Culture of Venezuela
Encyclopedia
The Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n people have a rich cultural heritage. From the original American Indians
Indigenous peoples in Venezuela
Indigenous peoples in Venezuela form about 1.5% of the total population, although many Venezuelans share some indigenous ancestry. Indigenous peoples are concentrated in the southern Amazon rainforest state of Amazonas, where they make up nearly 50% of the population, and in the Andes of the...
to the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Africans who arrived after the Spanish conquest, the twentieth century waves of immigration brought many Italians, Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, Arabs, Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, Moroccan Jews, and others from the bordering countries of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. 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 live in that area. More than 96% of the population call themselves Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
. The rest belong to other churches, mainly the Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
church.
Venezuela's heritage, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, and culture have been heavily influenced by the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
context. These elements extend to its historic buildings, architecture, art, landscape, boundaries, and monuments. Venezuelan culture has been shaped by indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
and African influences. Before this period, indigenous culture was expressed in art (petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
s), craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...
s, architecture (shabono
Shabono
A shabono is a hut used by the Yanomami Amerindians of extreme southern Venezuela and extreme northern Brazil....
s), and social organization. Aboriginal culture was subsequently assimilated by Spaniards; over the years, the hybrid culture had diversified by region.
Venezuelan art
Art of Venezuela
Venezuelan art has a long and eventful history. Venezuela's museums and galleries are well on the way to forming a new discourse in which the public can experience and interact. Capturing a the Venezuelan public view and interact with the installations and collections within a museum setting,...
was initially dominated by religious motifs but began emphasizing historical and heroic representations in the late 19th century, a move led by Martín Tovar y Tovar
Martín Tovar y Tovar
Martín Tovar y Tovar was one of the most important and high-profile Venezuelan painters of the 19th century. Tovar y Tovar's most famous work is his famous and well-known depiction of the Battle of Carabobo...
. Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
took over in the 20th century. Notable Venezuelan artists
Venezuelan Artists
19th Century Venezuelan Artists: *Martín Tovar y Tovar *Eloy Palacios , artist, sculptor and painter*Arturo Michelena *Cristóbal Rojas *Emilio Bogio...
include Arturo Michelena
Arturo Michelena
Arturo Michelena was a Venezuelan painter born in Valencia, Carabobo State. He began to paint at a young age under his father's tutelage. Traveled to Paris where he studied in the famous Académie Julian...
, Cristóbal Rojas
Cristóbal Rojas
Cristóbal Rojas was one of the most important and high-profile Venezuelan painters of the 19th century...
, Armando Reverón
Armando Reverón
Armando Julio Reverón was a modernist painter of the late 19th and early 20th century in Venezuela. Most of his work was inspired by the coast, landscape and people of Macuto, located in the central coast of Venezuela, and was characterized by his view and expression of the bright luminosity of...
, Manuel Cabré
Manuel Cabré
Manuel Cabré was a noted Spanish-Venezuelan landscape painter who is remembered as "the painter of El Ávila" .-Biography:...
; the kinetic art
Kinetic art
Kinetic art is art that contains moving parts or depends on motion for its effect. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles.-Kinetic sculpture:...
ists Jesús-Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Díez
Carlos Cruz-Díez
Carlos Cruz-Diez is a Venezuelan kinetic and op artist. He lives in Paris. He has spent his professional career working and teaching between both Paris and Caracas. His work is represented in museums and public art sites internationally...
; and contemporary artist Yucef Merhi
Yucef Merhi
Yucef Merhi is a Venezuelan artist, poet and computer programmer, based in New York.-Life and work:Yucef Merhi was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He studied at Universidad Central de Venezuela and New School University.. His artistic practice began in the mid 80s...
.
Venezuelan 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 countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the greatest...
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
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, notably expounded by Juan Vicente González, emerged as the first important genre in the region. Although mainly focused on narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
writing, Venezuelan literature was advanced by poets such as Andrés Eloy Blanco
Andrés Eloy Blanco
Andrés Eloy Blanco Meaño was an important Venezuelan poet, politician, member of the Generación del 28, and one of the founders of Acción Democrática ....
and Fermín Toro.
Major writers and novelists include Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of some nine months during 1948, he was the first cleanly elected president in his country's history....
, Teresa de la Parra
Teresa de la Parra
-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 a member of a wealthy family, Ana Teresa spent part of her childhood at her father's hacienda, Tazón...
, Arturo Uslar Pietri
Arturo Uslar Pietri
Arturo Uslar Pietri , was a Venezuelan intellectual, lawyer, journalist, writer, television producer and politician.- Life :...
, Adriano González León
Adriano González León
Adriano González León was a Venezuelan writer who is known in his country for the novel País Portátil , widely regarded as the premier Venezuelan novel of the latter half of the 20th century, and for his many years of hosting a television program dedicated to promoting literary appreciation among...
, Miguel Otero Silva
Miguel Otero Silva
Miguel Otero Silva , was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. Remaining a figure of great reference in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works were strictly related to the social and political history of Venezuela.-Life:Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui State,...
, and Mariano Picón Salas
Mariano Picón Salas
Mariano Federico Picón Salas, an influential Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century, was born in Mérida on January 26, 1901 and died in Caracas on January 1, 1965. Among his books, his collection of essays on history, literary criticism and cultural history are...
. The great poet and humanist Andrés Bello
Andrés Bello
Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López was a Venezuelan humanist, poet, lawmaker, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture...
was also an educator and intellectual. Others, such as Laureano Vallenilla Lanz
Laureano Vallenilla Lanz
Laureano Vallenilla Lanz was a Venezuelan intellectual and sociologist. Vallenilla Lanz held a number of positions under the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez and is well-known as an apologist for his regime...
and José Gil Fortoul
José Gil Fortoul
José Gil Fortoul was a writer, historian, politician and member of Venezuelan positivism, appointed as Provisional President in 1913...
, contributed to Venezuelan Positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
.
Carlos Raúl Villanueva
Carlos Raúl Villanueva
Carlos Raúl Villanueva was the most prominent Venezuelan architect of the 20th century and one of the great Modernists. He played a major role in the development and modernization of Caracas, Maracay and other cities across the country...
was the most important Venezuelan architect of the modern era; he designed the Central University of Venezuela
Central University of Venezuela
The Central University of Venezuela is a premier public University of Venezuela located in Caracas...
, (a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
) and its Aula Magna. Other notable architectural works include the Capitolio, the Baralt Theatre
Baralt Theatre
El Teatro Baralt is an important Venezuelan cultural institution dating from the first half of the 19th century, and headquartered in downtown Maracaibo, at the north-western corner of Plaza Bolivar, at the intersection of the streets Urdaneta and Venezuela...
, the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex
Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex
The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex , also known as Teresa Carreño Theater , is the most important theatre of Caracas and Venezuela, where performances include symphonic and popular concerts, opera, ballet and plays...
, and the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge
General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge
The General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge is located at the outlet of Lake Maracaibo, in western Venezuela. The bridge connects Maracaibo with much of the rest of the country...
. Other great architects are Fruto Vivas disciple of Carlos Raúl Villanueva
Carlos Raúl Villanueva
Carlos Raúl Villanueva was the most prominent Venezuelan architect of the 20th century and one of the great Modernists. He played a major role in the development and modernization of Caracas, Maracay and other cities across the country...
who designed Culb Táchira, the Venezuelan Flower in Barquisimeto
Barquisimeto
Barquisimeto is the capital city of the State of Lara located in west central Venezuela, halfway between Caracas and Maracaibo on the Turbio River.-Overview:...
among others and Oscar Tenreriro modernist in his style.
Music of Venezuela
The music of Venezuela is an expression of the Venezuelan culture, which contains diverse Music genres, traditional and moderns according with the features of each geographic region; although it is frequent to find different musical styles in the same region...
are exemplified by the groups Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa
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 playing this music .-Origins of the group:...
. The national musical instrument is the cuatro
Cuatro (instrument)
The cuatro is any of several Latin American instruments of the guitar or lute family. The cuatro is smaller than a guitar. Cuatro means four in Spanish, although current instruments may have more than four strings....
. Typical musical styles and pieces mainly emerged in and around the llanos region, including Alma Llanera
Alma Llanera
Alma Llanera is a popular Joropo song composed by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez and with lyrics of Rafael Bolívar Coronado. It was part of a zarzuela whose premiere was on September 19, 1914 at the Teatro Municipal de Caracas....
(by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez was a Venezuelan musician who is mainly remembered by the joropo song Alma Llanera, whose music he composed.-Life and valoration:...
and Rafael Bolívar Coronado
Rafael Bolivar Coronado
Rafael Bolívar Coronado was born in Villa de Cura, , Venezuela, on 6 June 1884. He is the author of the lyrics of the popular joropo song "Alma Llanera"...
), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba , was a Venezuelan lawyer, educator and folklorical poet. Author of .Torrealba was born in Barinas. But in his youth, he moved to Caracas where he studied high school, and attended the Central University of Venezuela...
), Concierto en la Llanura by Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba
Juan Vicente Torrealba Pérez in Caracas, Venezuela, is a Venezuelan harpist and composer of popular music.Although born on the outskirts of Caracas, the family moved while he was very young to a ranch in Camaguán, Guárico. The poverty of the family and the region were such that he worked as a...
, and Caballo Viejo
Caballo Viejo
"Caballo Viejo" is a Venezuelan folk song created by Simón Díaz, which appears on the 1980 album Caballo Viejo. It has become one of the most important folk songs in Venezuela and is already regarded as a classic....
(by Simón Díaz
Simón Díaz
Simón Narciso Díaz Márquez is a singer and Grammy Award winning composer of Venezuelan music.- Career :Díaz has endeavored to recover the folklore and musical traditions of the llanos, the Venezuelan plains...
).
The Zulian gaita is also a popular style, generally performed during Christmas. The national dance is the joropo
Joropo
The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences originated in Venezuela and performed in Colombia and Venezuela. It's a fundamental genre belonging to its typical music or música criolla...
. Teresa Carreño
Teresa Carreño
María Teresa Carreño García de Sena was a Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor.Born into a musical family, she was at first taught by her father, then by Mathias, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Anton Rubinstein and her talent was recognized at an early age...
was a world-famous 19th century piano virtuosa. In the last years, Classical Music has had great performances. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has realized excellent presentations in many European concert halls, notably at the 2007 Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or 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 Hall in London...
, and has received honors of the public.
Baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
is Venezuela's most popular sport, although football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
, spearheaded by the Venezuela national football team
Venezuela national football team
The Venezuela national football team is the national football team of Venezuela and is controlled by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol. It is nicknamed La Vinotinto , because of the traditional burgundy color of their shirts....
, is gaining influence.
Venezuela is well-known for its successes in beauty pageants. Miss Venezuela
Miss Venezuela
The Miss Venezuela contest is the national beauty pageant of Venezuela and has been held since 1952. It is responsible for selecting the country's representatives to the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Earth and Miss International pageants .Under the direction of Osmel Sousa, Venezuela has...
is a big event in the country, and Venezuela has received 5 Miss World
Miss World
The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...
, 6 Miss Universe
Miss Universe
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....
, Miss International
Miss International
Miss International is an annual international beauty pageant held since 1960.The current Miss International is Fernanda Cornejo, from Ecuador...
titles and 1 Miss Earth title.
The World Values Survey
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey 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. It is carried out by a worldwide network of social scientists who, since 1981, have conducted representative national surveys in...
has consistently shown Venezuelans to be among the happiest people in the world, with 55% of those questioned saying they were "very happy".