THE SELLING OF SAN-JUAN - THE PERFORMANCE OF HISTORY IN AN AFRO-VENEZUELAN COMMUNITY

By viewing the Afro-Venezuelan Festival of San Juan in the historical context of a 45-year period, we can see the manner in which this celebration has articulated the changing social and political realities of those who have performed it. From the growth of nationalism and the consolidation of the Venezuelan state during the first years of democracy in the late 1940s, to the developmental fever generated by the oil boom of the 1970s, to the emergence of a new African consciousness in the present, the festival, like all cultural performances, has mirrored transformations within the community itself. Most recently, the celebration of San Juan has served to reconsolidate the community in a time of tremendous social turmoil and has also permitted those participating in it to speak about a subject few Venezuelans have ever wished to address-that of race.