Out of all the things I have done this year, I am rejoicing in a special way last week’s closing. Being at the Human Rights Fair at the Teatro Bellas Artes de Maracaibo (Fine arts theatre of Maracaibo) was revitalizing. A microphone, a stage, a camera or just a coffee, it was enough to meet the faces, words and feelings of others, who, like me, passionately believe in their fights, which at the end of the day are ours, the same for all of us.
During three intense days we saw death, carelessness, injustice, cruelty, misgovernment, sin right in front of us. But we also stood up and said: here we are and here we continue, broken but not defeated. “Who said that everything is lost? I come to offer my heart” Fito Páez or Mercedes Sosa would have sung, just as I hummed that song in my head every time I saw the complicit gazes of my brothers and sisters, and companions.
The Human Rights Fair is another way of narrating the crisis.
The Human Rights Fair was a rare mixture of bitterness and consolation, since the narrative proposal of this event allowed us, citizens beaten by the generalized collapse of public services and a harsh hyperinflation, to find a small hole to breathe. It was like a caress on a broken body, that although the wounds burn, and it hurts, the solidarity and support was so strong that it managed to ignite hope.That staging combined with art, culture and entertainment, make it different.
Between one thing and another I could witness how a whole theater full of people applauded a friend who, a few months ago, made me suffer from tachycardia, when he was imprisoned for being a journalist, for being an activist, for being a promoter of “infocitizenship”, for daring to be free and not remaining silent, and now with his wife, an example of resilience and another exceptionally talented friend of his, they made us laugh, made us cry, made us feel, made us think, made us dream.
Those waves of hard stories about the consequences of the complex humanitarian crisis we are experiencing and the crossing with the collective effort of the human rights movement in Venezuela, represented these days in more than 40 civil society organizations and almost a hundred activists and volunteers, were touching and hopeful.
Discovering myself in the stories of the visitors, who came from Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, reaffirmed my belief about the need to continue questioning the system, beyond the labels of right and left.
Understanding that there are more meeting points than disagreements, also confirms the power of the words and freedom of thought. It is necessary, after all this, to continue paddling, we must insist on fighting, until abolishing the oppression that derives from a patriarchal system that continues to determine the fashions of human relationships.
Collaborative work as a key to success.
These days I smiled more than once, and every time I saw a crowd, mostly in their twenties, focused with passion in their thing, some bringing and carrying things, others serving, others simply saying welcome, others telling the country what they witnessed through radio or television. I saw glitter in my eyes and heard stories and interviews made by my classmates, brothers and sisters of Radio “Fe y Alegría”, beyond the mere fulfillment of their journalistic duty. People who were shocked to be able to tell what they saw, felt and thought too. A photo, a connected cable or an essay, was their way to contribute so that others could also approach that true sea of emotions, so that they could know those embroidered little pieces of reality telling our story in canvases of names of the fallen in the path.
I saw that for most there were no large or small tasks, sometimes, it did not matter who served coffee, set the table or loaded the filter; and although it seems like a simple domestic task, it is hardly a reflection of the sense of belonging, of teamwork, of the co-responsibility promoted and motivated by organizations such as Codhez and Redhez in Zulia. These ways of interaction with others make harmonic gear possible for the achievement of objectives and a more universal good, of far superior interest than the individual ones.
Solidarity and hope characterized the day.
This Human Rights Fair let me see another possible Venezuela, to meet with a wounded but walking people in the enjoyment of a good gaita Zuliana (music genre), the same one that visited the “Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquira” every weekend to pray for their people, and ask for another country with more opportunities for a decent life.
It was distinct, during those days, to remember those who decided to cross the border, it is for you, it is for the older adults who are waiting for their unfair pensions today, it is for the children who were left behind, it is for those who receive death while they wait for a dialysis that does not happen, it is for the boys and girls of the Hospital JM de los Ríos, it is for those politically persecuted, it is for the women who differently suffer the crisis, it is for the indigenous peoples, it is for the people with HIV, it is for our common home, it is for all those who suffer the consequences of the great corruption, it is for us, the present and the future, who are still standing.
We continue to believe and work for the possible tomorrow, from within shared responsibilities, from the collective effort, with the strengthening of the social fabric, through the construction of new comparative references and the constitution of networks. With deep feelings, I continue to reflect on what we are capable of being and doing, I celebrate the show of solidarity that took place with Music x Medicines, that collection of more than 3000 tablets of medicines in a country of scarcity, says a lot of who we are as a people. I am not satisfied, so I do not stop, we go for everything, for a viable, lively, friendly, kind and sustainable country. Thank you for being a part of it, thank you for not allowing the Human Rights Fair to be just an isolated point along the way, because I know that we are still working right now. Thanks for reading me. Let’s make even better sequels and let’s not let anything or anyone erase our smile.
