Ashworth and Larkham’s idea of “building a new heritage” helps me question whether Venezuelan musical heritage can be preserved only by protecting inherited forms, or whether migration requires the construction of a new heritage shaped by memory, remix, reinterpretation and diaspora.
Virgil Abloh’s distinction between the tourist and the purist helps me reflect on my own position. As someone Venezuelan by upbringing and Peruvian by lineage, I am both inside and outside Venezuelan culture. This dual position allows me to approach Venezuelan musical heritage with affection, but also with critical distance. I am not interested in defending purity; I am interested in understanding how heritage moves, mutates and becomes meaningful for future generations.
Lowenthal’s idea that “the past is a foreign country” resonates with my experience of having spent 16 years away from Venezuela. The Venezuela I remember and the Venezuela that exists today may no longer be the same place. This makes musical preservation complex: the archive must not only preserve my memory of Venezuela, but open space for multiple memories and present-day transformations.
Laurajane Smith’s Uses of Heritage helps me understand heritage as something communities use to create meaning, identity and belonging, rather than something that simply exists in objects or official categories. In my project, each song in the archive can be understood through its use: as memory, nostalgia, pride, resistance, migration testimony, remix material or future inheritance.