This atypical post comes with good reason: an atypical election. In less than 24 hours the people of Venezuela will have
elected a new president, who, for the first time in 14 years, will not be Hugo
Chávez. In my life I have never been aware of someone else other than Chávez
being president of my dear neighbours, definitely making a historic event for
me and my perception of the world. Phew, I think I stood on the safe side of
cliché in that last sentence.
A few years ago I was idly changing
channels late on a weekend night and came across a special broadcast from my
favourite channel, where I used to watch American sitcoms. They were showing a
large gathering of people on a TV set, pushing cameras, microphones and boxes
in what seemed to be a moving-day frenzy. I then heard the narrator explain
they were getting a live signal from a TV station in Caracas, RCTV, and that
these were their last 5 minutes of broadcast because the government had closed
down the channel because of political motivations. Just as the voiceover ended
that sentence everybody on screen stood to attention and the music began, with
a little screen on the bottom carrying a sign-language interpreter. It was the
first time I remember hearing the words “Gloria al bravo pueblo”, the first verse
of the Venezuelan anthem. I found it very peculiar that I had absolutely no
idea, until then, what the Venezuelan anthem was like; even though I knew by
heart the lyrics to God Save the Queen, had learned La Marseillaise in French class, and had
heard many others in sporting events. Why on Earth had I never even heard the
anthem of Venezuela, supposedly our sister nation? My wonderings were quickly left orphaned as the channel went
back to its usual shows and I got busy watching a rerun of Seinfeld.
Venezuela, then, remained a bit of an
uncharted territory for some years. All I’d hear were the political news,
especially when the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela got into some sort of
argument. Long story short, all I heard was politics. Venezuela was important
because of its controversial politics and how they were in opposition to ours. Period. The one exception to this was a close friend who was from
Venezuela, giving me the one bit of human perspective I needed on that country
I had always taken for granted. Fast forward a couple of years and move 40
degrees of latitude, to the Great White North. Trying to make a new life in a
new country I was finally fortunate enough to enjoy a new perspective, meeting
other friends from Latin America I realized that what brought us together was
substantially greater than what told us apart. Nevertheless, this was
particularly true when I met my friends from Venezuela.
There is nothing
funnier than the look of sudden realization and the feeling of familiar warmth
that overcomes a Colombian and a Venezuelan when one of them uses the word
“Chévere” and the other one understands! “Chévere” can be roughly translated as
cool, awesome, a general expression of good quality, though this does not do
justice to the power and cultural baggage of the word. And it’s a little secret
that Colombians and Venezuelans share, mostly without knowing it. As are many
other things about ourselves, there are little details that we have so closely related to
our identities that it’s always a surprise that we share it with others, a pleasant surprise, even if it comes after some friendly bickering. Moving all the way across a continent
has taught me a lot of things about my new country, about my own, and to my
great surprise, about my neighbours. An unexpectedly pleasurable surprise!
In any case, this post was definitely
inspired by a political event, so let’s not beat around the bush. Let’s get one
fact out in the open right now, Colombians and Colombian media are slightly obsessed about Venezuelan
politics; both this and the last campaign were easily the most talked topic in
the country for a while. Why? Many reasons. Firstly, it’s natural to worry
about your neighbour’s political situation, secondly, the Venezuelan case is
inherently interesting and we had the cultural, linguistic and geographical
privilege of seeing it from very close by. Also, it’s a search for our own
identity; if you ask yourself the question “Who am I?” one way to go about it
is asking yourself “Why am I different from my neighbours?” or rather “What
sets me apart from those who are most like me?”
Which brings me neatly to my main purpose,
sending a message to my Venezuelan friends and hopefully to many others. Having
learned lots and lots about your country there is one thing that fascinates me,
how the voices of change in Venezuela, led by the charmingly fierce Henrique Capriles, call for unity. Despite being subjected
to fourteen years of an unfair and authoritarian regime (yup, I’m not going to
be vanilla about the politics) the call for change is one of recognizing your
identity as a nation. That, I think is most admirable. You guys have a truly
strong sense of national identity based around your feeling and love for the
country, with other aspects such as ethnic origin, immigration, or even
political identity being completely secondary.
No matter the circumstances, the
difficulties, the problems or the conflicts, your identity as a nation stands
strong. Those who were forced to flee, those who thought it might be better to
leave, those who stayed facing adversity, everyone I meet shares the same desire
of bringing their country together, despite the years of divisive politics for
the gains of a few. That is what I admire and what I think should give you
hope. For example, the great
efforts that Venezuelans all around the globe have to make to vote! To all of my
other readers, I hope you’ll follow my lead and learn more about other nations,
be it those far away or those close to your home, maybe there’s a good lesson
waiting for you. That being said, I hope my Venezuelan friends feel a word of encouragement
and that, if they can, go out in the morning and vote and give Venezuela, Latin
America and the World the surprise of the year. Let the love for your country
be greater than partisanship and demonstrate the importance of a free and
democratic society. If there’s a nation I can trust to put and end to such an appallingly
authoritarian and downright bully regime, it’s you.
¡Porque Venezuela somos todos!
Incluso
sus hermanos de afuera.
