Americas Quarterly

MUSIC

LA VIDA BOHÈME

Venezuelan Elections

POLL

B Y GREENBERG QUINLAN ROSNER

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has defied and frustrated opponents and observers for 13 years. Will the October 2012 presidential elections be any different? Many believe a worsening economy, electricity and water shortages, and rising crime and lawlessness weakened El Comandante Chávez politically even before his cancer diagnosis. Polls conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner before news of the president’s ill health (June 18 to June 30) showed that 53 percent of Venezuelans felt the country was headed in the wrong direction. Many identified concrete concerns linked to the president’s government. Most surprising, though, is that Chávez retained a 51 percent approval rating among the general population and recent polls have shown that number to be climbing again. Will an uptick in public support stymie next year’s opposition contenders?

Four young musicians from Caracas, decked out in paint-spattered over- alls, are just entering the international spotlight in a bid to reclaim what they
call a “party of our own.”
In July 2011 the band, La Vida Bohème,
made its U.S. debut performing its latest
album, Nuestra, at the t welfth annual Latin
Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in
New York.

The album, a mix of alternative punk rock sounds and vibrant dance rhythms, wowed the same audiences that helped launch the careers of now-famous names, such as Manu Chao, Jorge Drexler and Calle 13. In September Nuestra was nominated for two 2011 Latin Grammy awards. “Nuestra speaks to parts of our popular culture we share[...]and that shape our identities as Venezuelans: old songs, old city street names—things we have forgotten about. That’s what’s ours,” says bandleader Henry D’Arthenay, 23.

The Caracas indie music scene isn’t very well known outside Venezuela, says D’Arthenay, but there’s been a recent surge of new bands that he hopes will promote a sense of fraternity among the city’s youth in a polarized country that is facing an uncertain future.

And the paint? Early on, each member used a distinctive color to paint his hands and mouth. Once they started mixing the colors, the band members decided to make the process interactive. Nowadays, they go on stage wearing all white, and the fans splash them with colors in the musical equivalent of a food fight. It feels “cathartic,” says D’Arthenay.