Kristy Ram­nar­ine

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Ál­varo En­rique Sánchez Cordero says ca­lyp­so, so­ca and steel­pan are as beloved in Venezuela as parang, cu­a­tro and the shak-shak are in T&T.

The Am­bas­sador, who al­so serves as Dean of the Diplo­mat­ic Corps, made the re­mark as he of­fi­cial­ly opened the fifth edi­tion of Latin Nights, a cul­tur­al show­case host­ed by the Na­tion­al Li­brary and In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem Au­thor­i­ty (Nalis).

Dur­ing his ad­dress, Am­bas­sador Cordero high­light­ed the deep his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al bonds be­tween Venezuela and T&T—ties that, he not­ed, ex­tend far be­yond ge­og­ra­phy.

“Venezuela has an im­por­tant cul­tur­al lega­cy in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the same way that Trinidad and To­ba­go has an im­por­tant cul­tur­al lega­cy in Venezuela,” he said.

He traced these shared con­nec­tions to their com­mon In­dige­nous Warao her­itage, and to the ar­rival of Venezue­lan co­coa-pa­ny­ols in Trinidad’s North­ern Range in the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry. From those ear­ly roots to more re­cent mi­gra­tion, he said, the two na­tions have con­tin­ued to ex­change and en­rich each oth­er through mu­sic, food, and tra­di­tion­al fes­tiv­i­ties such as Cruz de Mayo and La Bur­riq­ui­ta (Bur­roket).

Cordero added that events like Latin Nights strength­en re­gion­al ties through co­op­er­a­tion, sol­i­dar­i­ty and cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion. He quot­ed the late José An­to­nio Abreu, founder of Venezuela’s world-renowned El Sis­tema youth or­ches­tras:

“Singing and play­ing to­geth­er means liv­ing close­ly and warm­ly, with a spir­it of per­fec­tion and a de­sire for ex­cel­lence. This is how a spir­it of sol­i­dar­i­ty and sis­ter­hood is formed.”

The am­bas­sador de­scribed T&T as car­ry­ing “a Latin Amer­i­can and Span­ish pulse deep with­in its heart,” not­ing that its iden­ti­ty, mu­sic, and gas­tron­o­my re­flect cen­turies of cul­tur­al blend­ing.

“From our In­dige­nous an­ces­tors to the African, Eu­ro­pean, In­di­an, Chi­nese, and Arab in­flu­ences that shaped our so­ci­eties, these shared lega­cies con­nect us across Latin Amer­i­ca, Spain, the Caribbean, and be­yond,” he said. “We con­stant­ly en­rich one an­oth­er, strength­en­ing our di­ver­si­ty and in­ter­cul­tur­al tra­di­tions.”

The evening’s pro­gramme fea­tured vi­brant per­for­mances that em­bod­ied this spir­it of uni­ty. La Ron­dal­la, from the Venezue­lan In­sti­tute of Cul­ture and Co­op­er­a­tion (IVCC), per­formed tra­di­tion­al Venezue­lan pieces on the cu­a­tro, in­clud­ing Pre­ciosa Merideña by Pe­dro José Castel­lanos, Venezuela by Pablo Her­rero and José Luis Ar­menteros, and El Norte es una Quimera by Luis Fra­gachán.

Stu­dents of Bish­op Anstey High School de­light­ed the au­di­ence with spir­it­ed ren­di­tions of Molien­do Café by Hugo Blan­co and Al­ma Llan­era, arranged by Simón Díaz.

The event con­clud­ed with a mov­ing mono­logue by Sec­ond Sec­re­tary Belkis Hen­ríquez, in­spired by Doña Bár­bara—the icon­ic Venezue­lan nov­el by Ró­mu­lo Gal­le­gos—cel­e­brat­ing fem­i­nine strength and Venezuela’s lit­er­ary tra­di­tion.

Am­bas­sador Cordero said Latin Nights con­tin­ues to serve as “a priv­i­leged space to cel­e­brate cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty, co­op­er­a­tion, and broth­er­hood among the peo­ples of the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca.”

This year’s edi­tion fea­tured per­for­mances and dis­plays rep­re­sent­ing Ar­genti­na, Brazil, Chile, Colom­bia, Cu­ba, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Mex­i­co, Pana­ma, Pe­ru, Spain, and Venezuela.