An Insight Into the Venezuelan Crisis: Interview with Audrey Noguera
- Sofía Morales
- Apr 9, 2021
- 12 min read
Understanding that every person within a country experiences a national crisis in a completely different way, is the first step to acknowledging that every Venezuelan voice in the fight for a democratic future is equally valuable. Audrey Noguera, a bright and big-hearted Venezuelan woman, and psychologist talks to us about how her life has been full of change. Be it changing countries, ideologies, or jobs, Audrey’s resilient soul is extremely admirable and should serve as an example for teenagers across the world. Latin American countries don’t face crises because of a choice but rather as a cruel consequence of their still-authoritarian governments. Audrey provides some deeply profound insight for us to comprehend the roots, the possible solutions, and the aftermath of extensive problems like the one Venezuelans face as a part of their daily reality.c
Interview conducted by Sofía Morales
Edited by Simran Luthiya
“Audrey, first of all, I would like to request you to share a little bit about yourself with our readers. Who are you? What do you do for a living?”
“My name is Audrey Noguera and I’m originally from Venezuela. I moved to Mexico almost six years ago, mainly because of the very difficult political situation in my country, however, I’ve also always wanted to have international experience. I’m a psychologist and have a Master's degree in psychoanalysis. My experience back home was mostly centered in the field of Clinical Psychology and I worked in different institutions. When I moved to Mexico, I required a professional license so I started working in the education sector. I fell in love with the International Baccalaureate system and the philosophy of education that it provides to schools. Since then, my work has revolved around coordinating CAS(Creativity, Action, and Service), which is one of the components for the IB program for six years now.”
“Now, with regards to your identity as a Venezuelan, could you provide some brief historical context for all the readers who are not aware of the specifics of the crisis that Venezuela has faced for the past few decades?”
“It’s quite difficult to condense the whole situation into a brief answer but, in 1998, we elected Hugo Chávez as President of Venezuela. I say “we” because I take responsibility for what my country has done even though I wasn’t old enough to vote back then. Anyways, we elected Hugo Chávez, who had a background as a military man, and actually, he was part of a military coup in the ‘90s. He was arrested but he got a pardon from jail and then elected as President. At the time, Chávez was considered to be an eligible candidate by many people.
It’s important to understand that the Venezuelan economy is, and has been for a long time, dependent on mining and harvesting oil as our main source of income from international trade. Even during our best times, our economy has always been subject to the tides of the international market. Regardless of who was going to be in charge of the country, the Iraq war benefitted the oil industry and we did have a lot of good years where a lot of income was generated and disposable resources were used to grow for the political oil project. For a long time, what we called XXI Century Socialism, (which was a project politicians tried selling as socialism although it wasn’t exactly that), was very popular in the region. So much so that a lot of South American countries shifted towards that method of organizing their economies. However, this wasn’t a sustainable system because the financing for the oil industry eventually collapsed.
Regardless of inevitable collapse, there has also been considerable mismanagement of our country's resources and exploitation of the means of production. We changed our constitution in 1999, and on paper, it seemed like a very progressive idea. Some countries close to Venezuela also based their constitution on ours. The change included adding two more organs of government, besides the three basic ones - legislative, executive, and judiciary. The two new elements included - the elective power, which allowed for elections to be overseen by an external party, and the moral power, which was focused on solving issues like violations of human rights. The change seemed amazing on paper and it had the potential to be a great project when used correctly. But unfortunately, it was misused by the government to capture more power and exercise greater control over the whole country. Right now, we can honestly say that we have an authoritarian government in Venezuela because of that.
Bottom line is that I don’t think it was just the political projects that led the country to this terrible current situation. Regardless of who was in charge, an economical crisis was inevitably headed our way because of how dependent we were on the oil industry and therefore, on the international market. However, this dependency has been surpassed but due to human rights violations, elimination of private property and many other problems, around 20-30% of Venezuela's initial population left the country because it was not sustainable to live there, especially for young professionals.”
“How did this historically significant situation affect you? Were there any experiences you lived through that were related to this national crisis?”
“It’s honestly quite daunting for me, particularly since I'm a second-generation immigrant. My maternal grandparents left Europe during the late 1950s. When they moved to Venezuela, the country was still in the clutches of a dictatorship and it was personally very significant for them when Chávez won because my grandmother felt that she could relate to a lot of his ideas. They had just escaped Yugoslavia and my grandmother felt that Hugo Chávez was like a Latino version of Josip Broz Tito (Former President of Yugoslavia). It’s complicated to explain this because, on one hand, back then, that type of government was the only one I had known as a child. I was barely ten years old when we elected Chávez for the first time, so honestly, the reminiscences of a different time and a different political system were mostly based on other people’s stories and narratives rather than my own experience.
I’ve always felt like an outsider, and being raised by people saying “Don’t get too attached and comfortable at home because any time someone can come and mess things up and we may need to leave again” was tough for me. In the beginning, I didn’t want to move out of Venezuela, but I made up my mind when Chávez passed away and we had a new election. Apparently, things were going to change but we elected Nicolás Maduro. When the severity of the situation that our country was living in became clear to me, I realized that it wasn’t sustainable to live there anymore. I honestly never left my parents’ home because I was incapable of doing so, economically speaking, and safety was also a big concern; the violence and crime back at home were huge setbacks.
With regards to my family, I haven’t seen my mom and my sister for a year now and I don’t know when I will again. I’ve lost several friends to crime and human rights violations in protests and some of them have been killed or have spent time in jail because they were part of protests and demonstrations expressing opposition against the government. I don’t particularly think that being a migrant has determined my identity or who I am right now because I’ve always felt like an outsider, the people I consider family have not been the ones related to me by blood. I do feel more "at home" in Mexico. There are so many more people migrating here due to the different crises in their respective native countries and this made me realize that I didn’t have such a bad time as many other Central Americans that are running away from their countries to escape from persecution. In a very strange way, I have honestly come to appreciate and become more aware of my privilege, even though leaving my home country wasn’t exactly a happy decision."
"The main depiction of the Venezuelan female, outside Venezuela, is related to the Miss Universe scenario and a very exploitative industry of aesthetics and plastic surgery. Even the people outside of Venezuela often say that I don’t look Venezuelan enough, which makes me think “Does that mean I don’t have enough silicone in my body to justify my passport?”
“What is the role of women and feminism in Venezuela? How does this crisis affect them?”
“Honestly, I would love to say it has had more of an impact than it has. Again, back in the ’90s, it seemed like Venezuela was going to be a very progressive country and on paper, it looked like we were going to take care of some important issues regarding this subject. We were one of the first countries in the region to have a ministry that addressed women’s issues but when it came to actual practice, things didn’t work out like we thought they would.
There are two main divisions with regards to the ideologies back home. There’s the very conservative side which constantly argues that the crisis in Venezuela happened because the country allowed the ones that had never been in power before to have power. This side believes that Venezuela needs to go back to its traditional ways and this thinking has very deep roots in religion.
The other side seeks the empowerment of people who have been historically mistreated. There are some representatives and politicians using feminism as a flag, as a way of appealing to the masses by focusing on the issues that are relevant currently but Venezuela hasn’t seen much progress in this area. For example, one of the things that was a big problem when I was about to leave the country was access to contraceptives. Access to contraceptives has had a major impact on women throughout history, since it allowed them to have an option and agency over their own bodies and reproduction. Because of the national crisis and since most of Venezuela's contraceptive supply came from importation, women weren’t able to have any sort of control over reproduction. Also, Venezuela has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the region, even though official numbers aren’t even published yet because the politicians in power want to deny the true extent of the problems faced by women.
The main depiction of the Venezuelan female, outside Venezuela, is related to the Miss Universe scenario and a very exploitative industry of aesthetics and plastic surgery. Even the people outside of Venezuela often say that I don’t look Venezuelan enough, which makes me think “Does that mean I don’t have enough silicone in my body to justify my passport?”
As I mentioned earlier, I would love to say that feminists have done many things and are discussing the current problems women face in the country. I think not having Maslow's hierarchy of needs covered has made us women take a backseat and a second row of priorities when it comes to what feminism is fighting for and doing right now around the world.”
“You mentioned that you’ve been living in Mexico for the past six years. What are the primary contrasting factors between living in Venezuela and living in Mexico?”
“When we(my family) were considering leaving the country, we always knew we wanted to go to a different Latin American country. Mainly because there’s the whole idea of "the Latino way of living”, and here I want to address the misconception of Latinos not having their lives put together, and I also want to mention the fact that there’s a lot of growth and progress happening in these countries. As a young professional, you have to consider this when you think about moving to a country that has everything set because the competition in terms of jobs and workplaces is so much harsher and it is a lot more difficult to grow and become a member of the society in that country. We always knew we wanted to have more room for growth and that is something that Latin America offers. Here, there's more opportunity to explore and expand since everything isn't set in stone and although there is political distress, there’s also political conversation and questioning. Latin American countries are emerging and developing in multifaceted ways. The fact that our history has recorded a lot of setbacks is a little bit worrying, nevertheless, those setbacks also enable us to understand that there’s no single right and wrong way of doing things. In this region, there is more willingness and flexibility to implement progressive changes while acting upon the desire to grow and learn.
"I find it very interesting that you call it “performative activism” because social media, aside from bringing so many people and ideas together, has helped us to be informed about so many topics. I’ve depurated my Instagram feed to become more informed about various causes, activists, and people that I honestly believe I just need to listen to."
Because of those reasons, we were sure that we wanted to migrate to Latin America and change from what I thought was a very cultured and educated country to the massive country Mexico is. Quite frankly, the entire population of Venezuela would fit in Mexico City alone. Mexico is a massive country that is significantly richer in terms of culture and the relationships regarding the Spanish Conquest and the indigenous communities are completely different here. It has been an eye-opening experience, coming to the realisation that thinking of Latin America as only a simple chunk of land is a huge misconception and completely undermines Latin American countries. Even the idea of all of us being 'children of the corn' is problematic since we all have different relationships to corn. It’s completely different how each Latin American country interprets its landscape, culture, and background. Living in Mexico has brought me joy, and it has been an absolutely humbling experience and it has helped me define things when it comes to areas such as politics. I feel like I’m becoming more aware and critical about the systems and society we live within by refusing to be complacent with regards to imbalances of power. As a result of this, challenging power has become part of my identity.``
"We need to focus on not just the numbers or chronology of a story but also the humanity in it. Bringing back the human component of these experiences and stories means validating them."
“What can we, as teens and young adults, whether we live in Latin America or not, do to help Venezuelan people and people from all Latin American countries that are currently facing a crisis? How do we go beyond performative activism, such as only posting content on social media, and take real action?”
“Quite frankly, I’ve always loved working with teenagers. I think it’s one of the best ages since everything is so effervescent and the possibilities seem endless. Specifically, the current generation of teenagers, is the most down-to-earth and realistic about the idea of everything being possible. You teens understand that everything is indeed possible but it's necessary for us to work together to achieve the desired outcome. The possibilities you’re fighting for are not just the stereotypical cliches such as "the American dream" or the basic idea of “as long as you dream it and you work hard for it, you’ll achieve it”, you truly understand that whatever you want to change must be a product of the sweat of our foreheads. I must praise this generation of teenagers because of that hard work!
I find it very interesting that you call it “performative activism” because social media, aside from bringing so many people and ideas together, has helped us to be informed about so many topics. I’ve depurated my Instagram feed to become more informed about various causes, activists, and people that I honestly believe I just need to listen to. While answering your question about “What can we do?” I’m not only going to address teenagers, but I will also discuss what we, as people, can do to help Venezuelan people or just any other country fighting for their rights. I think there’s a lot of listening that has to be done. We need to provide a lot of validation with regards to the the trauma and personal experiences of the individuals as well as the masses, I think this is something that we lack currently. I think this idea of “The information that I know is completely different from what you’re stating as a result of your personal experiences” is very harmful because it makes us feel that someone else has a more valid version of our own lives and that version is set in stone.
When we first moved to Mexico, a lot of people would ask about my country’s situation and I could see their curiosity bubbling. They asked questions like, “Is it true you can’t even find toilet paper in stores in Venezuela?” I understand that their comments came from a place of genuine curiosity and there was this assumption that 'Oh, things over there can’t possibly be that bad.' As a third-generation migrant, I had to not only explain why my grandparents left communist Yugoslavia and why my parents had to leave communist Venezuela but also why I’m honestly not completely comfortable with how things are playing out in Mexico.
We(migrants) automatically get shut down and the people around us think our stories are exaggerated and untrue. I had to deal with people invalidating my personal experiences such as my fear of being unable to go back to my home country because the violence there is very daunting, or the fact that I had friends that had to create Go-fund-mes because they couldn't afford food in Venezuela.
I understand that we all have different versions of taking action and in this universe of mass media production, life can get overwhelming. However, I would say that right now, aside from sharing information on social media, which has honestly been great, I think that listening, being open and also, purposely exposing ourselves to these stories is the best we can do. We need to focus on not just the numbers or chronology of a story but also the humanity in it. Bringing back the human component of these experiences and stories means validating them. It is very necessary to prevent getting trapped in this left or right or right or wrong discussion that has just made it very complicated for people to realize that there’s not just one single way to mess up a country.”
I agree with Audrey and I want to incentivize the readers to reflect upon the significance of listening to the human voices behind the numbers and statistics whenever we read about a humanitarian crisis. Even if you don’t live in Venezuela or you aren't directly impacted by this issue, it is your moral duty to develop the mindset of an authentic global citizen. A global citizen that refuses to accept injustice, not only in their communities, but anywhere in the world. A global citizen that is willing to unlearn and self-educate and willing to invest their time and effort into educating others while setting healthy personal boundaries. Such a global citizen can show up and take action for those whose voices have been stolen by using all the means and resources available to them to give rise to a revolution.
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