By Toni C. Frésquez

Posted: January 25, 2024

 

Cities across the nation are experiencing the arrival of people from other countries seeking refuge from dire conditions in their homeland.

 

Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Kirschenbaum and founder of The Bleu Mind, captured an intimate story about the plight of Venezuelans who have left their home, just to survive in Nos Vemos Pronto.

 

The League of Women Voters of Colorado, along with The Weekly Issue/El Semanario hosted the Colorado premiere of Nos Vemos Pronto on Jan. 17, at the Sie Film Center, followed by a Q&A and panel discussion with award-winning filmmaker Andrew Kirschenbaum and Dr. Luis Torres, Metropolitan State University’s Deputy Provost for Academic and Student Affairs and professor of Chicana/o Studies (retired). Dr. Torres, a noted scholar, offered history and insight about the economic rise and fall of Venezuela, and how this has affected democracy in the South American country. Watch the film and discussion here at El Semanario’s livestream link.

 

The 25-minute film begins with Johanna, a Venezuelan poet, who lives in Colombia, delivering her prose that seamlessly narrates the hardships and endurance of the human spirit.

 

Kirschenbaum explained the intention of Nos Vemos Pronto, and what he hopes will be utilized by its’ viewers.

“From the start I wanted it to be theirs [Venezuelans],” said Kirschenbaum. “As much as it could be theirs, that’s what I wanted. And to honor those voices and those stories – a lot of them saw the camera as a portal into a world where the screen looks out into a group like you all,” he said, referencing the audience. “And can transmit that message and for you guys to understand what is going on. A lot of people saw me and the camera as a sort of a beacon of hope. Like ‘my story gets captured on this camera, on this film, people will know about me, they’ll know about my brothers and my sisters, and they’ll know about the things we went through. And maybe it won’t happen to me, but somebody down the line will enact some change for my people.’

 

“So for me honoring that portal in my head – that’s how I see it, it’s a portal—this transmission of the story of a place exactly like this with people who can make a change in their own community, by watching a film like this and saying we have people like this in our community that we can help. So honoring this film in going forward is to take that with you and to be equipped with the understanding and knowing who you’re around, who are your neighbors. That’s what I hope for this film, I hope that it honors them.”

Dr. Torres praised the film and noted that it most certainly will be used in classrooms as a form of teaching.

 

“Nos Vemos Pronto is a term used when one is separating from a loved one. But this is a completely different matter,” explained Dr. Torres.

 

“The Poet opens by saying people are looking for ‘dignified lives’ – that’s quite profound I think,” said Dr. Torres. “The movie is really fabulous and I really think it’s significant work.”

 

“Why did this happen?” asked Dr Torres. “One of the interviewees in the film, said he missed his family, his home, his town, his customs – but mostly freedom; the freedom that they had until, as he says ‘socialism’ came.

 

Dr. Torres focused on a Venezuela man highlighted in the film,

 

“Theres one image – as to why did the collapse happen – with a man who was in Colombia, he left Venezuela, and he took Venezuelan money with him – he is fashioning for example, billfolds, purses and other items out of the money because of inflation, it became so worthless essentially, that he could do that with a fifty dollar bill.

“How did this disaster in Venezuela happen? To go from one of the richest countries in south America to one of the poorest, with the worst emigration in history of the Western hemisphere, over seven million have left Venezuela in the last six to eight years, out of a country with only 30,000 million.

 

“So that really is a question, and for me the work that I’ve done for this presentation, it really is a loss of democracy. And a loss of the impact of people when they voted; they vote on one thing and something completely different happens. So, the corruption and loss of democracy really spread

throughout the country,” said Dr. Torres.

 

“In terms of numbers – in 2017, there were 30,500,00 people in Venezuela– in within just a few years – about 7.2 million people left because of what was going on.”

 

Dr. Torres discussed the root causes of the Venezuela’s plight.

 

“When you think about Venezuela, their oil reserves, consider all the countries in the world that have oil reserves, and most countries do. The U.S. either is number 6 or 8 depending on which statistics one looks at in terms of oil reserves.

 

“The top three in the world [in regard to oil reserves]: Canada at 168 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia is second at 297 billion, and Venezuela is at 303 billion. The U.S. has a little over 50 billion barrels. So, Venezuela has the highest in the entire world.

 

“Compare that to our population versus theirs – the reserves -they should have had a great future ahead of them,” stated the scholar.

 

Dr. Torres elaborated on the most recent political structure of Venezuela over the span of the last two decades with the election of Venezuela President Hugo Chávez in 1998, running as a socialist.

 

“Hugo Chávez called himself a Marxist after the election – not before. For example, he oversaw the drafting of a new constitution, shortly after he was elected, and that constitution gave him unprecedented control over the three branches of government.

 

“He was really essentially – well, I’m trying not to say dictator yet – but let’s use that term. He caused a lot of turmoil in Venezuela – there were strikes for example in opposition party—an opposition group at least –developed very quickly.

 

“In December of 2006, he was elected again for president for a third time and by a fairly big number and that ensured him another six years.”

 

Chávez had changed the guidelines to allow for unlimited terms. Chávez died in 2013 from cancer after he went to Cuba for care.

 

Nicolas Maduro then took over as President and increasing authoritarianism continued.

 

“As a result there has been very dramatic falling oil exports, the government’s failure to inadequately invest in industrial sector and any other sector other than oil, and the inflation really started to soar – we are concerned about inflation of four, five, six percent per year – but in Venezuela the inflation soon soared to over 800 % — but that wasn’t all —  by 2018, it skyrocketed again to 2,400 %, because of corruption and mismanagement and so on, and it wasn’t quite done. The International Monetary Fund predicted by year’s end inflation would reach 13,000 %. So, at that time at least 5,000 per day were leaving Venezuela,” said Dr. Torres.

 

By 2023, the number became 7.7 million Venezuelans had left their country, according to Dr. Torres.

 

“I want to give a note of caution though, I realize that we hear all the time that we are in a crisis, well I would caution that somewhat – the Venezuelans are in a crisis, the immigrants are in a crisis – the Venezuelan immigrants who are right outside the door here—literally –are, and throughout Denver are in a crisis,” emphasized Dr. Torres.

 

Watch interviews here produced by Karen Gutiérrez, Visual Journalist, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario, as she interviews new families arriving in the U.S. Video translations produced by Juan Carlos Uribe, Spanish Editor, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.

 

 

Toni C. Frésquez is the Editor for The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.