Venezuela tourist information

Venezuela's heritage, art and cultural importance is primarily found within the collective identity of its people. In a larger context, the key elements of Venezuelan society have also been shaped and impacted by the historical evolutions of its Latin American counterparts. Venezuela's heritage may be defined in its inherited circumstances and benefits.

Venezuelan heritage extends to its historic buildings, architecture and art, its landscape, boundaries and place within Latin America, and finally its monuments and items considered worthy of preservation. Hence, Venezuelan heritage is naturally connected and related to its culture, as culture defines a nation's intellectual and artistic endeavors. Through the collective customs, beliefs, practices and expressions of its people, a cultural identity is achieved. Together, Venezuelan heritage, art and culture represent the historic and contemporary elements of its society.

Venezuelan culture comes from a wide variety of heritages, mainly of the indigenous populations, Spanish and African provenance, dating from the Colonial Period. Before this period, indigenous cultural manifestations were expressed in art (petroglyphs), crafts, architecture (shabonos) and social organization. Aboriginal culture was subsequently assimilated by Spaniards; over the years, the hybrid culture had diversified by region.

Venezuelan art is gaining attention within and outside the country. First dominated by religious motives, in the late 19th century it changed to historical and heroic representations, led by Martín Tovar y Tovar. Modernism took over in the 20th century. Some very remarkable Venezuelan artists include Arturo Michelena, Cristóbal Rojas, Armando Reverón, Manuel Cabré, Jesús-Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez (who both contributed greatly to kinetic art), and Yucef Merhi.

Venezuelan literature began developing soon after the Spanish conquest, and it was dominated by Spanish culture and thinking. Following the rise of political literature during the Independence War, then came Romanticism, the first important genre in the region, whose great exponent was Juan Vicente González. Although mainly focused on narrative, poets also figure with great importance, Andrés Eloy Blanco being the most famous of them, and also Fermín Toro. Major writers and novelists are Rómulo Gallegos, Teresa de la Parra, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Adriano González León, Miguel Otero Silva and Mariano Picón Salas. Another great poet and humanist was Andrés Bello, besides being an educator and an intellectual.

Other philosophers and intellectuals, like Laureano Vallenilla Lanz and José Gil Fortoul, along with many other writers, sustained the theory of Venezuelan positivism.

The great architect of the Venezuelan Modern era was Carlos Raúl Villanueva, who designed and built the Universidad Central de Venezuela, (World Heritage Site) and its Aula Magna. Venezuelan architectural examples are the National Pantheon, the Baralt Theatre, the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, and the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge.

Indigenous musical styles are sort of a crucible of Venezuelan cultural inheritances, most exemplified by groups like Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa. The national musical instrument is the cuatro. The typical or representative musical styles are mainly from the llanos area and its surroundings, such as Alma Llanera (by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez and Rafael Bolivar Coronado), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba), Concierto en la llanura by Juan Vicente Torrealba, and Caballo Viejo (by Simón Díaz). The Gaita (music style) is also a popular style, played generally during Christmas, typical of the Zulian region. The national dance is the joropo. Teresa Carreño was a world famous piano virtuosa during the late 19th century.

Venezuela is also known for their world famous baseball players, such as Luis Aparicio, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (USA), David Concepción, Oswaldo Guillén, Andrés Galarraga, Omar Vizquel, Luis Sojo, Bobby Abreu, and Johan Santana, winner of the Cy Young Award in 2004. Although baseball is tremendously popular (it's the national pastime), football (soccer) is also gaining popularity, due to the increasing performance of the Venezuela national football team.

Due to its position in the world, its diversity of industrial resources and the cultural multiplicity of the Venezuelan people, Venezuelan cuisine often varies greatly from one region to another but its cuisine, traditional as well as modern, has strong ties to its European ancestry (Italian, Spanish, and French). The most common foods by region can be broadly classified as follows:

• Eastern states (Oriente), south eastern-states (Guayana) and northern states (Caribe): a wide gamut of fresh- and saltwater fish, seafood and crustaceans; tubers such as potato and yam; cereals such as corn, rice and pasta (where Venezuelans are number 2 in the world after Italy); beef - especially in the southern Llanos, where several sorts of soft, white cheese are also produced (guayanes, de mano, crineja, etc.); fresh vegetables and fruit (lettuce, tomatoes, plantains).
• Western states (occidente): common meats include goat (usually prepared with tomato) and rabbit ; extensive use of plantain and a variety of cheeses. Dishes are influenced by the local tribes as well as by Colombian cuisine.
• Central region: mainly poultry, beef, pork, fish (stewed or boiled), pasta (a predominant staple), rice, and salads. Influence from Europe (Italy in particular) as well as from other Venezuelan regions is readily noticeable.
• Llanos: beef and game (deer, chiguire, lapa, morrocoy, etc.), mostly grilled or roasted; corn (in the form of cachapas), cheese and other milk derivates.
• Andean region: potatoes and other tubers, wheat; beef, lamb and chicken; not much fish as the region doesn't have a coastal line -the exception being trout, which is raised on fish farms. Dishes show Euopean and native Andean peoples' influences.