WHAT
How can Venezuelan musical heritage be preserved despite migration for future generations’ cultural identity?
WHY
As a Venezuelan abroad, I understand Venezuelan identity as something carried through songs, memories, news, images, jokes and cultural symbols. These fragments connect us to where we come from, but they can also keep us attached to the past.
Venezuela is experiencing a historical paradox: the past has become emotionally dominant, while the future feels uncertain or threatening. This affects Venezuelans inside and outside the country. Migration has not only displaced people; it has also displaced memories, relationships, expectations and cultural practices (Granado, 2026).
This matters because Venezuelan migration is one of the largest displacement movements in the world, with nearly 7.9 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants living outside the country (UNHCR, 2026).
Contemporary Venezuelan music is already being deeply shaped by migration. Many Venezuelan artists now create from outside the country, and some of the most internationally visible Venezuelan musicians have emerged from the diaspora (Remezcla, 2026). Migration is therefore not only a context around Venezuelan music; it has become one of the forces transforming how Venezuelan music is made, heard and recognised.
In this context, preserving Venezuelan musical heritage cannot mean only looking back at traditional forms. Joropo, for example, has been recognised by UNESCO as part of Venezuela’s intangible cultural heritage, combining music, poetry, singing, dancing and collective celebration (UNESCO, 2025). However, preservation also requires paying attention to the present: to the songs, remixes, samples, reinterpretations and experimental practices through which Venezuelans are already processing displacement, nostalgia, adaptation and belonging.
This research proposes a living musical archive as a point of encounter and recognition for Venezuelans. It asks how the music marked by this migratory moment can be collected, understood and transmitted to those who come after us.
HOW
This research proposes a community-based musical archive where Venezuelans can contribute memories, references and reinterpretations.
I will create a three-stage archive methodology.
Archive 001: Heritage, Nostalgia and Symbol will be a Padlet-based community collection of musical memories from Venezuelan migrants and artists abroad. It will use a chain invitation method: each participant will contribute one song connected to Venezuela, share the memory or meaning behind it, and invite another Venezuelan to do the same. This will allow the archive to grow through trust, personal networks and collective memory.
Archive 002: Remix and Reinterpretation will collect remixes and contemporary reinterpretations of Venezuelan music, exploring how heritage is already being transformed.
Archive 003: Future Production will invite new musical sketches or productions inspired by the archive, testing whether it can become a creative resource for future Venezuelan sound.
The project will be developed ethically through consent, participant choice, copyright awareness, stakeholder feedback and reflective documentation.
WHAT IF
If successful, this project will create a living musical archive that helps Venezuelans abroad understand their heritage not as something frozen in the past, but as something that can be remixed, transformed and projected into the future. It could support pride, visibility, cultural transmission and new creative production.
Professionally, this project connects to my practice as a music producer, artist and cultural organiser. I am interested in music as a tool for collective intelligence, collaboration and cultural imagination.
Reference list
Granado, B. (2026) ‘Venezuelan Nostalgia Is a Trap That Makes It Difficult to Imagine the Future’, Caracas Chronicles, 15 March. Available at: https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2026/03/15/venezuelan-nostalgia-is-a-trap-that-makes-it-difficult-to-imagine-the-future/
Remezcla (2026) ‘8 Voices Shaping Venezuela’s Music’, Remezcla, 23 February. Available at: https://remezcla.com/lists/music/8-voices-shaping-venezuelas-music/
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (2025) ‘Joropo in Venezuela’. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/joropo-in-venezuela-02092
UNHCR (2026) ‘Venezuela Situation’. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/venezuela-situation
By: Daniel Vargas