\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAcross the last 30 years of Venezuelan history<\/a>, music has served as a series of emotional lifeboats. In a nation defined by turbulent decades of staggering collapse, different songs have arrived at pivotal moments to keep the collective spirit afloat. <\/p>\n \n\tThese aren\u2019t exactly protest songs. Using canci\u00f3n de protesta<\/em> (protest song) invites a complex historical debate in the case of Venezuela<\/a>. In the Sixties and Seventies, the \u201cNueva Canci\u00f3n Latinoamericana\u201d emerged as a powerful leftist movement across the region, led by figures like Mercedes Sosa<\/a>, Pablo Milan\u00e9s, and V\u00edctor Jara<\/a>. While this movement found local voices in Al\u00ed Primera and Soledad Bravo, it faced a radically different reception in Venezuela than it did in other places of Latin America.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring an era when many South American neighbors were struggling under right-wing military dictatorships (often with U.S. backing), the young Venezuelan democracy was fighting against guerrilla focos<\/em> actively backed by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Because Venezuela had successfully ousted its own dictatorship and established itself as a model of centrist, oil-funded stability, the \u201cProtest Song\u201d movement was often at odds with a state that was, at the time, the region\u2019s most successful democratic experiment.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the\u00a0fighting songs below reflect decades of a profound tension that has defined recent Venezuelan history. This can be traced to \u201cPor Estas Calles<\/a>\u201d (In These Streets), a Nineties telenovela theme song that captured the failure of the petro-state harmony, the very catalyst of the current crisis. Other songs that mirrored this crucial period include \u201cYo Me Quedo en Venezuela<\/a>,\u201d (I\u2019m staying in Venezuela\u201d<\/em>) a pop-folk optimist response turned painful irony by singer Carlos Baute; and \u201cAll\u00e1 Cay\u00f3<\/a>\u201d by Grammy-nominated ska band Desorden P\u00fablico. This 1997 track captured the cynicism of a nation in freefall by ironically asking \u201cwho saves us?\u201d only for a chorus to scream back, \u201cMichael Jordan!\u201d Just one year after, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez (Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s predecessor and political father) won the presidential elections of 1998\u2013 changing the course of the country.<\/p>\n