Culture of Venezuela

The Venezuelan culture comes from a wide variety of heritages, mainly of the indigenous populations, Spanish and African provenance, dating from the Colony. 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. Firstly dominated by religious motives, in the late 19th century changed to historical and heroic representations, led by Martin Tovar y Tovar. Modernism took over in the 20th century. Some very remarkable Venezuelan artists include Arturo Michelena, Cristobal Rojas, Armando Reveron, Jesus-Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez (who both contributed greatly to kinetic art), and Manuel Cabre.

Venezuelan literature began developing soon after Spanish conquest, and it was dominated by Spanish culture and thinking. Following the rise of political literature during the Independence War, was the Romanticism, the first important genre in the region, whose great exponent was Juan Vicente Gonzalez.

Although mainly focused on narrative, poets figure with great importance, being Andres Eloy Blanco the most famous of them, aside Fermin Toro. Major writers and novelists are Romulo Gallegos, Teresa de la Parra, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Adriano Gonzalez Leon, Miguel Otero Silva and Mariano Picon Salas. Another great poet and humanist was Andres Bello, besides being and educator and a intellectual.

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

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

Autoctonal music styles are sort of a crisol of the Venezuelan cultural inheritages, most noted in groups like Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa. The national musical instrument is the cuatro. The national songs are mainly from the llanos area and its environment, so is the case of the Alma Llanera (by Pedro Elias Gutierrez and Rafael Bolivar), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba) and Caballo Viejo (by Simon Diaz). The gaitas is also a popular style, played generally on Christmas, typical of Zulia State. The national dance is the joropo.

Teresa Carreno was a world famous piano virtuosa during late 19th century.

Venezuela is also a reference for their world famous baseball players, such as Luis Aparicio, David Concepcion, Oswaldo Guillen, Andres Galarraga, Omar Vizquel, Luis Sojo, Bobby Abreu, and Johan Santana, winner of the Cy Young Award in 2004. Although baseball is tremendously popular, football (soccer) is also gaining popularity, due to the increasing performance of the Venezuela national football team.