Greetings, every one
In 1998 Hugo Chavez promised there would not be abandoned children/beggars in the streets.
“Yo me prohíbo a mí mismo, Hugo Chávez se prohíbe a si mismo que haya niños de la calle en Venezuela. Me lo prohíbo, no puede haber niños de la calle en Venezuela.”
He "forbid himself" to contemplate such misery. 20 years later, not only did that promise remain unfulfilled, but now we have more children, young men/women, and elderly people in the worse conditions of human indignity imaginable.
In Cumaná, the city I have lived in for almost 30 years we have seen these kids become men and women, age, and die like stranded dogs. In the last years we have seen them multiply and we have witnessed the transformation of perfectly healthy and sane people into human waste.
I have tried to document their lives, but it is a difficult task. You can't help feeling immoral or irresponsible for taking anything from them, who have nothing, without giving them something back, without changing or improving their condition significantly. I can't help watching them. Sometimes I stop just to observe their behavior, to try to imagine what kinds of lives they lived before, what kinds of lives they might have lived had they not fallen pray to poverty, vices, and neglect.
The Model
There is one particular man I decided to draw. He sits every day, all day long, on the corner of Bermudez Av. and Vargas St. He usually has a notebook where he scribbles and a cushion he never sits on. Sometimes he stares at a piece of newspaper or magazine with the intensity of a feverish mind trying to decode the mysteries of the universe. This is my way of telling him that I feel sorry for all of them, that I wish I could change their lives and give them their humanity back, that I have tried to understand their condition and their suffering.
Process:
It has become increasing difficult for the average person to even provide some food, leftovers even, to these people. They might as well be invisible.
This is my way of making visible a shameful reality the chavista governments have consistently denied and censored.
How can something so big, so ubiquitous be hidden anymore?
The city keeps going and people keep moving regardless.
But now that we have experienced the dramatic realization that any of us can be a beggar any time, I think we should start looking at these human remains as mirrors.
Thanks for stopping by
All images from personal files
Visítanos en: www.equipocardumen.com.ve
When I was a young woman, I worked with street children. It was a time when anyone with a darker skin was invisible to the government of the day. Unless they caused a nuisance. Heartbreaking what powerful people will allow to happen to their people. On Saturday we celebrated 25 years of democracy (check out my post if you like), but we have just come through a really bad patch, thanks to Jacob Zuma. We vote again on 8 May. We are all worried about the rise of the populist right. We could, especially with the discovery of oil, if the wrong people get into power, and up like you and your compatriots.
Thank you for this beautiful series of drawings
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Thank you very much.
I hope what happened to us will not happen anywhere else, but again, history is meant to repeat itself. People just refuses to learn and some people seem to feed from others' pains and tribulations.
And the historians think that we should learn from history. I agree with you. They (we) don't. Thank you for your good wishes. Let's see what 9 - 10 May hold for South Africa.
Be well @hlezama
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A very powerful sketch art, @hlezama! I can see that you are trying to convey the hardship and the awful life that is the legacy of a revolution... The photos you included painted a very confronting reality and I really like the sketch that you produced! The step by step presentation is nicely done and showcases your artistic skills well, too!
Very good post, @hlezama! I applaud you :)
Thank you for your comment.
I had many more pictures from beggars in the streets, but I did not want to deviate the attention that much from the drawing. There are women in our streets completely insane whose pictures would be too abusive/disrespectful to show. However, I plan to make another post just devoted to them and some of the stories behind their conditions.
@hlezama,
Henrry, great sketch, mate. And great insights.
The most dangerous thing in the world is a Utopian ideology. When a fantasy becomes real, one's ability to Reality Test, to distinguish between the former and the latter, is destroyed. And, as a consequence, common sense, and the evidence of one's eyes, become little more than enemies in need of defeat.
"You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." Lenin, quoting Robespierre.
Venezuela has become a nation of broken eggs ... all in the service of a Utopian fantasy that had already been tried countless times and which had, in every single instance, failed miserably.
The lives that are lost never come back ... and yet, that argument never seems to convince the dreamers. "This time, it will be different."
Believe it or not, many Western Progressives (Far Leftists) refuse to criticize Chavez or Maduro. Venezuela's current woes are the fault of the CIA ... and besides, the problems are not as bad as the media is portraying.
Reality Testing.
Quill
Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
As always, with comments that incite more introspection and analysis. It is not only an obviously failed ideology, but a criminal one. That's what makes it more frustrating when people keep "arguing" in its defense.
I just read some statements from Russian officials blaming the wave of Venezuelan illegal immigrants to the US sanctions. Venezuelans started to fly away since 2002 when Chavez did not hesitate to fire 20,000 oil workers because they were sabotaging his government.
Other waves hit the region in 2004 when it became evident that they would do anything to remain on power and modify the constitution they had just drafted so that it would always fit their power hunger. Then in 2008 when the mega devaluation (emergence of the bolivar fuerte) made it evident that we were going down the misery drain. And the, came Maduro in 2013 (the celebration of chavez's death did not last long) and the robbery of that election sealed out destiny and that of millions who had been waiting patiently for a change of winds.
The fucking sanctions that started in 2017 and were directed innitially only to government officials who, despite their despise for the empire and capitalism, enjoyed royalty lives in the capitalist centers of the world (the lovers of equality do not seem to see a problem in that).
I am at loss with the mixed messages of the EU. On the one hand they seem to support deposing Maduro, but then the USA sanctions Cuba and they all get offended because France and Spain, among others have economic interests there. Cuba has been instrumental in the tragedy that has befalled the Venezuelan people. This double standard coming from developed countries is very frustrating.
I am honestly losing hope.
Ciertamente amigo @hlezama la mendicidad siempre ha sido algo muy triste de apreciar, personas reducidas casi que a animales que deambulan de aquí para allá ante la indolencia de la gente. Muchas veces los perros reciben un mejor trato. Yo estudíe y viví mucho tiempo en Cumaná, siempre voy para allá pues allí vive la familia de mi esposa y da pena ver como la "primogenita del continente" se sume cada vez mas en el abandono y la miseria.
Cuando mi madre murió le hicimos los "rezos" en la iglesia San Vicente Paul y me sorprendió ver todos los dias asistiendo a misa a dos indigentes, uno aún en sus cabales era el primero en tomar la santa hostia llegando el momento de la comunión, el otro, era un enejenado mental que pese a ello se quedaba hasta que terminara la misa para acto seguido "ofrendar" ante el santísimo una edición de la "Atalaya" de los Testigos de Jehová (creo que dentro de su vado mental, algo queda aún).
Saludos paisano, nos seguimos leyendo. Felicitaciones por tu trabajo.
Muchas gracias, hermano. Gracias por tu evocativo comentario.
Creo que cualquiera que haya visitado Cumaná hace unos 20 años llorará de verla en el estado en que quedó. Y es la capital del estado. ¿Que le dejamos a las otras poblaciones?
This is a very good sketch of a very tragic situation. Art can be used to bring awareness to these things.
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I think so.
Thank you very much
I've seen that man and others. I would like to know more about their past experiences, their lives and how the think. What happened to them?
This is a very good drawing, professor Lezama. The lost invisible man, I would call it. It shows what really happens out there. He's motionless while everything else is moving. I see it. I feel it. And I am guilty for that too. Can't do anything but look and keep walking. But I'm just one of thousands trying to survive.
People walk around him as if he is not there. Life continues. Small city keeps moving. "Not my problem".
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this amazing comment.
Coming from an artist like yourself it is a big compliment. I appreciate your sensibility and thoughtfulness.
I am losing faith in the possibility of our people changing for the better in the near future.
I've already lost faith in it. But let's keep making art. It help us to find ourselves and others. Maybe it can bring faith back again.
Art can express what it can't be said. And I know there's a lot to say about this issue and it hurts. This pice of art helps to illustrate your true words.
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I love your expression and your passion @hlezama Without people like you who see the truth, share it, and have compassion for humanity, we're all lost. We cannot give up. Change is up to US. What you do makes a difference in the World ♥
Thank you so much for your kind words
Very nice, both sketches and text, but I fear the biggest problem with art that presents decay, misery and all kinds of negativeness is that it actually beautify reality, as art is intrinsically esthetical.
That's inevitable and pretty much described in many theories.
You are right. That's the risk. However, art also has the quality of durability and long-lasting effect after its contemplation. The same problem, presented on a nespaper as part of, say, a denunciatory peace may have an inmediate impact but it is (more?) easily forgetable. I'd like to believe artistic representations can linger deeper in the audience and strike certain cords that may produce a change of attitude or awareness on the given subject.
This, of course, is also theoretical.
I appreciate your stopping by and commenting.
Have a great week
That's really sad that promises weren't kept and more people because homeless in the process. It's hard seeing people struggle like this... I like the sketch that you did. You're right also about us looking at the human remains as mirrors.
Thanks for your comment.
The saddest thing about this unprecedented moral ruin is that it happened while the country received the highest oil revenues in all its history (from 2010 to 2014 oil prices were around 100$/barrel; before Chavez prices were as down as 10$ and we never saw these levels of poverty).
They could have made sure that all 30 million inhabitants in the country lived decent lives and still live the ostentatious lives they so much criticized from capitalist countries but deep down coveted and materialized for themselves and their close relatives.
That was deep and is a confirming message.
Stay safe, although it may be difficult.
Thanks. We do our best. We are living monotonous/secluded lives