Understanding a Modern-Day Migrant Crisis

Abstract

The Venezuelan migrant crisis is one of the worst the world has ever seen. In order to understand the complex issue, the goal of this project is to provide a historical context of the country from a high-level view, and then zoom in on one of the main culprits of the situation: Hugo Chàvez. The project provides a further historical understanding of Chàvez before observing a context through the lens of collective memory.The important takeaway is that despite some of the facts, large groups of people have different memories of Chàvez and the role he played in causing the crisis. One of the most important aspects of cultural memory is that it enables people to learn from past experiences and apply that knowledge in the present. Considering this is a current crisis, these alternative understandings of memory could help develop ways to avoid circumstances like this in the future.