La Sangre y el Eco; by La Vida Bohème
Today, an exclusive: La Vida Bohème created this video as backup visuals for their live shows following their second, Grammy-winning album, Será. It's never been shown outside that context...until today. The piece was curated by Armando Añez, also a Venezuelan musician, currently known as Recordatorio.
Será is an album we made in search of who we are.
Who am I?
I was born in 1988 and I was just six months old when the Caracazo erupted.
I have this memory. Not sure if it’s a real memory, or something my mind constructed from my family’s stories not to be left out during our sobremesas. It’s a vivid image of my mom, scared colorless, hiding me and my sister under the bed. That vignette has become a part of me. I recognize it as a part of myself.
El Caracazo is the part of me that sold populism to the hungry, and that shoots the protesters when the jig is up. The part of me that split a city in two: los que se salvaron y los que se jodieron.
It’s the end of the 4th Republic and the dawning of the 5th, born at the hands of Father Chávez.
It’s the dystopian Caribbean recipe to which my generation was condemned. Populism, hunger, violence, corruption, plomo, populism, hunger, violence, corruption, plomo, populism, hunger, violence, corruption, plomo. Our Russian roulette.
For me, every anniversary of the Caracazo is a reminder of a vicious cycle we have to defeat. The echo of guns shooting and the smell of blood on the streets. Something that was embedded in our brains at a very young age. A feature our government is making sure future generations will also have.
Un abrazo muy grande (del tamaño del Caribe).
[Editor’s note: Play it fuckin’ loud!]
*La Vida Bohème’s Será won the Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2013.
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