Venezuela - Book 3
Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots
(For a short introduction and to view the other books I have read about Venezuela, please click here.)
One thing that I knew for sure, when
picking books about Venezuela: I needed to choose a wide assortment of books,
representing a wide assortment of voices. All the Venezuelans I have met are securely
in the opposition camp. When I have mentioned the name “Chávez,” I received
either a slim smile and a slight shrug meaning “Let’s not talk about this right
now,” or a long speech about justice and rights. I knew that if I wanted to
hear/read voices in favor of Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution, I would need
to find them myself. I ended up choosing the book “Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots,” by Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and Jojo
Farrell, which is
written in the form of short interviews by people associated with the
Bolivarian Revolution.
First, what is the Bolivarian
Revolution? It was termed by Hugo Chávez during his first presidential election
in 1998. After taking power by majority vote in 1999, he re-wrote the
Venezuelan constitution according to Bolivarian principles. It is named for the
revolutionary Simon Bolívar, who fought for independence from Spain in the
early 19th century and is subsequently viewed as the founding father
of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. The book defines the
Bolivarian Revolution through the following quote:
“Chávez has certainly brought the
charismatic leadership necessary to unite many previously divided grassroots
sectors, and he has provided a framework and name to Venezuela’s political
situation, the Bolivarian Revolution. But a rigorous look at Venezuela’s
political situation and the various on-the-ground experiences reveals that, to
a great degree, this is a process being constructed from below” (page 1.)
The authors argue that the Bolivarian
Revolution is not dependent upon Chávez , but that the rise of Chávez to power is just a sign of a larger political
movement: of the “bottom-up” political process, where the masses – who have
often been voiceless and powerless in the past- take on active roles in
democracy. The authors support this claim by including interviews which not
only criticize the system before Chávez , but show discontentment with the
Chávez government as well. The authors’ argument is especially interesting as
we consider the current political atmosphere of Venezuela, which is
experiencing a void without Chávez ’s presence.
To be honest, I found this book
somewhat difficult to read – not because I was opposed to what was being said,
but rather I felt like I was reading the same voice over and over again: This was the situation before and these are the
injustices that we faced. Now things have changed. This is what I do now in the
Bolivarian Revolution. Things still are not perfect and this is what needs to
change. Most of the people in the book seemed to lack original ideas: While
they all had different experiences, they had all taken up the same ideas about
how to advance the future – something which made the book seem less legitimate,
in my view.
Granted, there were a few people who
presented ideas in unusual ways. One was Marianela Tovar, a LGBT activist in
Venezuela. She does not credit Hugo Chávez with explicitly helping the
movement. However, she does credit him for changing the political atmosphere,
so that the LGBT movement could begin organizing itself: “There was a political
spark [with Chávez .] Before there was apathy and indifference toward politics;
there was a very pessimistic attitude toward the future of the country…” (page
97.) She draws her own experience, noting that although she knew that she was a
lesbian in the early 1990s, she saw no reason to take on a role of activism
during these years.
I also found the chapter detailing the
stories of Mechedniya and Wadajaniyu, two students of the Indigenous University
of Venezuela, thought-provoking. At this education institution, they seek to
study and validate their indigenous roots – studying the language, religious
beliefs, and history of their people – noting that their “culture has been
disappearing for a long time due to the arrival of Western education and the loss
of [their] identity as indigenous people” (page 197.) Although the organization
has received limited financial support from the government and has not even yet
received recognition, the fact that it exists at all is something which they
contribute to the Bolivarian Revolution: “fortified by Article 121 of the
Venezuelan Constitution, which gives indigenous peoples the right to develop
their own education” (page 196.)
Please feel free to comment on these
topics or note something interesting from the book. I look forward to hearing
your opinions!
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