jefferson’s values in mind. Thomas Jefferson created this institution to revitalize what it means to be a college student. So, let’s take from this what we can. Let’s use our college years to find ourselves. Find what our academic interests and our political beliefs are, and also learn to be more accepting of different ideas.
Nick, thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. All the best to you and YAF in the new year.
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