The Statues of the Cult
English + Español
I began writing these lines in Baltimore while visiting with my in-laws. I have always admired their sustained faith in the printing press, as they have multiple newspapers by the dining table…
Category: Focus on Venezuela, Monuments and Counter-Monuments
The Eyes of Chávez
English + Español
In France, working on my doctoral thesis on architecture and the city, I found that my research brought me closer to my homeland after six years of investigation into the Venezuelan context…
The Political Life of Statues
English + Español
The pedestal, devoid of the monument that once crowned it, tells us of a kingdom that no longer exists; the fallen bust at its base immersed in the sand is of a ruler that no one remembers anymore…
The Statues of Hugo Chávez
It has been eight years since the death of Hugo Chávez. Given the public knowledge of the former Venezuelan president’s battle with cancer and the speculation stirred up by his absence in the political scene in the months prior to his death, the announcement of his passing…
El Barroso
English + Español
In Cabimas, my hometown and Venezuela’s main oil port, there’s a monument to Barroso II, an oil well that exploded in 1922, hurling a million barrels of oil into the air until it was…
