Why Rising Venezuelan Nostalgia Makes It All the Harder to Imagine a Future

Looking at Old Photos May Be Soothing, But the Realities They Portray Are Almost as Confusing as the Present

A few months ago, I made a stop in Miami on my way back to Venezuela. In the last decade or so South Florida, best known as the hub of Cubans in the U.S., has become one of the preferred destinations for over 3 million Venezuelans that have left our country.

A middle-aged Cuban man, the friend of a friend of a relative, picked me up from the airport and took me to Walmart to buy some basic goods to take home with me. Unsurprisingly, the topic of Venezuela’s current situation …

How Venezuela’s Oil Riches Fueled a Literary Explosion

In the Mid-20th Century, Writers Seized on the Conflicts Laid Bare by Petroleum’s Power to Reshape Society

On December 14, 1922, a gusher of petroleum was discovered in Zulia, a rural area of western Venezuela. For nine days the oil showered onto the surrounding farmland, scaring the …

How Movies and TV Are Helping Venezuelans Negotiate Their Country’s Collapse

Amid Food Shortages and Rising Crime, My Students Turn to The Hunger Games and Walking Dead

Last March, I was teaching twice a week at the Universidad Bicentenaria de Aragua, 75 miles west of Caracas, Venezuela. While protests were breaking out in the streets around the …

Latin America Is Finally Acknowledging the Crisis of Democracy in Venezuela

The New Leader of the Organization of American States Has Openly Rebuked the Country’s ‘Petty Dictator,’ but It May Be Too Late to Avert Disaster

At least on paper, both Europe and the Americas seem equally committed to being democracies-only clubs, willing to defend and preserve the rule of law in member nations. In practice, …

Home Is Wherever There Is Peace

I Left Venezuela's Political Chaos and I Have Been Searching for an Escape Route Ever Since

Growing up in my hometown of Caracas, I wanted nothing more than to be seen as a sifrina. To be, in Venezuelan slang, counted among the rich kids—a spoiled, fashionable …