The cultures of Venezuela are diverse and complex, influenced by the many different people who have made Venezuela their home. Venezuela has distinctive and original art, literature and music.
The cultures of Venezuela are diverse and complex, influenced by the many different people who have made Venezuela their home. Venezuela has distinctive and original art, literature and music.
Venezuela's cultural heritage includes the original Venezuelan natives, the Spanish and Africans who arrived after the Spanish conquest, and the 19th century waves of immigration that brought many Italians, Portuguese, Arabs, Germans, Moroccan Jews, and others from the bordering countries of South America. About 93% of Venezuelans live in urban areas in the northern part of the country. Even though almost half of the land area is south of the Orinoco River, only 5% of the population lives in that area. More than 71% of the population call themselves Catholic and most of the rest are other Christians, mainly Protestant.
Venezuela's heritage, art, and culture have been heavily influenced by its Caribbean context, including its historic architecture, [1] art, [2] landscape and boundaries.
Venezuelan art was initially dominated by religious motives but began emphasizing historical and heroic representations in the late 19th century, a move led by Martín Tovar y Tovar. Modernism took over in the 20th century. Venezuelan Artists include Arturo Michelena, Cristóbal Rojas, Antonio Herrera Toro, Armando Reverón, Manuel Cabré; the kinetic artists Jesús-Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Díez; and contemporary artist Yucef Merhi.
Venezuelan literature originated soon after the Spanish conquest of the mostly pre-literate indigenous societies; it was dominated by Spanish influences. Following the rise of political literature during the War of Independence, Venezuelan Romanticism, notably expounded by Juan Vicente González and Fermin Toro emerged as the first important genre in the region. Although mainly focused on narrative writing, Venezuelan literature was also advanced by poets such as Andrés Eloy Blanco and Fermín Toro.
Major writers and novelists include Rómulo Gallegos, Teresa de la Parra, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Adriano González León, Miguel Otero Silva, and Mariano Picón Salas. Andrés Bello was also an educator and poet. Other, such as Laureano Vallenilla Lanz and José Gil Fortoul, contributed to Venezuelan positivism.
Folk music of Venezuela is exemplified by the groups Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa. The national musical instrument is the cuatro . Typical musical styles and pieces mainly emerged in and around the llanos region, including "Alma Llanera" (by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez and Rafael Bolívar Coronado), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba), Concierto en la Llanura (by Juan Vicente Torrealba), and "Caballo Viejo" (by Simón Díaz).
The Zulian gaita is also a popular style, generally performed during Christmas. The national dance is the joropo . Teresa Carreño was a 19th-century piano virtuoso. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has performed in many European concert halls, including at the 2007 Proms
The celebration of Corpus Christi includes dancing in the streets in masks and uniforms of Dancing Devils. The tradition dates back to Spanish colonial times.
Baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport.[ citation needed ] There is a Venezuela national football team.
The World Values Survey has shown Venezuelans to be among the happiest people in the world, with 55% of those questioned saying they were "very happy" in 2007. [3]
Nick Wood
Aragua State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national park which is called Henri Pittier. The capital is Maracay, other important cities include Turmero and El Limón.
Mexican literature is one of the most prolific and influential of Spanish-language literatures along with those of Spain and Argentina. Found among the names of its most important and internationally recognized literary figures are authors Octavio Paz, Alfonso Reyes, Carlos Fuentes, Sergio Pitol, José Emilio Pacheco, Rosario Castellanos, Fernando del Paso, Juan Rulfo, Amado Nervo, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Ramón López Velarde, and Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, among others.
The State of Mérida commonly known simply as Mérida is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Mérida, in the Libertador Municipality.
The Palacio de Miraflores is the official residence of the President of Venezuela. It is located on Urdaneta Avenue, Libertador Bolivarian Municipality in Caracas.
María Teresa Josefa Antonia Joaquina Rodríguez del Toro Alayza, was the Spanish-born wife of Simón Bolívar. After only two years of engagement and eight months of marriage, she died after contracting yellow fever at 21 years of age. Bolívar swore and kept his promise to never remarry. According to historians, and to Bolívar himself, her death was a turning point in his life that put him in the path to become the liberator of six Latin American nations and the forefather of the Latin American integration process.
Costumbrismo is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19th century. Costumbrismo is related both to artistic realism and to Romanticism, sharing the Romantic interest in expression as against simple representation and the romantic and realist focus on precise representation of particular times and places, rather than of humanity in the abstract. It is often satiric and even moralizing, but unlike mainstream realism does not usually offer or even imply any particular analysis of the society it depicts. When not satiric, its approach to quaint folkloric detail often has a romanticizing aspect.
Municipalities of Venezuela are subdivisions of the States of Venezuela. There are 335 municipalities dividing the 23 states and the Capital District.
The Central University of Venezuela is a public university located in Caracas, Venezuela. The university is widely regarded as the highest ranking institution in the country. Founded in 1721, it is the oldest university in Venezuela and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. It is ranked 18th among the universities in Latin America.
Venezuelan literature is the literature written by Venezuelans or in Venezuela, ranging from indigenous pre-Hispanic myths to oral or written works in Spanish or other languages. The origins of Venezuelan written literature are usually held to date back to the documents written by the first Spanish colonizers, its date of birth being sometimes set at August 31, 1498, when Christopher Columbus called the Venezuelan territory in his Diaries "Tierra de gracia".
Venezuelan art has a long history. Initially dominated by religious motifs, art in Venezuela began emphasizing historical and heroic representations in the late 19th century, a move led by Martín Tovar y Tovar. Modernism took over in the 20th century. Notable Venezuelan artists include Arturo Michelena, Cristóbal Rojas, Armando Reverón, Manuel Cabré, the kinetic artists Jesús-Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez, the Meta-realism artist Pajaro and Yucef Merhi.
The National Pantheon of Venezuela is a final resting place for national heroes. The Pantheon was created in the 1870s on the site of the ruined Santísima Trinidad church from 1744 on the northern edge of the old town of Caracas, Venezuela.
The Culture of Latin America is the formal or informal expression of the people of Latin America and includes both high culture and popular culture, as well as religion and other customary practices. These are generally of Western origin, but have various degrees of Native American, African and Asian influence.
Colombian literature, as an expression of the culture of Colombia, is heterogeneous due to the coexistence of Spanish, African and Native American heritages in an extremely diverse geography. Five distinct historical and cultural traditions can be identified, with their own socioeconomic history: the Caribbean coast, Greater Antioquia, the Cundinamarca-Boyacá Highlands, Greater Tolima and the Western Valley. Colombia produced one of the richest literatures of Latin America, as much for its abundance as for its variety and innovation during the 19th and 20th centuries. Colombian intellectuals who forged the literature of this period also contributed decisively to the consolidation of Latin American literature.
The National Prize for Literature is a literary award made annually to Venezuelan writers.
This is the list of members elected in the 2017 Constituent National Assembly of Venezuela following the 30 July 2017 elections. The first session of the assembly began on 4 August 2017 in the Oval Room of the Palacio Federal Legislativo. The Democratic Unity Roundtable—the opposition to the incumbent ruling party—also boycotted the election claiming that the Constituent Assembly was "a trick to keep [the incumbent ruling party] in power." Since the opposition did not participate in the election, the incumbent Great Patriotic Pole, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, won almost all seats in the assembly by default.
Guillermo Tovar de Teresa was a Mexican historian and an art collector, bibliographer, philanthropist, cultural promoter, and scholar. He was a constant defender of the historical and artistic Mexican heritage, mainly from his hometown, of which he was chronicler, an appointment that was originally in charge of the Presidency and to which he resigned to propose the creation of the Council of the Chronicle of the City of Mexico. He was a specialist in the New Spain/Mexican colonial period art, history and literature. He published several books about Colonial Mexican art and collaborated, among others, for the newspaper La Jornada. He stood out for his early intelligence: he learned to read long before entering school, and at age 13 he was advisor to colonial art of the then president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. At 23, he published his first book, Renaissance painting and sculpture in Mexico. He was a member of the Historical Center Executive Committee, corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, in Madrid, and honorary member of the Hispanic Society of America, the latter based in New York City. He was considered a candidate for the Aesthetic Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but never wanted to hold a public office or receive any salary. One of his brothers, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, was since 2012 the head of National Council for Culture and the Arts and first secretary of Culture. His house became, in December 2018, a museum, and is part of the Soumaya Museum.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance is a ministry of the government of Venezuela with similar portfolios dating back to 1810 with the creation of a tax office. When Gran Colombia was dissolved and Venezuela assumed its independence, the Ministry of Finance was created in 1830 when General José Antonio Páez commissioned the establishment of the public business office to three Secretariats of State: Interior, Justice and Police, War and Navy, Finance, and Foreign Relations. The current minister has been Delcy Rodríguez since September 2020.