Saints of Venezuela: reclaiming the religious fiestas of slaves.(culture)

As a child growing up in the barrios of west Caracas, Venezuela, during the 1950s, Williams Ochoa heard the elders describe the religious fiestas that took place in the rural provinces. Their stories of worshipping saints with elegant costumes and rhythmic drumming intrigued Ochoa and made him want to learn more. Each fiesta, which generally lasted three or four days, publicly celebrated a patron saint with music and dancing.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When he grew up, Ochoa founded Grupo Autoctono in 1974 to research and reproduce traditional dances, drumming, and music. It was only the beginning. Ochoa, now in his late 50s, has become one of the main organizers of the fiestas in the barrio of El Carmen in La Vega where he lives. And he has raised the profile of the fiestas by organizing a series of national celebrations of Black saints.

While many descendants of African slaves and mixed race Venezuelans have not historically considered themselves Black, the revival of popular Afro-Venezuelan fiestas have been promoting new forms of Black identity. And it helps that the fiestas for the Black saints are flourishing alongside the organizing work that brought President Hugo Chavez into office in 1998. Community leaders like Ochoa hope that Afro-Venezuelans--who make up 14 percent of the population--can find community and hope through these old-time celebrations. In the last five years alone, the religious fiestas have grown and are now celebrated in more than 40 barrios in the city of Caracas.

Yet even as the fiestas grow in number and size, the gang violence that permeates these neighborhoods continues. A few years ago, Ochoa's son was murdered during one of the celebrations as the young man confronted a gang that was disrupting the fiesta. Despite his great loss, Ochoa insists that the fiestas, rooted in the traditions of Venezuela's ex-slave communities, will give Black youth and elders hope for the future.

Reclaiming Popular Fiestas

Venezuela, like most places, remains mired in its racism. Three years ago, the Caracas daily paper El Universal published cartoons of President Chavez as a monkey, parodying his full lips and broad nose. When the Chavez government was briefly overthrown by a right-wing coup d'etat in 2002, opposition leaders joked that the Black Minister of Education, Aristobulo Isturiz, had taken refuge in the local zoo. These remarks were published, aired and accepted by large sections of the middle and upper classes, who have opposed the country's leftist (and mixed-race) president.