Open Veins: Spirits of Violence and Grief in Venezuela

Abstract

Transnational processes of stigmatization and criminalization of poverty associated to neoliberal models of development unfold locally in various modalities and intensities of de-pacification of everyday life. In this framework, this article presents the case study of a well-known spirit possession devotion in Venezuela, the cult of María Lionza, where the enormous symbolic, structural and repressive pressure exerted on shantytown dwellers, particularly male youngsters, is recycled — in a sort of corporeal videoclip — in a cluster of controversial and highly spectacular ritual practices based on self-mutilation and bloodletting. Using Eduardo Galeano's celebrated dictum of the `Open Veins of Latin America', taken in this article both metaphorically and literally, these intense rituals are understood as deeply embodied roadmaps to everyday violence and stigma, in the context of barrio — shantytown — male youth cultures and re-elaborations of popular memories of slavery and legendary sagas.