This article was published in Talon Magazine.]
Home may be where the heart is, but home is also where you come from. Imagine knowing you could never go back to that special place. Such is the case for KSU student Patricia Chourio.
Chourio grew up in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. During her junior year of high school, she left her home in Caracas, Venezuela for American political asylum, knowing she may never be able to come back.
The 2002-2003 Strike
Her father, Jose Chourio, worked in the oil industry as a company manager who trained workers of PDVSA. According to the company’s website, PDVSA is the world’s fifth largest oil provider. However in December of 2002, Patricia Chourio’s father and the majority of the management of PDVSA went on strike, locking their doors and effectively shutting down the major Venezuelan export industry. The strike’s motivation: to get President Hugo Chávez out of office.
“We never liked him,” Chourio said. “We kinda hoped he was different from other presidents. They always start with promises… “
Chavez had recently passed a degree late 2001 that would strengthen government control over PDVSA, a largely independent company. Then early in 2002, he fired several members of the company’s board of directors. On April 11, 2002, thousands of workers marched at the capital in protest.
“All the oil workers decided to go on a march,” Chourio said. “My dad was in that march.” According to Chourio, the military started throwing gas bombs at them. Her family watched at home as shooting then began in the streets. “We were really scared for my dad.”
What soon followed was a failed coup that removed President Chavez for two days; he returned to power through military and popular support. Likewise, the December oil strike for his removal failed even after two months of locked doors.
Chavez as President
“He seemed like the perfect president,” said fellow Venezuelan student Gabriel Hidalgo. Then he “started taking the mask off.”
According to Hidalgo, Chavez began to become more authoritarian, pushing for more governmental control. Hidalgo said it was a “wake up call.”
President Chavez’s appeal is mainly towards the poverty sicken majority, having grown up in poverty himself. “They identify with him,” Hidalgo said.
According to Global Post, Chavez has “halved poverty” and created missions to help feed and educate the country’s poor. However the world news site also points out that Chavez has not dealt with the “record levels of murders and kidnappings, rampant inflation and endemic corruption in his government.”
“Anytime of day, you’re at risk,” said Hidalgo, regarding the crime in Venezuela. According to him, two months ago his dad was robbed at gunpoint, and he had an uncle kidnapped in 2007 near the border of Columbia. “I feel scared when I go out.”
According to Reuters.com, homicides have “quadrupled” in Chavez’s 11 years as president, with two people murdered each hour.
While previously Venezuelan presidents could only run for two terms, Venezuela has recently passed legislation that would allow Chavez to run indefinitely.
Political Asylum
According to Chourio, after the oil strike failed in 2002 many of those involved were fired from their jobs without severance pay. Furthermore Chavez created a blacklist. “It was thousands of people… a lot of our friends.”
Chourio’s family stayed in Venezuela for a year. No one would hire her father and they could not access their bank account.
“We sold everything, our car, everything we could.” They decided to come to United States.
Her father came first; he had friends in Florida. Chourio thought she could at least finish high school in Venezuela. But one of her father’s friends told them: ‘You’re going to have to move fast if you want political asylum here.’ So they left.
According the U.S. Homeland Security website, 1,198 Venezuelans found American political asylum in 2004. It took a year for the Chourio family to get all their papers. “We had to prove we were in danger there and couldn’t get a job,” she said. Furthermore, Chourio had another obstacle: English.
She began her second semester of her junior year, not knowing English. She had taken English classes back in Venezuela, but not to the extent necessary for high school.
“The Backstreet Boys helped me a lot” Chourio said. She used to translate her favorite songs from bands such as Queen, The Beatles, and Backstreet Boys into Spanish. In her new high school she also took ESL, English as a Second Language, classes to help her learn. Now she speaks English as fluently as anyone else.
Here at KSU
Today Chourio is a senior at KSU working for a degree in Communication as a photographer.
“The work of a journalist is so great, to tell what’s going on in the world…. People trust the media and the news; it’s more powerful than any government.”
Sophomore Hidalgo is also a Communication major at KSU. For the past two years he has lived in Kennesaw, while going back home during winter and summer breaks. When he graduates he plans to go back to Venezuela to work in the media.
“I told myself I was going to get prepared to go back,” he said. “I want to try to do my part. I feel that responsibility.”
As for Chourio and her Venezuelan home: “We can’t go back till Chavez leaves.”
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