Russell Maddicks - Venezuela - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

eISBN: 978-1-85733-661-0

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain
by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd
59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8446 2441
www.culturesmart.co.uk
Inquiries:

Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler

Cover image: Painted carved toucans. Folk art from the state of Lara, Venezuela. Fotolia iStockphoto
Reproduced under Copyleft Licence Art Libre: Jrmy Pierot
Images on the following pages reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: Guillermo Ramos Flamerich
Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license: Andr Augusto da Fonseca
Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license: portodaspartes
Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Brazil license: 34 Agncia Brasil

Copyright 2012 Kuperard

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Culture Smart! is a registered trademark of Bravo Ltd.

v3.1

RUSSELL MADDICKS is a BBC-trained journalist who lived in Venezuela for eleven years. He traveled the length and breadth of the country, and to finance his stay he worked in jobs that helped him to get under the skin of his adopted home: as an English teacher at the British Council; a jungle guide taking tour groups to the base of Angel Falls and the top of Roraima; a translator and interpreter; and a reporter on an English-language newspaper. There are few corners of Venezuela he hasnt visited in his quest to explore every facet of this fascinating country. He is the author of the Bradt Guide to Venezuela (2011).

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.
For further information and latest titles visit
www.culturesmart.co.uk

The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart! Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart! Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart! Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

An influential oil producer with a charismatic president at its helm since 1999, Venezuela is a vast, sometimes frustrating, but never dull country. It is one of the most complex countries in Latin America, and one of the least understood.

Venezuelas extraordinary geographical diversity ranges from picture-postcard Caribbean beaches to pristine rain forests inhabited by jungle tribes, historic UNESCO World Heritage Sites, spectacular mountain treks, and the worlds highest waterfall. Its unique culinary traditions, linguistic quirks, colorful history, and busy annual cycle of festivities are part of a rich cultural heritage left by the Spanish conquistadors and the slaves brought from Africa, combined with elements that can be traced back to the indigenous Amerindian inhabitants.

An ambitious attempt to benefit the poor and redistribute oil wealth by President Hugo Chvez has seen a major political transformation in recent years. This has put a severe strain on Venezuelas traditional ties with the USA, the destination of 60 percent of its oil exports. This move toward a socialist model inspired by the independence hero Simn Bolvar has seen new ties forged with like-minded countries in the region, such as Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, and Argentina, and with non-traditional allies like Russia, China, and Iran.

But despite Chvezs steadfast attempts to confront his powerful northern neighbor and reduce Venezuelas economic dependence on the United States, Miami remains the top holiday destination for Venezuelans traveling abroad, baseball beats soccer as the preferred sport, and teenage girls still cover their bedroom walls with posters of American idols like Justin Bieber.

Venezuelans are known for being friendly, gregarious, and outgoing. They value family above everything, and love to criticize the status quobut they are also fiercely proud and protective of their homeland and react poorly to criticism from outsiders. They are optimistic and forward-looking, quick with a joke, and instantly familiar with strangers. The key to their confidence comes from the large extended family groups they grow up in, and the constant round of birthdays, baptisms, weddings, and holidays that bring them all together for music, dancing, and general merrymaking.

Culture Smart! Venezuela takes you beyond the stereotypical descriptions of a tropical petro-state, famous for its beauty queens and its populist president, to provide you with an insiders understanding of the country and its people. It looks at the historical roots of modern-day social values and attitudes. It offers advice on what to expect and how to build personal ties, and outlines how flexibility and patience are crucial to any business venture. Practical tips, valuable insights, and vital statistics have been marshaled to enable you to get to the heart of this vibrant, sometimes contradictory, and increasingly important country.

Occupying an area of 352,140 square miles (912,050 sq. km), Venezuela is the sixth-largest country in South America, covering a greater area than either the US states of California, Oregon, and Washington, or, in European terms, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and Ireland, put together. It lies on the northern coast of South America, wedged between Colombia in the west, Guyana in the east, and Brazil in the south. To the north it faces the Caribbean and the Atlantic. It has the longest coastline in the Caribbean, and a number of offshore islands, including the tourist mecca of Margarita.