Read an Excerpt
Venezuela
By Russell Maddicks Bravo Ltd
Copyright © 2012 Kuperard
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-85733-661-0
CHAPTER 1
LAND & PEOPLE
GEOGRAPHY
Occupying an area of 352,140 square miles (912,050 sq. km), Venezuela is the sixth-largest country in South America, covering a greater area than either the US states of California, Oregon, and Washington, or, in European terms, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and Ireland, put together. It lies on the northern coast of South America, wedged between Colombia in the west, Guyana in the east, and Brazil in the south. To the north it faces the Caribbean and the Atlantic. It has the longest coastline in the Caribbean, and a number of offshore islands, including the tourist mecca of Margarita.
Located less than 1° north of the equator, Venezuela is a tropical country blessed with a number of very different geographical landscapes and microclimates, including Andean mountains, Amazonian rainforests, arid deserts, seasonally flooded plains, coral islands, the Orinoco River Delta, the ancient rock formations of the Guiana Shield, and the waterfall with the longest drop in the world — Salto Ángel (Angel Falls).
The south of the country is covered with hot, humid rain forests that are home to indigenous people, some of whom, such as the Yanomami, still live much as they did before the arrival of Columbus. Coursing through this heavily forested region is the Orinoco River, one of the longest rivers in South America. The Orinoco runs for 1,330 miles (2,140 km) from its source on the Cerro Delgado-Chalbaud in the Sierra Parima mountains on the Venezuela–Brazil border to the Delta Amacuro — home to Warao Indians living in houses on stilts — where it branches out into a hundred rivers and creeks before discharging its waters into the Atlantic Ocean. Another pristine river basin, which feeds into the massive Guri hydroelectric dam, is that of the Rio Caura, home to the Yekwana people.
In the Andean region of Mérida are high mountains and intermontane valleys known as páramos, where ruddy-faced farmers still use oxen to plow terraced fields. Overlooking the student city of Mérida are the country's highest peaks — Pico Bolívar at 16,341 feet (4,981 m) and Pico Humboldt at 16,207 feet (4,940 m) — which are joined by a permanent, if shrinking, glacier. Popular with hikers and adventure sports enthusiasts, the Andes also attract wildlife watchers seeking the unusual cock of the rock and the rare spectacled bear.
The largest lake in South America, and the source of much of Venezuela's oil wealth, the brackish Lake Maracaibo is fed by freshwater rivers, has an opening to the sea, and covers an area of 5,150 square miles (13,210 sq. km). Formed some thirty-six million years ago, it is one of the oldest lakes in the world. This is where Venezuela's first significant oil finds were made, in 1914 and 1922, and the lake is still dotted with oil wells. To the west are the deserts of La Guajira, which straddle the border with Colombia and are the native territory of the Wayúu, Venezuela's largest indigenous group.
The seasonally flooded wetlands of Los Llanos (the plains) cover nearly a quarter of the country, from the Orinoco River Basin west to Colombia. Here there are more cattle than people, and the hardy Llanero cowboys who live in this region make their living by rounding up zebu (also known as humped cattle) on huge, sprawling hatos (cattle ranches), and entertain themselves at night with traditional musica llanera played on the harp, maracas, and cuatro (a four-stringed guitar like a ukulele).
Known as the Serengeti of South America, Los Llanos is the best place to see wildlife in Venezuela, with howler monkeys, armadillos, and capybara — the world's biggest rodents — on land, and rivers full of razor-toothed piranha, anacondas, and spectacled caimans. Bird lovers flock here to see hawks, waders, and around four hundred species of birds.
Beaches and Cities
The Caribbean coast from Maracaibo in the west to Cumaná in the east contains more than 80 percent of the population. The country's largest cities, including Maracay, Valencia, and Caracas, are located along this narrow strip.
Situated in a narrow valley at an altitude of 2,985 ft (910 m), Caracas has a relatively cool year-round climate — considering its tropical location just 10° north of the equator — and is known as "La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera" ("City of Eternal Spring"). It is separated from the coast by the lushly forested El Ávila mountain, a national park that rises to 9,071 feet (2,765 m) at Pico Naiguata, and has a cable car that takes ten minutes to climb to the iconic but long closed Humboldt Hotel, which overlooks the city.
The country's top beaches can be found along this coast, including the islands off Mochima and the tiny cays of the Morrocoy National Park. Further out are the Robinson Crusoe islands of Los Roques Archipelago, another national park, and the large party island of Margarita, where you can visit a different beach every day.
Tepuis — Islands In Time
In the far south of the country is the Gran Sabana, a region of flat, grassy plains punctuated by huge mesa mountains, or tepuis, which are some of the most ancient rock formations in the world. These sandstone mountains are part of the Guiana Shield, and have been eroded down from a vast plateau over the last two to three billion years, leaving unique endemic species on their lofty heights.
The most famous of the tepuis is Auyan-tepui (Devil Mountain, in the tongue of the native Pémon), from where the world's highest waterfall, Salto Ángel, plummets 3,212 feet (979 m) to the river below.
The highest of the nearly one hundred tepuis that dot the Gran Sabana is Mount Roraima, at 9,219 feet (2,810 m). The triple point on the top of the mountain marks the intersection of the Brazilian, Guyanan, and Venezuelan borders, but the only route for hikers to the summit of the mountain is from Venezuela.
CLIMATE
Venezuela's tropical climate is divided into two seasons — rainy and dry — with variations in rainfall dependent on location and altitude. The dry season runs from December to May, and the rainy season from June to November, with lighter rains along the Caribbean coast at Coro and Cumaná, on the deserts of the Paraguana Peninsula, and on the Caribbean islands, and heavier rains in the jungles of the south.
Owing to the country's position on the equator, sunrise takes place at about 6:00 a.m., and sunset at about 6:00 p.m., all year-round. April and August are the hottest months, but even in the rainy season there is significant sunshine between short downpours.
December and January are the coolest months, and at high altitudes in the Andes temperatures drop below freezing all year. In Caracas temperatures can fall quite low at night around Christmas time — a phenomenon named Pacheco, after a farmer living on El Ávila mountain who would come down to the city when the nights got too cold. The average daytime temperatures in Mérida are 57–66°F (14–19°C), in Caracas 64–75°F (18–24°C), and on Margarita Island 73–81°F (23–27°C).
The Vargas Floods
On December 15, 1999, one of the worst human tragedies in recent Venezuelan history occurred when fourteen days of heavy rain brought devastating floods and huge mudslides down from El Ávila, wreaking havoc and destruction on the coastal towns and barrios of Vargas State. Houses, hotels, roads, a university complex, and whole families were buried under thousands of tons of mud.
Between 10,000 and 30,000 people died in the Vargas floods. Many thousands more were made homeless and spent months in temporary shelters, with families separated for long periods before they could be rehoused. For some the events of those dark days were so traumatic that they have never returned to their old neighborhoods. Although the government has made huge efforts to rebuild the infrastructure along the coast, and weekenders once again flock to the beaches, the tragedy will never be forgotten, and many hundreds of buildings will never be excavated from the concrete-like mud that now covers them.
THE PEOPLE
Venezuela's twenty-eight million people are a living embodiment of the country's history, reflecting its time as a Spanish colony and the slave economy that sustained it. The Spanish conquistadors who arrived in the 1500s came to conquer and exploit this New World that Christopher Columbus had found, and brought few women with them from Spain. Thus the melting pot of races and cultures began from the time the first Spanish ships touched shore. After the arrival of slaves from Africa — brought to work in mines and on sugar, coffee, and cocoa plantations — another ingredient was added to the mix.
Colonial administrators had to create new terms to document the racial mixing taking place, so mulatto was used to describe people of mixed European and African ancestry, zambo for mixed African and Amerindian ancestry, and mestizo for mixed European and indigenous ancestry (although this term has come to cover all people of mixed-race ancestry). Today some 69 percent of the Venezuelan population are mestizo (a mixture of Amerindian, European, and African backgrounds), about 20 percent are white, 9 percent are black, and close to 2 percent are Amerindian.
The main Afro-Venezuelan communities are concentrated along the central coast in towns and villages like Chuao, Puerto Maya, and Chuspa, in the area known as Barlovento, and in towns such as Curiepe and Birongo, where drum dancing and festivals in honor of St. John the Baptist are linked to African beliefs and rituals. There are also important Afro-Venezuelan communities in the area south of Lake Maracaibo, where drum dancing takes place in honor of St. Benedict of Palermo.
After the population was decimated in the long wars of independence, many attempts were made to encourage European immigration, leading to a small group of Black Forest Germans settling in the high valleys of Colonia Tovar in 1843. However, apart from several waves of Canary Islanders and Basques settling in the country, it wasn't until after the Second World War that immigration really picked up, with the arrival of more than 600,000 Spanish, Italians, North Americans, and Portuguese. This was a controlled process, overseen by the government to stimulate agriculture and bring new skills to the country, but it was also a racially motivated program of "blanquimiento" (whitening), in the belief that white Europeans would help the progress of the country. Black immigrants were actively excluded. Since then more than a million immigrants have entered the country from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, generally to the cities. Skin color is still seen as an indicator of class, with the elite and upper-middle class generally lighter-skinned than the inhabitants of the shantytowns.
Venezuela has a small but significant Amerindian population made up of twenty-eight indigenous tribes, divided between Carib, Arawak, and independent language groups. Largely ignored for many years, Indian rights were formally recognized in the 1999 Constitution. Indigenous groups were given three seats in the National Assembly, and granted rights — in principle — to communally occupied land, although disputes continue over when this will happen and whether all indigenous land claims will be granted.
The largest indigenous group is the Arawak-speaking Wayúu (Guajiros) of Zulia State, who number about 300,000 in Venezuela, with another 150,000 across the border in Colombia. About 80,000 Wayúu live in and around Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia State, and Wayúu women wearing floor-length patterned dresses, known as mantas, are a typical sight in the city. The second- largest group is the Warao of the Orinoco River Delta. Some 36,000 Warao continue to live much as they did at the time of the Spanish conquest in palafito stilt houses, built over the river, with straw roofs and no walls.
In the Gran Sabana and the jungles of the south, some 28,000 Pémon practice an ancient culture that is intimately tied up with the high tepui mountains that characterize the area. Few Pémon live from hunting and gathering nowadays. Some work as police and park rangers, others in tourism, taking foreigners to the top of tepuis that their ancestors believed were the homes of the gods. In the far south Amazonas State, about 18,000 Yanomami and Sanema continue to live a traditional existence in the rain forest, despite encroachments on their remote communities by missionaries and wildcat miners. Other groups also continue to defend their cultural traditions, such as the Yekwana of the Rio Caura, the Panare of Caicara, the Piaroa of the Orinoco and Autana region, and the Kariña of the Mesa de Guanipa.
A BRIEF HISTORY
A rather confused Christopher Columbus arrived in Venezuela on his third voyage, in 1498, after dropping anchor off the coast of the present-day Paria Peninsula. The Admiral of the Ocean Sea had thought that on this voyage he would reach Japan — his goal being to find a sea route to the rich spices of the East — but the quantity of fresh water from the Orinoco River and the wildness of the surroundings as he entered the gulf between Venezuela and Trinidad made him think that he might have found a New World. He wrote in his journal: "I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown. I am greatly supported in this view by reason of this great river, and by this sea which is fresh." However, after setting foot on land on August 7, he changed his mind and called the land "Isla de Gracia" (Island of Grace), describing the natives as "happy, amiable, and hospitable."
A few days later, after detecting the bulge in the earth at the equator in his navigational calculations, he came up with an even stranger concept, suggesting that he was close to the Garden of Eden, whence Adam and Eve had been cast out, because, "If the water does not proceed from the earthly paradise, it seems to be a still greater wonder, for I do not believe that there is any river in the world so large and deep." His answer to all the anomalies on his maps and charts was that the earth was shaped "like a woman's breast" with the Garden of Eden on the nipple. With that odd thought marked down in his log, he sailed west along the coast to Isla Margarita, where he noted the fine pearls and took some samples away with him — a discovery that soon attracted the first Spanish settlers to Venezuela.
Pre-Columbian Venezuela
There is much controversy over the identity of the first inhabitants of Venezuela. For many years it was believed that a gap in the ice sheets 10,000 to 12,000 years ago allowed hunter-gatherers from Siberia to follow large mammals, such as bison, over the Bering Strait into the Americas, and that from there they went all the way to Tierra del Fuego. But in 1976 an ancient arrowhead found embedded in a mastodon pelvis at Taima Taima, in a desert region near the city of Coro, showed that indigenous people were hunting in that area as early as 13,000 years ago. Although none of the local indigenous groups rose to the heights of the Inca of Peru, or the Mayas and Aztecs of Mexico, there are many lithic and ceramic artifacts in the Andean region that suggest a high level of civilization, including terraced fields and stone structures.
More importantly, the Arawaks and Caribs migrated from the Orinoco region and island-hopped across the Caribbean to Cuba and Puerto Rico, displacing local tribes and imposing their culture. It is from the warlike Caribs that we get the word "cannibal," owing to Spanish reports of Carib warriors feasting on captives.
The Spanish Conquest
The rich pearl beds discovered by Columbus around the small island of Cubagua proved a curse to the indigenous people of the coast, who were raided and enslaved by the Spaniards who came after him in the 1500s. Taken in chains to Cubagua, just off the coast of Isla Margarita, they were forced to dive for pearls and build the city of Nueva Cádiz; founded in 1515, it was known as the first Spanish city in South America, and quickly became one of the richest.
By 1539 the pearl beds were no longer producing, the city was abandoned, and the rush to open up the mainland had begun with the founding of Cumaná in 1521 — despite heavy resistance by local tribes — and the city of Coro, in 1527, which became the capital of the province of Venezuela.
In 1528, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V leased the new province to a German banking family of the name of Welser. Instead of exploring and settling the country, however, the German-backed governors, Ambrosius Ehinger, Nikolaus Federmann, and Philipp von Hutten, spent their time searching in vain for the mythic city of gold, El Dorado, and decimating the indigenous tribes they encountered.
The Welser family also brought missionaries to spread the Catholic faith among the Indians of the interior, and the first African slaves to toil away in the copper mines and on cacao and sugar plantations, thus establishing the colonial system that was to persist until independence.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Venezuela by Russell Maddicks. Copyright © 2012 Kuperard. Excerpted by permission of Bravo Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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