Venezuelan Culture in New York City

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Venezuelan New York City

New York City’s “Little Venezuela” is being born now on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona, Queens.

New York cultural presenters are starting to

Venezuelan Art in NYC

The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, is one of the world’s most important collections of Latin American contemporary art. She started collecting before anyone else saw the value in it. Her collection is now priceless.

The Cisneros Institute at MoMA makes the Museum of Modern Art a global center of contemporary Latin art.

Venezuelan Dance in NYC

• Ballet Hispánico’s founder Tina Ramirez was a Puerto Rican Mexican dancer who was born in Venezuela where her father was bullfighting.

Venezuelan Fashion in NYC

• Carolina Herrera is a high-end Venezuelan fashion designer. She was a rich girl, but made it in New York City with her style. She was part of the Studio 54 crowd.
• Fashion Designers of Latin America (FDLA) usually shows some Venezuelan designers during New York Fashion Week.

Venezuelan Government in NYC

• New York’s Venezuelan Consulate in Midtown East has been closed since a 2019 dispute with the Venezuelan government about who is the legitimate President. Venezuelans travel to Ottowa, Canada or Mexico City, Mexico for consular services..

Venezuelan Music in NYC

• Locobeach is a Venezuelan psychedelic cumbia rock band.
• Luis Perdomo is a Venezuelan jazz pianist. He is a regular with Miguel Zenón and others.
• Mariah Carey is a Venezuelan African American pop star.
• Miggel Anggelo is a Venezuelan singer and dancer.
• Nella Rojas is a Venezuelan jazz and pop singer based in New York. She won the “Best New Artist” Latin Grammy in 2019.
• Oscar de Leon is a famous Venezuelan salsero whose “Llorarás” (1986) is a salsa classic.
• Quinteros Salsa Project is a New York Venezuelan salsa band.

Venezuelan Parades in NYC

• Manhattan’s Hispanic Day Parade usually has Venezuelan marchers.
• Queen’s Hispanic Parade usually has Venezuelan marchers.

Venezuelan Sports in NYC

• New York Mets usually have some Venezuelan baseball players.
• New York Yankees usually have some Venezuelan baseball players.

Venezuelan Theatre in NYC

• Repertorio Español, one of New York City’s most successful Off-Broadway theaters occasionally performs Venezuelan theatre.

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Venezuelan Culture

Venezuelan culture is the Latin mix of Indigenous, European, and African traditions.

The country has Andean Culture, Caribbean Culture and Trinidad Culture. The Andes mountains connect Venezuela with Peru’s great Inca Civilization. The Caribbean’s Indigenous Taíno and later the Carib migrated up the Lesser Antilles from the Orinoco River Basin to Puerto Rico about 2,500-3,000 years ago. The Trinidadian Cultural Complex brings Antillean influences to Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Venezuelan Art

Venezuela has many great abstract modern artists, including: Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesus Rafael Soto. You see a lot of their work at the art auctions. Even Venezuelan rock bands show the influence of their country’s abstract modern art.

Marisol Escobar was a famous Venezuelan contemporary artist.

Venezuelan Dance

Joropo is Venezuela’s national dance. Also called Música Llanera, joropo is courting folk dance of the Central Plains that is similar to the fandango.

There is also Venezuelan salsa and merengue.

Baile de San Juan or tambor is the Afro-Venezuelan drum, song, and dance tradition. It’s immediately familiar to anyone who knows Cuban rumba, Haitian yanvalou, Puerto Rican bomba, Colombian cumbia, Peruvian festejo, and other African Diasporic dances.

The dance is related to the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, an important solstice or midsummer festival in Latin Europe, and in Latin America because the African Diaspora was brought across the water and water is considered sacred. La Fiesta de San Juan also aligns with Inti Raymi which is Inca new year. Venezuela was not part of the Inca Empire, but was connected through the Andes.

Venezuelan Food

Arepas, cornmeal flatbreads often stuffed with filling, are iconic Venezuelan food.

Hallaca are Venezuelan tamales or pasteles made from corn flour and stewed meat, wrapped in plantain leaves. They are a Christmas tradition.

Pabellón criollo is Venezuela’s flag dish of white rice, black beans, beef, and fried sweet plantains. Many Latin countries have their own version.

Venezuelan Music

Venezuela is a Caribbean country, so it has great salsa. Cumbia is popular. Tambor is the Venezuelan African Diaspora drum, song, and dance tradition. The Venezuelan harp is really beautiful.

Gustavo Dudamel, of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a renowned classical music conductor. He takes the New York Philharmonic baton in 2026, but is already influencing the classical music renaissance in New York City. 🇻🇪

Los Amigos Invisibles is a famous Venezuelan rock band. 🇻🇪

Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, is one of the world’s most forward-looking symphony orchestras. 🇻🇪

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Venezuela

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a Spanish-speaking country on the northern tip of South America.

Big cities include the capital Caracas, Maracaibo, and Valencia. Geographical regions include the Maracaibo lowlands, a northern branch of the Andes mountains, central plains, and the Guiana Highlands.

Venezuela has Caribbean and Atlantic coasts. The Orinoco River is the country’s great river.

The Colonizers

Columbus visited the Venezuelan coast in 1498. He was so evil that his sponsors later called him back to Spain, jailed, and tried him for abusing the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. The man was evil.

The first colony was started at Cumaná in 1502. Colonization is an apocalyptic hell, an orgy of abuse, thievery, rape, enslavement, and murder by European soldiers and priests in their god’s name.

Napoleon’s takeover of Spain in 1808 led to the independence movements of the Americas. Simón Bolívar led Venezuela’s independence in 1819. He was a complicated man, but “El Libertador” went on to lead the independence of the northern states of South America.

The Oil Curse

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, although the oil is very thick. The oil industry started in the 1910s and grew to dominate the Venezuelan economy. This brought American influences from Texas. Because of this, Venezuelans used to be the Latin Americans most like Americans of the United States, loud with big cars and rock and roll.

Venezuela used to be called “The Pearl of South America.” That’s because the colonizers were first attracted to the pearls on Venezuela’s Caribbean islands, but later because it became South America’s richest country.

Today, instead of being the richest country in South America, Venezuela is nearly a failed state. That’s what happens when dictators take power.