#venezuelan-letters

#venezuelan-letters

Valeria Luiselli, an acclaimed author, discusses the intricacies of Julio Cortázar's 'The Night Face Up,' highlighting its themes and narrative structure that intertwine reality and dreams.

"One must put himself in the period... crime had a certain familiarity from its repetition through time.... That's what they were like, unscrupulous. So was I. And since we are speaking about it, so was the Renaissance."

This is not a simple administrative issue, but a renewed attempt by the center-right government of Rodrigo Paz to sweep aside the memory of the world's most famous guerrilla fighter, who was assassinated in the Bolivian village of La Higuera in 1967. Since Bolivia's Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) lost power to the new government last year, several attempts have been made to rid the country of Guevara's legacy.

For years, Luis Peche, a 31-year-old political consultant, dreamed of a Venezuela without its leader, Nicolas Maduro. Living under Maduro's rule, Peche saw friends flee the country for fear of hunger and repression. Others were imprisoned for their activism. Then, in May 2025, Peche himself was forced into exile after being tipped off that security forces were preparing to arrest him. He has lived in Colombia ever since.

Michelle Paulin dances while instructing youth at the Dulce Tricolor Venezolano dance group at the Ariel Dance Studio in Campbell on Jan. 25, 2026. Dulce Tricolor, a Bay Area Venezuelan dance group founded in 2019, teaches children traditional folk dances while preserving culture, building community and offering a sense of home amid Venezuela's ongoing political and economic crisis. (Josie Lepe for KQED)