We Are the State! Barrio Activism in Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution by Cristóbal Valencia (review)

This book is the result of many years of extensive research by the author, anthropologist Cristóbal Valencia, who lived in the barrio communities of Caracas and interacted closely with local residents and activists. As a result, this book provides an insider perspective on the experiences and objectives of the primarily poor and Afro-descendant activists who embraced the call of President Hugo Chávez to reconstruct Venezuelan democracy from the "base" up.

Valencia joins a small group of contemporary social scientists who embed themselves in grassroots organizations and low-income communities to share in and analyze diverse citizen activities that span the gap between social movements that arise from those communities and those that come from above, directed by political leaders and established institutions. Through the interviews and experiences as transmitted by Valencia, readers have an opportunity to connect with everyday citizens who seemed to have been keenly aware of the historical changes that were taking place in Venezuela. These changes included the barrio residents' awareness of the active roles they could play in constructing the Venezuela envisioned by Chávez prior to his death—"the New Communal State"—through protagonist and participatory democracy.

As such, the view of Venezuelan politics presented in the book is a counterpoint to the many studies that focus on contentious politics and leaders at the top. The author provides a view of chavistas, those ardent supporters and Chávez sympathizers who shared his vision of a government by the people, from the bottom up. The author's rich ethnographic research and intimate relationship with those whose lives and views he discusses are what makes this book so compelling and exciting.

However, the author's close involvement with those he studied and his own political sympathies (Chicano politics) introduce some biases that interfere with a balanced analysis of the political context. For example, Valencia does not discuss events and issues that could challenge some of his assertions regarding "grassroots" politics, thus opening the book to a critique that it presents an overly romanticized representation of barrio life and popular organizing in an oil-boom rentier economy. Nor does Valencia's depiction take into account the economic and political crises that coincided with Chavezs death, including the sharp decline in petroleum prices, rising political tensions, and blatant corruption. Valencia also romanticizes the daily experiences of members of the "popular sectors" (identified by race, class, and gender) by overemphasizing race and playing down the increased burdens on the poor (especially women) that resulted from membership in a broad, purportedly grassroots movement that in reality was—and remains—closely linked to government agents and state institutions. For example, because most local organizations were and are targeted for financing by the government, an alternative interpretation of the people-government relationship should include a focus on efforts at government control and the corresponding loss of community autonomy. Valencia idealizes "grassroots civil society" as the protagonist of change, but fails to address instances in which grassroots groups are co-opted and manipulated for political purposes. Also, in spite of his nuanced representation of barrio residents, he dismisses members of the "opposition," those opposed to Chavez's proposed overhaul of the political system, as part of a "wealthy, white, and internationally funded destabilization network" and not as legitimate political actors with competing values and views (13).

In sum, the book does not transcend localized struggles, fails to address critical political changes proposed by Chávez at the regional and national levels such as the construction of the New Communal State from the base up, and ignores the critical role of the oil boom in financing and creating dependent relations between the state and local organizations. As a result, the book misses an opportunity to contribute to our understanding of the subsequent demobilization and collapse of the popular movement after the death of Ch...