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The cultures of Venezuela are diverse and complex, influenced by the many different people who have made
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
their home. Venezuela has distinctive and original art, literature and music.
People
Venezuela's cultural heritage includes the original
Venezuelan natives, the Spanish and Africans who arrived after the
Spanish conquest
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
, and the 19th century waves of immigration that brought many
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
,
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
,
Moroccan Jews
Moroccan Jews ( ar, اليهود المغاربة, al-Yahūd al-Maghāriba he, יהודים מרוקאים, Yehudim Maroka'im) are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews b ...
, and others from the bordering countries of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. 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
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
, only 5% of the population lives in that area. More than 71% of the population call themselves
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and most of the rest are other
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, mainly
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
.
Venezuela's heritage, art, and culture have been heavily influenced by its Caribbean context, including its historic architecture, art,
landscape and boundaries.
Art
Venezuelan art
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 cen ...
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
Martín Tovar y Tovar (10 February 1827 – 17 December 1902) was a Venezuelan painter, best known for his portraits and historical scenes.
Biography
Tovar was born and died in Caracas. His father, Antonio María Tovar (1791–1860), was a fo ...
.
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
took over in the 20th century.
Venezuelan Artists
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
include
Arturo Michelena
Francisco Arturo Michelena Castillo (; 16 June 1863 – 29 July 1898) was a Venezuelan painter known for his historical and Genre art, genre scenes and portraits.
Biography
His father, Juan Antonio Michelena (1832-1918) was also a painter ...
,
Cristóbal Rojas,
Antonio Herrera Toro
Antonio Herrera Toro (16 January 1857 – 26 June 1914) was a Venezuelan painter, art critic and professor.
Biography
He was born in Valencia, Carabobo, and began his artistic studies in 1869, under the tutelage of Martín Tovar y Tovar. Five ...
,
Armando Reverón
Armando Reverón (May 10, 1889 – September 17, 1954) was a Venezuelan painter and sculptor, precursor of Arte Povera and considered one of the most important of the 20th century in Latin America. While his mental health deteriorated throughou ...
,
Manuel Cabré
Manuel Cabré (January 25, 1890 – February 26, 1984) was a noted Spanish-Venezuelan landscape painter who is remembered as "the painter of El Ávila" ( es, link=no, El pintor de El Ávila).
Life and career
Cabré was born on January 25, 1890 ...
; the
kinetic artists Jesús-Rafael Soto and
Carlos Cruz-Díez
Carlos Cruz-Diez (17 August 1923 – 27 July 2019) was a Venezuelan artist said by some scholars to have been "one of the greatest artistic innovators of the 20th century."
Exhibitions
* ''Physichromies de Cruz-Diez: Oeuvres de 1954 à 1965' ...
; and contemporary artist
Yucef Merhi
Yucef Merhi (born February 8, 1977) is a Venezuelan artist, poet and computer programmer based in New York.Carlo Zanni''INTERVIEW WITH YUCEF MERHI'', Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal's online magazine, No.18, 2004.
Early lif ...
.
Literature
Venezuelan literature
Venezuelan literature can be traced to pre-Hispanic times with the myths and oral literature that formed the cosmogonic view of the world that indigenous people had. Some of these stories are still known in Venezuela. Like many Latin American count ...
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
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, notably expounded by Juan Vicente González and
Fermin Toro
Fermin (also Firmin, from Latin ''Firminus''; Spanish ''Fermín'') was a legendary holy man and martyr, traditionally venerated as the co-patron saint of Navarre, Spain. His death may be associated with either the Decian persecution (250) or Dio ...
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
Andrés Eloy Blanco Meaño (6 August 1896 – 21 May 1955) was a noted Venezuelan poet and politician. He was a member of the ''Generación del 28'', and one of the founders of Acción Democrática (AD). He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of ...
and
Fermín Toro
Fermín Toro y Blanco (Caracas- El Valle, 14 July 1806 - Caracas, 23 December 1865) was a Venezuelan humanist, politician, diplomat and author.
Biography
Within his public life he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, twice Minister of Finance (in ...
.
Major writers and novelists include
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of nine months during 1948, he governed as the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. He was ...
,
Teresa de la Parra
Teresa de la Parra (October 5, 1889 – April 23, 1936) was a Venezuelan novelist.
Life
She was born Ana Teresa Parra Sanojo in Paris, the daughter of Rafael Parra Hernáiz, Venezuelan Ambassador in Berlin, and Isabel Sanojo de Parra.
As ...
,
Arturo Uslar Pietri
Arturo Uslar Pietri (16 May 1906 in Caracas – 26 February 2001) was a Venezuelan intellectual, historian, writer, television producer, and politician.
Life
Born on 16 May 1906 in Caracas, Venezuela, his parents were generalSantos Himiob ...
,
Adriano González León
Adriano González León (Valera, Trujillo State, 14 November 1931 - Caracas, 12 January 2008)
was a Venezuelan writer who is known in his country for the novel ''País Portátil'' (1968), widely regarded as the premier Venezuelan novel of the la ...
,
Miguel Otero Silva
Miguel Otero Silva (October 26, 1908 – August 28, 1985), was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. A figure of great relevance in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works related strictly to the socio-politi ...
, and
Mariano Picón Salas
Mariano Federico Picón Salas was a Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century, born in Mérida, Mérida, Mérida (Mérida State) on January 26, 1901, and died in Caracas on January 1, 1965. Among his books, his collecti ...
.
Andrés Bello
Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López (; November 29, 1781 – October 15, 1865) was a Venezuelan- Chilean humanist, diplomat, poet, legislator, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an ...
was also an educator and poet. Other, such as
Laureano Vallenilla Lanz
Laureano Vallenilla Lanz (November 10, 1870 – November 16, 1936) was a Venezuelan intellectual and sociologist who occupied the presidency of the congress for 20 years during the Gomez regime.
Political career
Vallenilla Lanz held a number of ...
and
José Gil Fortoul
José Gil Fortoul (25 November 1861, in Barquisimeto, Lara – 15 June 1943, in Caracas) was a Venezuelan writer, historian, and politician, who was briefly the acting president of Venezuela. As a political scientist and legal scholar, he is cl ...
, contributed to Venezuelan
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
.
Music
Folk music of Venezuela is exemplified by the groups ''Un Solo Pueblo'' and
Serenata Guayanesa
Serenata Guayanesa is a vocal and instrumental quartet that plays typical Venezuelan folk music. It is one of the two best known groups that play this style of music (the other being Un Solo Pueblo).Mark Dinneen, ''Culture and customs of Venezuel ...
. The national musical instrument is the ''
cuatro
Cuatro is Spanish language, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4 (number), number four.
Cuatro may also refer to:
* Cuatro (instrument), name for two distinct Latin American instruments, one from Puerto Rico (see cuatro (Puerto Rico), ...
''. Typical musical styles and pieces mainly emerged in and around the ''llanos'' region, including "
Alma Llanera
"Alma Llanera" ("Soul of the Plains") is a Venezuelan song, a joropo, created by Venezuelan musicians Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (composer) and Rafael Bolívar Coronado (lyricist). It was originally part of a zarzuela whose premiere was on September ...
" (by
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (March 14, 1870–May 31, 1954) was a Venezuelan musician who is mainly remembered for the song ''Alma Llanera'', whose music he composed for the zarzuela of the same name.
Gutiérrez also led the Orquesta Caraque ...
and
Rafael Bolívar Coronado
Rafael Bolívar Coronado was a Venezuelan composer and author. He was born on 6 June 1884 in Villa de Cura, Aragua, Aragua State.
Bolívar is best known for writing the lyrics of the popular joropo song ''Alma Llanera'', in conjunction with com ...
), ''Florentino y el Diablo'' (by
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba (September 3, 1905 – March 28, 1971), was a Venezuelan lawyer, educator and folklorical poet. He was author oFlorentino y El Diablo which was set to music as a duet in the style known as ''contrapunteo''.
Legacy
A mun ...
), ''Concierto en la Llanura'' (by
Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba (20 February 1917 – 2 May 2019) was a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music. In 1947 he founded the group Los Torrealberos with his brother Arturo and his son Santana, playing with passion and rich nuances the ...
), and "
Caballo Viejo
"Caballo Viejo" ('Old Horse') is a Venezuelan folk song written and composed by Simón Díaz, which appears on the 1980 album ''Golpe Y Pasaje''. It has become one of the most important folk songs in Venezuela and is regarded as a classic. "Bam ...
" (by
Simón Díaz
Simón Narciso Díaz Márquez (August 8, 1928 – February 19, 2014) was a Venezuelan singer and Grammy Award-winning composer of Venezuelan music.
Career
Díaz endeavored to recover the folklore and musical traditions of the '' llanos'', the Ve ...
).
The Zulian ''
gaita'' is also a popular style, generally performed during Christmas. The national dance is the ''
joropo
The joropo is a musical style resembling the fandango, and an accompanying dance. It originated in Venezuela and is also present in the eastern Colombian plains. It has African, Native South American, and European influences. There are differe ...
''.
Teresa Carreño
María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22, 1853June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pia ...
was a 19th-century piano virtuoso. The
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has performed in many European concert halls, including at the 2007
Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
Festivals
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.
Sports
Baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport. There is a
Venezuela national football team
The Venezuela national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Venezuela) represents Venezuela in men's international football and is controlled by the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF), the governing body for football in Venezuela. Th ...
.
The
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people's values and beliefs, how they change over time, and what social and political impact they have. Since 1981 a worldwide network of social scientists have conducted r ...
has shown Venezuelans to be among the happiest people in the world, with 55% of those questioned saying they were "very happy" in 2007.
Sources
Nick Wood
{{South America in topic, Culture of