Of Carlos Marx and Barbie Girls

No matter how much you read about it, the polarization – or, better yet, schizophrenia – of Venezuelan society is plain to see the moment you step out into the streets. Below my window to the left are buildings with flecked exteriors and roofs of corrugated metal; looking out to the right, one sees only sleek glass-and-steel skyscrapers.
On one side of the Parque Simón Bolivar (located amidst most of the main government buildings of the city and national governments) there are tents with red-shirted PSUV volunteers showing videos about “popular power”, while on the other side a nearly identical crowd, mostly elderly, listens to a man who (as best I can tell) speaks of sin and eternal life as he reads from a Bible. Murals of Lenin and Marx share street space with stores hawking goods from the US and Europe without a hint of irony. The few police one sees on the streets are dressed in black camouflage and bulletproof vests, although nobody seems to be very afraid of them except for the street vendors who appear to be their main targets. On television, certain channels are almost entirely devoted to programming about popular initiatives – with Chavez himself being quite deservedly the main attraction – while others show short clips of Chavez at his most blustering during their commercial breaks followed by unequivocal spoken and written statements that roughly translate to “Don’t believe any of it.”

Most striking to me, though, are certain patterns that emerge in the advertising (really propaganda) of both sides. While government slogans are voiced almost entirely in the collective form, private advertisements repeatedly refer to things as “yours” (tuya) – e.g., “football is yours!”, “refreshment is yours!”, etc. – although it is difficult to identify who this “you” is when I look out at the people walking the streets in the ostensibly “middle class” neighborhood in which I’m staying. Most channels, though, strike an awkward balance between the two, with commercials touting the necessity of socialism followed immediately by commercials showing a young girl transforming herself into Barbie using some kind of music player.

At the moment I haven’t seen enough to really understand how these quite distinct aspects coexist, but my initial reaction is that there are quite honestly to segments of society occupying completely separate worlds – no overlap, only juxtapostion. As much as it is thrilling for me to be able to walk around in a place where banners in praise of socialism can freely and unapologetically hang from every wall, I have to say that overall they pale in ubiquity to corporate advertisements, particularly in the most heavily trafficked portions of the city.