This afternoon, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Raquel Rivas Rojas at the seminar titled “Memories of Delirium: The Missteps of History in Three Contemporary Venezuelan Novels” at King’s College. Raquel is the creator of one of those memorable quotes that succinctly captures the tragedy affecting the Venezuelan identity today:
The tyranny of both the masses and their most fearsome product, the unyielding caudillo, cannot be countered by mere letters. The caudillo can only be defeated by relentless nature—the force of facts—or the betrayal of the masses, which resembles a natural cataclysm, like an unstoppable avalanche. Thus, Aguirre is doomed from the start to defeat, the result of the very foundation upon which his leadership rests: the unsustainable nature of his undertaking. Ultimately, what Aguirre engages in is a fiction of revolution, which no one realizes until well into the venture, and it is these fictions of revolution that seem to take center stage here, allowing us to observe, through their tragic reverse, the erratic incursions of spontaneous caudillos. Always fearful of their clay feet, attentive to the whispers of traitors that threaten their fragile stability, they fight tirelessly against their own delusions. Because while at first this fiction casts the tyrant as an unstoppable natural force, by the end of the tale, his fall will prove as inevitable as his rise once was.
Simply swapping Chavez for Aguirre makes it clear what is, without a doubt, about to happen. Raquel is right. The fall of the current dictator is as inevitable as the passage of time, and during today’s seminar, Raquel referenced a letter that Rómulo Gallegos supposedly sent to Rafael Vegas, which is part of the second preface of the novel *Falke*, by Federico Vegas:
Juan Vicente Gómez has died. How naive to be astonished by the passage of time! Didn’t we know that even the cruelest and most obstinate present turns into past? I feel ashamed when I think of the times I imagined Gómez as eternal, unchangeable.
In these times of distress, it’s hard to have the calmness and clarity of mind to reach such obvious conclusions. Nevertheless, according to Raquel, there has been a proliferation of historical novels in Venezuela over the past 11 years. It seems that the intellectual class, which had taken a back seat in post-Pérez Jiménez Venezuela regarding national identity formation through literature, has reactivated and is trying to counter the official megaphone in its hegemonic effort to construct a new Venezuelan identity. Raquel specifically mentioned three novels: *Falke* by Federico Vegas, *Rocanegras* by Fedosy Santaella, and *The Passenger of Truman* by Francisco Suniaga. All three examine historical events: the first involving the failed attempt to overthrow Juan Vicente Gómez by a diverse and ill-prepared group in 1929; the second, the assassination of Gómez’s brother in 1923; and the last, the effort to install Diogenes Escalante as a sort of transitional president in 1946.
There seems to be a pattern among the authors in their selection of historical events. All are shrouded in mystery, thus providing ample space for speculation and unleashing imagination. It’s what Hayden White refers to in his *Metahistory* as “philosophers of history,” meaning writers who use the historical record to construct parallel subjective narratives according to their ideology. Raquel told us that these historical novels can be considered as “machines for the production of national identity or identity narratives” (sic). This is intriguing, as in my doctoral proposal, I aim to investigate the apparent change in sources of identity and nation discourse creation. During the dictatorships of Juan Vicente Gómez and Pérez Jiménez, the intellectual class actively participated in politics. In Hugo Chavez’s dictatorship, the intellectual class has been virtually pushed into the shadows. The quintessential creator of identity and nation notions is now a political leader—not an intellectual turned politician, but a military coup leader, a kneeling apatrida, who seeks to entrench himself in power. This is the mind of the first caudillo reincarnated, who aimed for the total destruction and annihilation of his enemies, now vociferously omnipresent, abusing the state’s vast resources, proclaiming his so-called emancipatory discourse.
In that context, in this “hysterical country,” as Rafael Vegas would say, the current intellectual class attempts to counter the official communication hegemony. Words alone won’t bring democracy back; it will be hunger, violence, obscene corruption, inefficiency—in short, the boliburguesa idiosyncrasy that will take their toll. Our republican history is rife with failed attempts and events that the authorities themselves have ensured remain shrouded in mystery, surrounded by acts of betrayal. Fortunately, it is also full of transitions, overthrows, and popular uprisings against the established oppressor.