Caruzo – Two Decades of Socialism Fail to Kill the Christmas Spirit in Venezuela

CARACAS — Venezuelan citizens prepare themselves for another diminished Christmas in 2021. After a year full of political stagnation, sham elections, ongoing gasoline shortages, collapsed public utilities – and every other symptom of the country’s larger condition, socialism – it’s time for a moment of respite, brief as it may be.

This year is but an encore of the Venezuelan 2020 Christmas experience – in other words, a continuation of Venezuela’s new normal. Once again, socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro took it upon himself to push forward the start of Christmas and decreed its start on October 2021 — all whilst showcasing the ostentatious Christmas decorations of Venezuela’s presidential palace. The announcement was accompanied by a two-month easing of the still ongoing 7×7 Chinese Coronavirus lockdown.

At a superficial level, you will find a rather well-received normality in Caracas. The streets are lively enough with people going about their business and the music of my people, the Zulian Gaitas, resound in almost every corner. Both the regime and private decorations play well together with the colder temperatures of the season, which have a folkloric tale of their own.

The nuances of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic are now an ingrained part of Venezuelan life. The fear is gone. What can a pandemic do to us that two decades of authoritarian socialism (and what other kind is there) already hasn’t? Masks very much remain mandatory for any kind of indoor public space – there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. In contrast, most of the vaccination centers are empty these days, a stark contrast to the unmitigated disaster that it was months ago. To this day, I’ve yet to be asked for proof of vaccination to carry out any of my day-to-day activities.

The bodegones, stores filled to the brim with mostly U.S.-imported goods, will give you bite-sized American comfort and Christmas delicacies, provided you have the means and foreign cash to pay for them. This is part of the new stagnant Venezuela: you will not find proper human rights here, healthcare centers are an absolute disaster, but you can be quite sure that you’ll have an easy time finding, say, the most specific of gluten-free products.

But deep down – beneath the decorations, the lights, the trees, the music, and the novelty consumer products – lies the truth of the Venezuelan Christmas, one of the misery that the 76.6 percent of the citizens living in extreme poverty have to suffer through — a poverty and precarious living conditions that prevent them from having peaceful and normal lives, let alone enjoy any kind of Christmas festivities.

The hallaca, Venezuela’s flagship Christmas dish, is now 76.74 percent more expensive to prepare than it was in 2020. If a family were to include the full ensemble for their Christmas dinner (hallacas, pork leg, pan de jamón, chicken salad, and desserts) they may be looking at an average of Bs.1,795.99, or $374.16. For comparison, the minimum wage right now is roughly $2 per month.

Even if you’re a Venezuelan fortunate enough to have access to foreign currency (be it via remittances or foreign work) and are able to afford the Christmas culinary traditions that we used to take for granted, there’s another, very much bittersweet reality that many face: the migrant crisis.

Venezuelans will always put their families above all else, and Christmas used to be a time for reunions, to visit and share the joy of the season with your family and loved ones. With more than 5.6 million Venezuelans having fled from the country, many elderly citizens will continue to spend Christmas without their children, families will spend it without one or more of its members courtesy of a migrant crisis that was only partially halted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The official channel of Frank Sinatra dedicated a music video featuring one of the late singers Christmas songs to this very much palpable Venezuelan reality.

On a more personal level, Christmas just hasn’t been the same for yours truly ever since my mother lost her fight against cancer, as she really was the one that lived and breathed Christmas in my family to its fullest. Every Venezuelan family adds its own twist to the basic hallaca recipe. No two hallacas are ever the same. Unfortunately, with my mother and grandmother gone, my family’s take on the recipe is now lost forever.

A modest Christmas dinner with my brother is in the cards for me. Our old Nativity has been assembled for some days now as part of our faith. My prayers, of course, have not been absent all throughout December — I was given the name “Christian” for a reason.

Venezuela’s predominantly Catholic faith is the one unshakable aspect of Christmas that two decades of socialism, of collaborationist opposition, of shortages, a pandemic, and everything else can’t and won’t bring down. There may come a day when Venezuela is once again free, and everyone will once again be able to partake in our traditions without being constrained by ever-devouring hyperinflation. Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, all I can hope is that you have a wonderful holiday season in the company of your family and loved ones.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.