Caracas, City of Aftermath. Caretaking Practices After Emigration and Collapse
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article examines the caretaking practices of vacant domestic spaces amid a migratory crisis and generalized collapse. Caracas is conceptualized as a ‘city of aftermath’, where the material residues of modernity are reconfigured in response to the logic of crisis and the needs of migrants, re-signifying spaces and extending their life beyond the conditions of their production. The text is centered on the figure of the caretaker. Based on interviews, site visits, and photography, the article examines the daily routines of Carlos, who looks after more than twenty apartments in Caracas. His work is entwined with migrants’ trajectories and local needs, generating new economies and support networks around the maintenance and adaptation of vacant spaces. In this way, caretaking practices offer clues for a reading of the city that transcends progress/decline oppositions and their respective imaginaries: the new and the ruin.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All contents of this electronic edition are distributed under the Creative Commons license of "Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internacional" (CC-BY-SA). Any total or partial reproduction of the material must mention its origin.
The rights of the published images belong to their authors, who grant to Diseña the license for its use. The management of the permits and the authorization of the publication of the images (or of any material) that contains copyright and its consequent rights of reproduction in this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors of the articles.
References
Cabrujas, J. I. (2012). La ciudad escondida. In T. Hernández (Ed.), Caracas en 25 afectos (pp. 20-32). CEC.
Cedice: Observatorio de Derechos de Propiedad. (2023). Home ODP. Observatorio de Propiedad. https://paisdepropietarios.org/propietariosve/
Dawney, L. (2020). Decommissioned Places: Ruins, Endurance and Care at the End of the First Nuclear Age. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 45(1), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12334
Freitez, A., España, L. P., Correa, G., Di Brienza, M., Ponce, M. G., Marotta, D., Aparicio, O., & Castro, J. (2021). Encuesta nacional sobre condiciones de vida. Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. https://assets.website-files.com/5d14c6a5c4ad42a4e794d0f7/6153ad6fb92e4428cada4fb7_Presentacion%20ENCOVI%202021%20V1.pdf
Freitez, A., España, L. P., Correa, G., Di Brienza, M., Ponce, M. G., Marotta, D., Aparicio, O., & Castro, J. (2022). Encuesta nacional sobre condiciones de vida. Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. https://assets.website-files.com/5d14c6a5c4ad42a4e794d0f7/636d0009b0c59ebfd2f24acd_Presentacion%20ENCOVI%202022%20completa.pdf
González Viso, I., Peña, M. I., & Vegas, F. (2015). Historia de Caracas a través de sus planos / History of Caracas through its Plans. In Caracas del valle al mar: Guía de arquitectura y paisaje / Caracas from the Valley to the Sea: An Architectural and Landscape guide (pp. 10-67). Junta de Andalucia.
Gordillo, G. R. (2014). Rubble: The Afterlife of Destruction. Duke University Press.
Graham, S., & Thrift, N. (2007). Out of Order: Understanding Repair and Maintenance. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(3), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407075954
Hernández, T. (2012). Caracas: Amada, odiada, desmemoriada y sensual. In T. Hernández (Ed.), Caracas en 25 afectos (pp. 159-177). CEC.
Jackson, S. J. (2014). Rethinking Repair. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.), Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (pp. 221-239). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9042.003.0015
Lafuente, M., & Genatios, C. (2021). De fuga de cerebros a red de talentos. La diáspora venezolana: Análisis y propuestas. CITECI-ANIH.
Mattern, S. (2018). Maintenance and Care. Places Journal. https://doi.org/10.22269/181120
Mbembe, A., & Roitman, J. (1995). Figures of the Subject in Times of Crisis. Public Culture, 7(2), 323-352. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-7-2-323
Observatorio Venezolano de Servicios Públicos. (n.d.). Home. https://www.observatoriovsp.org/homepage/
Pinardi, S. (2013). Residuos y cegueras: Miradas desde una Caracas sitiada, (20), 53-71.
Plataforma de Coordinación Interagencial para Refugiados y Migrantes. (2023). Home. R4V. https://www.r4v.info/
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
Simone, A. (2004). People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg. Public Culture, 16(3), 407-429. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-16-3-407
Torres, A. T. (2015). Fervor de Caracas: Una antología literaria de la ciudad. Fundavag.
Vásquez Lezama, P. (2019). Cuando se consume el cuerpo del pueblo. La incertidumbre como política de supervivencia en Venezuela. Revista iberoamericana, (266), 101-118.
Zubillaga, V., Llorens, M., & Souto, J. (2019). Micropolitics in a Caracas Barrio: The Political Survival Strategies of Mothers in a Context of Armed Violence. Latin American Research Review, 54(2), 429-443. https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.196