MOTHERLAND A Memoir by Paula Ramón
—translated by Julia Sanches and Jennifer Shyue
From Venezuelan journalist Paula Ramón comes a powerful memoir about one woman’s complicated relationship with her family as her beloved homeland collapses into ruin.
From the Prologue of MOTHERLAND:
I grew up in a place where rules were made to be broken. My country took pride in its main social asset, “criollo clever,” or the belief that we could outsmart everyone else. In a system that functioned according to long-established social codes . . . I was raised to play the game, but even though my mother taught me to duck and weave, eventually Venezuela brought me to my knees . . .
I started writing this book a few days after my mother’s funeral. These pages . . . have given me an opportunity to reflect on what we went through as a family and as a country, a luxury I couldn’t afford when my mother was alive. Although our country was not at war with anyone, millions of Venezuelans were thrust into circumstances that . . . brought out the worst in all of us. After decades of abundance, food and money became obsessions, breaking families apart and sending thousands of people out of the country in search of a better life.
Without my realizing it, during my time away from Venezuela, my parents . . . had become my homeland. When Mamá died, the umbilical cord tethering me to her and to . . . our house was suddenly severed. My grief was twofold, and it grew into an emotional and geographical void one could call rootlessness. Writing about it ultimately exorcized my feelings . . . My mourning floods these pages, which have become a letter of farewell to my parents and my country. The only time I get to see them again is in my dreams.
In the span of a generation, oil-rich Venezuela spiraled into a dire state of economic collapse. Journalist Paula Ramón experienced the crisis firsthand as her middle-class family saw their quality of life deteriorate. In her deeply personal new book MOTHERLAND: A Memoir, Ramón poignantly and eloquently recounts what it was like growing up in Venezuela when Hugo Chávez won his first election through his death and beyond. Translated by the talented Julia Sanches and Jennifer Shyue, MOTHERLAND will be published in English for the first time by Amazon Crossing on October 31, 2023.
“This book is a very personal story, but also very relatable to people who are trying to come to terms with who they are, their relationships to their families and their loyalties to their countries,” Ramón said. “I’m thrilled about this new English version because it allows me to share this story – mine and my country’s – with more people.”
MOTHERLAND is not a political book, but rather a poignant and sentimental search for one’s roots and for the answers to the often-asked questions: What defines us? Who are you in a new country? What truly matters?
By the time Ramón started high school in the 1990s, Venezuela was already experiencing turbulent times. The crisis got progressively worse. In the decades that followed, public services no longer functioned. Money lost its value. Eventually, her mother couldn’t afford to buy food, which was increasingly scarce. The once-prosperous country fell into ruin. Like many others, Ramón’s family struggled to survive each day in their beloved city, Maracaibo—until, one by one, they each made the unbearable choice to leave the home they loved.
In the end, it was Ramón’s mother, a widow, who stayed behind, loyal to the only home she’d ever known. In this heartbreaking mix of lived experience, family chronicle, and journalistic essay, Paula Ramón explores the anguish of her own relationships set against the staggering collapse of a country.
MOTHERLAND is a uniquely human account about the ties that bind—and the fragile concept of home.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATORS:
Paula Ramón is a Venezuelan journalist who has lived and worked in China, the United States, Brazil, and Uruguay. She is currently a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, based in Los Angeles. She has written and reported for the New York Times, National Geographic, Columbia Journalism Review, and Piauí magazine, among other outlets.
Julia Sanches is a literary translator working from Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan into English. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, she lives in New England. She is a founding member of Cedilla & Co., a collective of translators committed to making international voices heard in English, and chair of the Translators Group of the Authors Guild.
Jennifer Shyue is an accomplished translator from Brooklyn, NY focusing on contemporary Cuban and Asian-Peruvian writers, translating both poetry and prose. Her work has been published in Poetry Magazine, McSweeney’s, and Guernica, among other literary journals.
