Venezuela: a cultural showcase

Venezuela is a beautiful place. I was there recently on a mid-semester break. It is a country rich in culture and divided by politics. I only had enough time to travel through Vargas and Mt. ?€vila, but the trip was an invaluable experience.

It was my first time out of the country in 10 years. On Saturday, I traveled through Vargas to go hiking up the 8,500-foot Mt. ?€vila, which overlooks the capital city of Caracas. Being the curious type that I am, I consistently sought the advice and opinion of local Venezuelans. Wilbur, a Venezuelan whom I just met the day before, offered to be my guide after I talked about how I wanted to climb the mountain. He was not exactly fit for the physical demands of the hike, but he was willing to accompany me.

We started out early in the morning. For breakfast, Wilbur had a beef empanada (turnover patty) and I had peanut butter and jelly on toast (not typical Venezuelan cuisine). We hopped in a taxi and rode over to the base of the mountain. Vargas was particularly hard hit by the heavy mudslides that occurred just two years prior, and the destruction was still very visible.

I witnessed firsthand the destruction of what President Hugo Chavez called "the worst natural disaster in 50 years in Venezuela." Both Wilbur and the cab driver explained to me how the mudslides flowed into the northern coast facing the Atlantic Ocean, destroying the area from the top of the mountain to the ocean below and stretched 60 miles wide along the coastline. These mudslides left 100,000 Venezuelans homeless and the effects are still felt today.

During our climb, Wilbur and I stopped at a refreshment stand in a small rural town for some rest. There, we met an old woman who lost her home in the mudslides. She explained how the river opened up and swallowed up all of the homes in her town.

Many of the homes destroyed were located in the steep ?€vila mountain ranges that we were climbing. She pointed out the home just across the street from us that had been torn apart, leaving the residents with only a kitchen. The mudslides swallowed up a 100-year old tree with a 10-foot trunk near where she lives now. Luckily, she had family in this town that she could stay with.

I asked her why so many people still chose to live up in these mountains after the recent destruction. She explained that living in Caracas, a city nearly the size of Chicago, was too fast-paced and dangerous for many of the people in the mountains, many of whom were used to more agricultural work. Even still, she said, some people commute into the city from the mountain via 4-wheel drive Jeep-taxis when they have to.

Because the economy has been heading south and the city is dangerous, bright students that study abroad never come back home, she explained. One of her sons, for example, graduated from Cornell and now lives in Puerto Rico.

She voted for, but disliked Chavez. She said he used to be good, but not anymore. Despite all of the pro-Chavez graffiti on public walls, everyone I spoke to told me that they disliked Chavez. I don't know if it was just who I was talking to, the area I was in, if this is a general sentiment, or if they somehow sensed that I might be American and assumed Americans didn't like Chavez. Nearly everyone I spoke to went out of their way to tell me what they think of him. When we stopped at the supermarket before we went on the hike, the cashier said to me, "Venezuela is great. The only thing wrong with it is our president _ he's crazy!"

Conservatives in the US, like Constantine Menges of the Hudson Institute and formerly of Reagan's National Security Council, also criticize the populist, saying that Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba will form an "Axis of Evil of the Americas." Chavez once responded to a similar comment by saying, "An axis of evil? More like an axis of good, of the people, of the future... A new impulse of freedom is sweeping the continent again."

Not everyone agrees with him though, as a group of Venezuelans calling for his resignation went on a national strike last Monday. The woman however, told me that the strikes did not seem to have a large impact.

After speaking with this woman for some time, we took a dip in the river and continued hiking. As I mentioned earlier, Wilbur was not exactly fit for the task of hiking up this mountain. It was not too much longer after we left this town that he decided to turn back. So much for having a guide!

On the way back home, we ran into some of Wilbur's friends at a corner store (he had waited for me to finish my hike so he could help me get back to the hotel). They offered me beer and women, both of which I refused. "What's the matter with you?" one of them asked. "You don't like pussy?" I told him I had a girlfriend and he replied, "That doesn't matter." Another said to him, "You see, in the US, the women have got all the men on leashes."

Vargas, Venezuela is a very different place. Everyone spoke Spanish, there were stray animals running around, and not very much vegan food! But in some ways it was not so different. There was still plenty of sexism and there was still racial, ethnic, and class stratification. The hotel I stayed at was owned by an American who also owned the entire city block that it sat on. The people who made my bed and cooked my food every morning were still Spanish-speaking Latin Americans. Both of these situations are true in many places in the US too (regardless of whether you think it has a negative or positive effect on the economy).

My experience in Venezuela was short, but great. There were many cultural experiences to think about, but more importantly, much wisdom from the locals to reflect upon. I encourage those who plan on traveling to unfamiliar areas of the world to talk to the people who live there. You will learn the most from their experience.