Yesterday, while I was updating this blog I realized that I've been writing for longer than what I expected to do it at first.Chavez won the elections all over again just two months before I published the first entry, and the depressing environment of lost hopes involved me. I got the feeling (right or wrong) that in Spanish, between the press and the websites, the TV and the discussions at the university; pretty much everything that I could say about the Venezuelan political crisis had already been said. So I decided to start a blog for an English speaking audience, an audience interested on the Venezuelan issues but obviously situated in time, space and life; quite far away from us to experience it for real. For eight months now, I’ve been writing the part of the story of my life that is related directly with the political changes developing in my country and so I put my own experience in the table when it comes to defend my stances against the project leaded by my current president. I consider that a testimony is a value tool to understand our situation and Internet (the blogosphere in this case) it’s a suitable place to do it. I’m obviously not the only Venezuelan' (for putting just an example) who is writting about these issues in a very personal way and in a foreign language. But every testimony is at least slightly different from the other, and more testimonies can help us building a complete picture of the past events and the president situation. And even counting that sometimes the track of the events discourages me, its now more important than it was before to keep writting about it.
I’m happy with the results that this project has given so far: loads of pages and stories in a stolen language, an average of 25-30 visits a day (if I can understand my counter right) which it’s a pretty low number but its ok for me to handle it, a few friends and loads of learning on the English language, on my country’s situation and the variety of ways others look at it. So for “celebrate” this 8 Month-versary, I'm going to clear up three of the most common questions or critics that a reader usually makes about this blog:
1. I have heard a strong but positive critics that wondered if I hold the pretension of putting my stories as the reality, and my opinions as the representation of most Venezuelans living under Chavez.
To that, I must answer, and make clear that the perspective exposed across this blog on the Venezuelan situation, like Kate once said is not absolute and should not ever be taken as a fully realistic representation of all the Venezuelans. The blog title says it all “The end of Venezuela as I know it”, as I know it, only me, myself and me. My words could be similar to the thoughs of some venezuelans but this is about personal stories and not about stats or pull results.
To consider my opinion the opinion of the majority its unethical and unrealistic and besides; in a country where the leading political system talks without stop about the people, the majority, and the groups giving the picture of Venezuela as a crowd of robots; I wanted to rescue the valor of the individual and that individual opinions, even if they are a minority; should be heard, respected and considered.
2. Many people have asked me why my URL addresses is “antipatrioticvenezuelan”. First, to call myself antipatriotic it’s a reference to the way the president – and therefore the government and all its followers – have been rejecting in the speech a whole group of the Venezuelan society: the traditional middle and high class calling them “oligarcas” (oligarchs), “escuálidos” (can’t think of a translation right now) and even “traitors” and counter- revolutionaries; therefore, not “real venezuelans”. This has created unnecessary stereotypes and has been the seed of a very strong hate (it has been said that its class and race based) between Venezuelans, dividing the country in two irreconcilable sides of which one of them is accused of being “antipatriotic” if it doesn’t supports what the other follows. Putting “antipatriotic” as my URL address was my way of reflects the way the most radical revolutionaries see people like me, and to stand against it. I started to dislike patriotism as an ideology that could lead to ethnocentrism and totalitarian views on the reality besides other grave consequences. This might be considered by the readers as extreme. And it is. But the readers might understand as well (not necessarily support it) the reasons why I hold such a stance.
3. Others had also asked me why I sign with the name “Julia_1984” instead of putting my real name. The name “Julia_1984” comes from one of my favorite novels: 1984 by George Orwell. More than once, I have felt like this Julia character so the name fits. Besides, as a coincidence, I was born on 1984. A fellow blogger told me about past threats against Venezuelan bloggers. You are free to call this paranoia. I'm afraid of what could happen in the future since the president its determined to erase little by little any opposition that remains. But lately I have found another reason to remain undercover: not writing with my real name makes me feel freer to write.