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C h A P t e r e l e V e n Taking Possession of Public Discourse Women and the Practice of Political Poetry in Venezuela Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols Pero la poesía no es una pistola; no sirve . . . para eliminar un enemigo o para seducir al público. No es instrumento útil de poder. Sirve para abrir pequeños espacios de libertad donde pueden entreverse los misterios del mundo y de la propia conciencia. Yolanda Pantin and Verónica Jaffé, “El bárbaro y las trampas de la poesía” In her study of democratic women’s organizing in Venezuela, Elisabeth Friedman states that one of the “broad concerns facing scholars and practitioners of democratization” in Latin America is how to integrate those members of civil society who exist outside the centers of political power and influence (2000, 10–11). Friedman also states that the most urgent question in the transition remains , “What mechanisms—formal or informal—will allow all citizens to pursue full citizenship and adequate representation of their interests?” (11). In the past twenty-five years, one answer to this question in Venezuela has been the publication of literature and women’s participation in the literary arena. In Venezuela, the danger of the woman who knows too much is found in the image of successful women not only in academic circles but in business as well. As Venezuelan poet María Auxiliadora Alvarez observes, “The image of the successful , solitary executive woman is emblematic of the twentieth century because the mark of maternal success is the only possible way to balance the supposed moral failure of this indocile woman” (2003, 5; my translation). Women cannot be allowed success through their intellectual or organizational powers in public as well as domestic and familial success. To maintain the boundaries of the archetypical compound women must be confined to one or the other. tAkInG PoSSeSSIon oF PuBlIC dISCourSe 299 However, in the Chávez era, these boundaries have been more difficult to maintain. Because so many of the grassroots programs (misiones) have targeted the poorest sectors of the population, our attention might automatically gravitate toward these activist communities that support the government. More often, the more familiar faces of women in Venezuelan politics would include figures such as Lina Ron and Iris Varela, the highly controversial and outspoken Chavista members of the National Assembly; Nora Castaneda, who has toured the world promoting the work of the Women’s Development Bank; or María Corina Machado, the very visible leader of the opposition group, SuMAte (“join up”). This chapter looks at women’s literary and poetic voice, a less visible but persistent feminine presence in politics, one that has severely criticized the old regime but has moved into opposition to Chavismo as well. The progress toward more adequate representation of women’s interests and experience has been striking, especially as more women are able to publish poetry. As Julio Miranda’s research shows, the number of titles published by women has increased in each decade: twenty-five works in the 1970s, fiftyseven in the 1980s and sixty-three in the period 1990–95 alone. As Miranda also indicates, these thirty years seem to show the beginnings of a “normalizaci ón” or “profesionalización” (1995, 12) of women’s writing. This becomes even clearer when we examine “activities parallel to the poetry of our authors —university professors, journalists, narrators, essayists, dramatists, filmmakers , editors, cultural functionaries, etc.—parallel to their poetry” (7). The texts themselves form a part of a complex of literary and intellectual activity for women entering more forcefully into public dialogue. While not all women in contemporary Venezuela are afforded the same opportunities for self-expression or access to public dialogue, a segment of the female population has taken up the task of creating an authentic voice for women, using that voice to participate in the conversations that shape the community . Using the particular opportunities that have opened to them as poets in the literary arena, in the past twenty-five years women who had previously been deprived of voice and agency in the public sphere have broken the barriers erected to their freedom of expression, opening “small spaces of liberty,” where they might find their own distinctive, public voice. Women, Decency, and Participation in the Public Arena Latin American women seeking to re-imagine themselves face a twofold task: they must reject the descriptions that have been created and perpetuated by the [18.191.202.45] Project MUSE...

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