This blog is created while working on a project inspired by Venezuela in different ways.
Something that comes with having family in different parts of the world is distance.
In the particular case of Venezuela and other third world countrys, theres this wall of not being able to see each other for many reasons. When a worry happens in Venezuela, the whole distanced family has to find ways to take care of them.
The way my family is able to communicate is trough whatsapp or videocalling.
Lately I’ve been more aware of the layers in certain messages that are for Venezuelan me very normal and unnoticed , but for Dutch me are noticed.
For example, when I type the words ‘‘ sin luz’’, which means ‘‘ without light’’ , in my whatsapp archive.
I see a lot of messages referring to the question if ‘‘ they’’ have electricity, or communicating that there is time to call now but we dont know for how long because the electricity can turn off randomly.
In this case its not a matter of checking your electricity kabels in the house, like we would do in the Netherlands. You just never know when the electricity will be on again, it could be back in two hours but also in 2 days.
Also, there is this one sentence which I receive a lot in the family groupschat.
It says ‘‘ have a good day, may god bless you’’. Which can be read as a thoughtfull message to greet the family, but could also be read as a sign of having electricity and being safe.
Such like these there are many others.
Besides these type of messages we mostly have fun casual talks and checkups with each other talking about our days, quickly sending a voicememo on the way to school and A LOT of stickers in the chats.
Its sad to be apart from each other and you cant plan times to actually see each other, but having chats on whatsapp is also fun. We almost never have to say goodbye, because the of different timezones we know that replies can come hours later. This way, you have a conversation which is spread over so much time, that it goes on forever.
By having this experience im inspired to do interviews trough whatsapp voicememos.
I want to approach these interviews informal, having the same energy as i would talk to some of my family members but with the words we use in friendships.
The voicememos will be in Spanish, Spanglish and Dutch mixed with Spanish. Being from a Dutch Venezuelan background, it has shown me the power and layerdness of language. The way you speak your languages say a lot about where you are from.
The meanig behind the smalltalks is to show a part of this layerd distance between the different cultures one can grow up in. Talking about the works from South American creatives and how they incorporate their latinidad in their arts.
On this page I’ll be introducing Sandra Zegarra Parow, IVOHÉ aka Ruby, Azul Espiritu Santo and Paula Hernandez
A small side note that these woman are all woman I admire as creatives and as identitys. The conversations with them are so different from each other and intimate, I chose to not fact check everything and to leave some names out. Also because my main goal is to communicate their different approaches as Latina / third culture creatives.
IVOHE / RUBY
German / Venezuelan
Ivohe is a Berlin based artist creating music.
In this whatsapp conversation Ivohe starts about her song Remember me, which is about the experience of fetishization of her latinidad and the emotional abuse she went trough by her ex partner.
The cover of the song is inspired by the package of Harina Pan, which is the flour we use to make arepas with ( the national Venezuelan dish).
We discuss her album ‘‘Goldita y Despeinada” the title refferce to Ivohe being a bigger woman and embracing her unbrushed hair.
This album she approached experimental in mixing music genres and personal stories. Its a reminder of her heritage ,life experiences and embracing her identity.
Her new song ‘‘ Terminelo’’ is the next topic we discuss. The song is inspired by her time living in Londen. Mixing UK garage beats with Spanish lyrics. The song has set the tone for her upcoming music, Ivohe is that perra and she knows it.
The song is about having to say goodbye of energies that dont serve you anymore. As in relationships but also mindsets.
If it doesnt work, confront the truth, TERMINELO.
In the future we can expect more Spanish songs, for now UK garage inspired but maybe in the future some perreo.
Sandra Zegarra Patow
Peruvian/ Dutch
Sandra Zegarra Patow is a Rotterdam based artist, working with photography, mixed media and music as a dj. She djs under the name Veinteunas, which means 20 nails. With this name she refers to the way to dance when she mixes, with 20 nails on the ground.
In our chat we first have a checkup on how her weekend has been and we discuss her upcoming gig. She will be djing in Weelde in Rotterdam soon, they booked her for her usual style, which is psychedellic cumbia, reggeaton, neoperreo, afro beats and more.
The conversation goes on to talking about her latest photography project.
‘‘ UÑA Y KULTURA’’ which means nails and culture. With her friend who is the founder of Minced Milk they were always interested in working on a project about nail art.
Together with Minced Milk, Sandra went to Curacao to shoot this project.
Minced Milk knew people who represent this nail art culture on the island, Sandra had the oppertunity to photoshoot them. The series varies from pictures of music artists, people in nail salons, nails and queer representation, the owner of the oldest bar in Curacao and more.
Sandra also had the opportunity to exhibit one of the pictures in 10 14 Gallery in Londen.
After talking about her latest project we go back to 2020. Her plan was to spend some time working with an artist residency in Peru ( Piura). So she made a photography series inspired by her culture. By speaking to friends with different South American backgrounds she realised that the way she speaks spanish is not the same spanish as that from them. Sandra noticed that the language she speaks is Peruvian slang.
The series is called '' Jergas Peruanas''
In the time of covid she was limited in her possibilitys of products and contacts, so she had to keep it excessable.
Sandra found a way to visualize certain words or sayings with their meanings.
For example “ Que piña ” which if you translate this literally, means
“ What pineapple” but in Jerga Peruana actually means ‘‘ bad luck’’.
In between we have a smalltalk about how i’ve been and a bit of the progress in my own projects.
On Sandras way to work we start talking about music again because I remembered that she just released a mixtape ‘‘El jardin del bosswitch’’, its calm spiritual bruja vibes.
After this we share some thoughts on the new album of Bad Bunny '' Un Verano Sin Ti '' and how we cant wait to dance together again.
Sandra is always working on new stuff, if its not photography, its probably music, modelling, organizing, collaborating or something else. In the future we can expect the unexpected, Sandra is always on her flow.
Links
Instagram: @ivohe
Spotify: Ivohé
Youtube: Ivohe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLoR4ymJVMI
link to remember me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObaQFBoWu4A
link to Goldita y despeinada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3PxtFBxe7k
link to Terminelo
instagram : @sandrazegarrapatow
https://linktr.ee/sandrazegarrapatow
https://sandrazegarrapatow.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ8x4xVD710
link to newest mixtape
Instagram Minced Milk : @mincedmilk
Paula Hernandez
From Ecuador
Paula is an artist at the moment based in The Hague graduating fine arts at KABK. She works a lot around the theme of space(s) and interaction.
Paula and i havent met often, so i didnt know about her arts. I saw something coming by about banana boxes and was interested in what she had to tell about them. So we had a really sweet afternoon sitting in the yard and sharing thoughts on diffent subjects. Like how we were both surprised to meet another Latina at KABK, and how we both share similar experiences on this thing called distance.
And eventually talking about her projects on banana boxes and cacao.
Later i thought back to our conversation, since we mostly talked about cacao in general and that the cacao of today is a modified cacao which is totally different from its origin. The modified cacao we talked about is cnn 51 cacao.
Since my own family has a history with cacao ( which i dont know much about) i was questionning the qualitys of cacao in different places.
I once heard that a lot of cacao is coming from Brazil today, and that when Venezuela had a less problematic situation, the cacao from Venezuela was seen as High quality cacao ( I did not recently factcheck this) . So i decided to leave this thought with Paula in the first memo ending it with asking her to tell me a bit about Ecuadorian cacao.
She responded to me telling me about her love for eating chocolate and by eating very dark chocolate noticing differences between the cacaos.
She started questioning the modifications and the industry,
since in Ecuador they produce a lot of cacao but not a lot of chocolate.
Thinking about how the highest quality of chocolate is from Switzerland.
How can it be that the key ingredient leaves the country ( continent) and in Europe the biggest profit of it gets made?
Paula her interest started with the ground and her relationship with it.
How the ground is able to produce nutrition growth and life. from there the focus on cacao started. Paula visited different plantations of the modified cacao we know today and talked to the people who work on it.
Since Paula has gone to many places, she started thinking about transportation. From there she noticed the layerdness of empty banana boxes on the street. This idea of the bananas going from one place to the other, the abuse in this and the boxes being left empty. So she decided to collect empty banana boxes and make a temple of it.
Inside the temple she invited friends to eat cacao together and talk about their experiences. raising awareness to cacao, the nutrition, the energy and journey of it, not only knowing it as the endproduct of chocolate.
Paula feels very connected with the project, so its ongoing.
After listening to Paula's way of thinking I conclude that one of the most important elements in her work are about connecting people and the ground ( la tierra) .
In the last part of our conversation I ask her if thats correct and where this urge comes from.
In the last voice memo Paula replys that this is true, and it has to do a lot with where she comes from. That she has been very fascinated by the power of the ground, how we depend on it and the realness of it.
In her position in Ecuador her reality is to take care of the ground and seeing reality as always returning to the ground ( la tierra).
She observes how people get totally disconnected of the ground and lose their awareness of it. She is interested in the challange of how to make people feel this awareness in a space, how to make people connect with it and make them question themselves and their relationship with earth.
In the upcoming future she is planning to go to a specific place in the amazone region in Ecuador where a cacao initianally is from. To be part of working on changing reality in this industry. There are already existing systems in how to change this patriagical reality of cacao but they are overpowered and ignored by the leading powers.
instagram : @paula_alpaca
Azul Espiritu Santo
Peruvian/ Portugese/ American
Azul is a The Hague based textile designer, in her second year at KABK.
At the moment she is working with an ancient knotting technique from Peru connecting this with quinoa.
Almost the whole interview is english spoken.
Listening back I noticed that I mispronounced Quipu as Quipa, im sorry for my messyness.
Azul is finding her language in textile design and product design. She is always taking her works into details and love for techniques she pays attention to human and nature.
We don't know what Azul will bring to the table in the future, but I'm excited to learn from her.
