I am one of 5 million Venezuelans who emigrated to flee violence and the economic crisis. I ended a life built around family. My structure collapsed. Left behind, my father drank to no avail and our elders remained in crumbling houses no one visits. Everyone left.
Arising from this loss, Nearness (La Cercanía) explores the rebirth of identity while in exile. As a psychological study of migration, this is the closure of a trilogy on the emotional process of grief; in my previous work I explored emotions of solitude and fortitude, now I seek what comes after.
Returning to Venezuela at this point, can only be a faraway dream, so I connect myself in Sofia’s struggle to break free from the oppression of new circumstances, and of the mental limbo that has paralyzed us from defining ourselves and from moving forward.
Emotional nearness to Venezuela will be forever a burden, for myself and Sofia, but beyond this permanent state of saudade lies a question I must resolve: can we build a home without a land?