A new book of essay and poetry seeks to share the reality of Venezuela’s current political and social dilemmas, while expressing a profound sadness along with hope for the country’s future. This powerful work is the expression of the talented Arcaniam, a poet and scholar living in exile from her homeland in the United States. She explores in both Spanish and English her experiences as a stranger in a new land, longing for a place that no longer exists.
I worked with the author on the poetry portion of the manuscript to assist with the English translation. She was kind enough to share more about the work with me here.
Below, she discusses her new book and its meaning in context with her life.
V: You are writing this from the U.S. Please share a bit of your personal journey to write this book.
A: I attended The University of Los Andes, Venezuela, earning two bachelor degrees “Classical Languages and Literature” and “Hispanic and Venezuelan Language and Literature” and was awarded as valedictorian in 2014. Despite my hard work in college, I knew that I had to leave the country if I wanted to have the opportunity to accomplish my dreams. Because In Venezuela was difficult to imagine that the economic and political situation would improve.
I came to the U.S. to study English and prepare myself to travel to Europe, the only other place that I considered home — During WWII, my grandparents traveled from Europe to Venezuela running from the famine caused by the war in Italy and Spain and now I planned to leave Venezuela, traveling to where my ancestors ironically fled. —
However, in the United States, I discovered a new world of opportunities and began writing about my own journey and the difficulties that my people and I have been going through over the last twenty years of dictatorship.
I found in writing a way of being able to articulate those traumatic events and at the same time, I found peace and healing through my poetry. For that reason, what started as personal poems about the long years of authoritarianism that my country went through, transformed, with time, into a book about the Venezuelan dictatorship and exile.
The situation at home (Venezuela) has become increasingly volatile. What made you decide to publish your book and why now?
I have been working on “Desde el Exilio: a Collection of Poems from the Exile” for many months. However, the political situation has worsened in the last month and the incredible amount of misinformation gave me reason to publish this personal memoir as soon as possible.
Why is concealing your identity important to you?
At first, I wanted to protect everybody who was part of this project, including myself. However, now I feel that Arcaniam works more as an alter ego of the person that I became after leaving everything I once knew behind … Arcaniam is my artistic name, but also the new me, the one who is not afraid of using my words to show people the reality of my beaten country.
You quote several Latin American writers in your opening. Is there one that influenced you greatly?
Cortazar, Benedetti, Neruda and Jose Marti are among the most important Latin American writers of all time. However, they also went through the horror of living under the dictatorships of their own countries: Argentina (1976-1983), Uruguay (1973-1985), Chile (1973-1990), and Cuba (1953-now ). They all have contributed to my journey as a writer, but I also found inspiration and hope in their recounts about their exile.
What do you have to say to other Venezuelan writers at home or in exile?
As writers, we have a duty to report and write about what we perceive as truth in the world.
I believe that through the power of words, we need to reach as many people as we can in order to help turn the tides in this dictatorship.
I have spent many sleepless nights thinking about the pain of our people living in a dictatorship and how to best illustrate that situation. I have felt fear and helplessness just imagining what we are going through as a country. However, now I know that we are extremely lucky for being able to tell not only our own story but the story of our people to those who never had to live in a dictatorship. We are all ambassadors of what is really happening in our country, and we know that if one person gets shut down by the regime, another one would rise and speak the truth of what is going on in Venezuela. Our words can be persecuted but never extinguished.
We know that writing about the darkest times that our country has been going through is not easy. But it’s important to stay true to our words and not let the regime silence our voices. Because our words are our weapons in this war for freedom—in the correct hands, they can cause more damage than the bullets of the dictator. Maduro and his cronies know this, and that’s the main reason for the censure of our newspapers, TV channels, and the incarcerations against people who wrote against them.
Do you plan to return to Venezuela again someday?
Before the publication of this book, I visited Venezuela after two years of not seeing my family. I thought that I couldn’t just wait for the end of the dictatorship to see them.
I can tell you that the country that I once knew does not exist. The streets are abandoned because many have left the country and the others are afraid of going out at night, so before 6:00 p.m., everybody is in their homes. My country right now is the perfect picture of a failed political experiment.
However, my biggest dream is that one day I will see my country free once more. My country used to be called a paradise by thousands of Europeans who found a refuge from the war in Venezuela.
Although it will probably take many years for Venezuela to recover from all the destruction that the dictatorship has caused, I dream of seeing that prosperous place that my grandparents described to me.
What can you tell those who want to help your country and its people?
The regime propaganda has taken over different social media sites, spreading lies about the reality of the country. For that reason, it’s important to double check a source what we share on social media.
Furthermore, it’s important to stop criticizing the people who are there trying to free Venezuela. Twenty years of dictatorship is difficult to overthrow overnight, and people are asking for immediate solutions without realizing that we need to keep up the morale. We are fighting against a narco-dictatorship that owns weapons, whereas the majority of Venezuelans are unprotected.
We Venezuelans need to be together more than ever, and we need the support of the international community, because every voice counts. Every time that someone speaks in favor of my people is a step forward in the freedom of our country.
Also, if people have the means to donate, there is a webpage that is collecting money to bring food and medicines to the people of Venezuela: https://www.venezuelaaidlive.com/
Val is an editor available to assist with translations of poetry and other texts. She enjoys helping multilingual authors express themselves more clearly.
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