Hearing New Voices of Venezuelan Migrant Women
The ‘Hearing New Voices of Venezuelan Migrant Women’ project is run by Dr Katie Brown and Dr Miguel Vásquez and funded by a European Network Fund grant from the University of Exeter. It is a ‘students-as-researchers’ project: six students from the University of Exeter and six students from Universidad Complutense de Madrid worked together to carry out, transcribe and translate interviews with young Venezuelan women who have migrated and either write or publish poetry. The interviewees were chosen to cover migration to different parts of the world: Europe, the USA and Latin America. Our key research questions were:
- How does migration shape writing and publishing practices?
- How does poetry allow migrants to share their emotional experiences?
- How can migrant publishing initiatives offer opportunities for work and economic growth?
Students said:
I have learnt to work entirely remotely, and cross-continentally, and mostly in a second language! I have gained confidence in my Spanish, my interviewing skills and translation, while deepening my knowledge of Venezuela, publishing services, poetry and the ‘female voice’ in the world of literature.
It was honestly so incredible to be able to partake in the project! It really boosted my confidence and also just continued to open up a whole new world to me, and gave me lots of food for thought.
Carrying out the interview itself was an invaluable experience. I learnt that the most rewarding technique was to make the interviewee feel as comfortable as possible, show interest in her work and take the opportunity to learn from her and explore ideas together.
Click on each interviewee below to read their full interview.
Camila Ríos Armas
“We cannot dissociate our personal experiences, even just as spectators, from how we live.”
Diana Moncada
“Sometimes we’re prey to our own demands, the expectations we create for ourselves, and in the end we stop being as free to create as we thought we were”.
Enza García Arreaza
“I think we’ve transcended the figure of the cursed writer who must only access knowledge of themselves and the world through suffering. I’m fed up with this.”
Orianna Camejo
“My editorial effort is focused on bringing in new voices, giving space to the new generation”
Oriette D’Angelo
“People are shocked by the amount of dead bodies that are carried in my memory: that type of violence changes your body and the structure of your brain”
Cristina Gutiérrez Leal
“The things that we forgive are diluted but they still colour us and how we form emotional attachments”