11/20/11

Carola Chvez, Venezuelas revolutionary middle-class satirist | Current Draft

Current Draft
Johan van Rooyen

Carola Chvez, Venezuelas revolutionary middle-class satirist

Posted on November 19, 2011

Forty-seven year old Carola Chvez only started writing seriously in 2006. Mixed in with her blog posts were a number of extremely funny character sketches drawn from middle-class life in her native Venezuela. These satires were so popular, they were published in a book last year which turned out to be an instant success. Carola Chvez realised just how widely read she had become when she received a phone call from another Chvez not a family member. Hugo Chvez, Venezuelas revolutionary leader, who was recovering from surgery for a cancerous tumour in Havana, rang Carola Chvez to congratulate her on her latest, her third, literary award. A month or so later, when she was a guest on a national television chat show, the president phoned again and spent over an hour chatting with her live on Photo courtesy of Carola Chvez airrevealing, among other things, that Fidel Castro was also a keen reader. After the show, Carola Chvez told Current Draft, her readership multiplied a hundredfold. In 1998 when Hugo Chvez was first elected president, Carola Chvez had just moved to Spain after having lived in Miami for several years. She was only vaguely aware of the change in government back home. In the preceding years, endemic corruption had caused many young middle-class Venezuelans, like herself, to move abroad in search of better opportunities. Despite a lot of grumbling at the time, the quarter of Venezuelas 24 million population that was of European descent enjoyed a glittering lifestyle. Most of the other three quarters had virtually no hope of escaping from the poverty in which they seemed destined to liveuntil Hugo Chvez got elected, that is. The new government was hated by the middle class and, five years after his election, Chvez was ousted in a coup. Venezuelas underclass poured on to the streets and 48 hours later Chvez was back in charge. For many opposition supporters, the weekend-long flashback to their former glory days stirred up old emotions and made them very, very angry. The following year, in 2004, Carola Chvez returned to Venezuela for a two-week visit. She could not have been more unprepared for what was about to happen to her. In her book, Qu pena con ese seor!, Chvez tells the full story of the way she was treated by the immigration control officer after her plane had landedwith extreme courtesy and kindness! Still almost reeling from the pleasant surprise and thirsty after a long flight, Chvez made her way over to a vending machine. Her brotherin-law had come to pick her up and was now warning her, between gritted teeth, to stay clear of the soldier that animalin front of her. When she discovered she did not have the right coins on her, the uniformed young man turned round and insisted on giving her his bottle of water and point-blank refused to even discuss reimbursement. In the car, on her way home after ten years abroad, Chvez could not make sense of the non-stop vitriol she was

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Carola Chvez, Venezuelas revolutionary middle-class satirist | Current Draft

being harangued with. The way she was dealt with by the two government employees at the airport just did not square with what she was now listening to. The huge transformation then taking place in Venezuelauniversal medical care with Cuban doctors moving in to live and practise in the poor communities, free education for everyone including a nation-wide literacy programme, heavily subsidised food from state-owned supermarkets meant nothing to her relatives. Well before the end of the fortnight, Carola Chvez would turn from being a happy-go-lucky mum with no interest in politics into a fervent supporter of Hugo Chveza Chavista, a revolutionary! Next year will see the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election and, barring unforeseen circumstances, Chvez will win once more. Since 1998 the vitriolic criticism of those opposed to Chvez has never ceased, but still the economy continues to grow. And it is not just the poor who are doing better, as practically every recent survey shows, the middle class is also doing very well, thank you. Carola Chvez explained to Current Draft: The opposition used to warn that Chvez would take their children away and send them to Cuba, but the years have passed and their children are still here, still doing well. The realisation that life is actually better under the dictator is causing some real inner turmoil. For many it would be social suicide to admit to being a Chavista or even a waverera ni-niand yet, once in the voting booth, what do you do? It is on this dilemma, and the many psychological and social absurdities that arise from it, that Carola Chvez writesand, as even her president knows, she does it so very well!
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This entry was posted in Literature, Politics, Venezuela and tagged Carola Chvez, Hugo Chvez, Literature, Venezuela. Bookmark the permalink.

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