Cowboy in Caracas – A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Revolution

Date:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Cowboy in Caracas tells the experiences of Charlie Hardy in the Barrios Of Caracas, Venezuela

Cowboys in Caracas Charles Hardy worked as a priest for many years in one of Caracas's slums and knows its people well. If you want to understand Venezuela's democratic revolution ignore the bile in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and read this book.

Hardy's accounts of 25 years in Venezuela are both moving and eye opening.

Charles Hardy's memoir COWBOY IN CARACAS: A NORTH AMERICAN'S MEMOIR OF VENEZUELA'S DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION (gives a much-needed voice to the impoverished living in Venezuela. Condemned by big business and the American government, democratically elected Hugo Chávez became a representative of the underrepresented. Hardy gives a detailed firsthand account of life in Venezuela before and after the Bolivarian Revolution.

Hardy sets the stage, describing the chaos and corruption wrought by the Venezuelan government prior to the election of Chávez. Leaving no stone unturned, Hardy addresses the events following the election, including the many unjustified and unsuccessful attempts to remove Chávez from office. Exposing the manipulative methods of the opposition, Hardy gives the reader a glimpse of why the rich hated Chávez, but also why the Venezuelan poor adored him.

This is a very important book told from an all too often neglected perspective. Hardy watches barrio dwellers leave pressed cardboard shacks that lacked indoor plumbing (the type of home he lived in for much of his stay in Venezuela) and move into much more suitable apartment-style housing. Changes like these could have only occurred during the administration of Chávez. The reader is brought into the lives of these impoverished people (it is estimated that eighty percent of Venezuelans are living in poverty), and is able to see how necessary it is for them to be represented by a president who is willing to look out for their best interests. The message of Hardy's book can best be expressed through a statement he makes on page 19, "It is often simply difficult to understand what one has never experienced. And yet, if we truly want a better world for everyone, we've got to try." This book is essential to knowing what is truly going on in Venezuela beyond what the news media wants the world to believe.