The Street Is My Home Summary

Venezuela is amidst a parlous social, political, and economic crisis marked by severe food and medicine shortages, soaring crime rates, and a quasi-dictatorship. Patricia C. Marquez, an Associate Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela, wrote The Street is My Home: Youth and Violence in Caracas with the intent of suffusing information about the Venezuelan Crisis in order to create global attention and spark a movement. The novel is a collection of stories that provide insight into the current government, class systems, and the crisis in Venezuela through the stories of street children in Caracas. The children explain their personal stories
Hugo Chavez who was president from 1999-2013 and his successor Nicolas Maduro, who shared very similar views, sequentially led Venezuela into “The Crisis”. Chavez and Maduro proposed a socialist revolution which is what rallied a majority of citizens behind them in support. However, they did not fulfill their promises. The people of Venezuela believed corruption was their number one problem and the cause of other problems in their country. Also, their confidence in their traditional two-party political establishment significantly declined. So, when Chavez, a man who ran as a nontraditional political party and who vowed to address the country’s problem with corruption, many supported him. Francisco explains his dislike for politics: “I really don't like politics[.] It's a very dirty world.’” ("Venezuelans Look For New Ways To Cope Amid Increasingly Dire Economic Issues"). Many Venezuelans are now protesting against the government because it is more corrupt than ever, even though Chavez and Maduro pledged to get rid of corruption to the fullest extent. What Chavez and Maduro actually did as president was nothing close to what they promised. One of the Venezuelan citizens in Caracas who was interviewed was wary of letting his full name be used because he was afraid of what the government might do to him if they find out he was giving information to a United States news organization: “Francisco's 19. He asked NPR to withhold his full name because like many Venezuelans these days, he's worried about what might happen if the authorities find out he's spoken with a U.S. news organization” ("Venezuelans Look For New Ways To Cope Amid Increasingly Dire Economic Issues"). Everyone has the right to express freely his or her thoughts, ideas or opinions orally, in writing or by any other form of expression, and to use for such purpose any means of communication and diffusion,