Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela

Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela is an innovative examination of how supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez engaged in performance practice to build and negotiate the terms of populism. In Angela Marino’s analysis populism is the practice of politics by ordinary people, which may include a variety of behaviors and forms of cultural production in live events, media, and the built environment.

Beginning with populism as an embodied act, Marino draws attention to cultural performance, storytelling, theater, dance, film, and visual art to suggest that the populism of Venezuela’s emergent socialism reached its fullest expression in face-to-face live performance. Focusing on performances involving the devil, a figure frequently depicted in Venezuelan popular culture, she demonstrates that performance became a vehicle through which cultural producers negotiated boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in ways that overcame the simplistic logic of good versus evil, us versus them. She then argues that the politics of the devil dances resurfaced in theater, film, and other media both to antagonize and to unify social movements against dictatorship and neoliberalism. The result is a nuanced insight to the process of political mobilization during times of monumental change.

By foregrounding the repertoires of populism, this book brings attention to voices that have been erased or left out of view by global media. Both capturing a vital record of the movement and providing valuable insights into its internal dynamics, Populism and Performance will interest readers in Latin American politics and political science, cultural studies, and performance studies.