BIROSCA CARIOCA
34 years of
HISTORY
2000s
Birosca Carioca was founded in 1991 by Oscar Gonzalez. Born in the Canary Islands, Oscar emigrated to Venezuela at the age of 9 and his family settled in the city of Puerto Ordaz. Puerto Ordaz is the closest major city to the Brazilian border (a 20-hour drive approximately) and Oscar's many trips to Brazil in the 1980s gave him the idea to open a Birosca in Venezuela. Birosca is a term of various interpretations, the most common being an underground community bar, often informal, sometimes the meeting place of old friends. He met Fernando Duarte on one his bus trips to Brazil and the two continued with the idea until Oscar arrived in Merida in the late 1980's and a plan began to materialize.
Starting as a vegetarian restaurant in a colonial home whose original construction date back to 1912, Birosca opened its doors for the first time. Oscar, accompanied by friends and fellow music enthusiasts gathered together some reels and cassettes, and pieced together a sound system, along with a few tables and chairs. They were all living rurally as residents of Santos Marquina a town on the outskirts of Merida and hoped to start a bar where friends could get together and listen to music. Considering that most rural residents of the region had no telephone service they hoped to establish a meeting point but had not considered the possibility that birosca would draw the amount of people it did, establishing itself as an overnight phenomenon
Merida's magic was partly due to its isolation but this absence of trends often let traditional influences dominate where nothing else took their place. While bars somewhat similar to Birosca had opened for periods and closed briefly, the nightclubs that remained had strict dress codes and allowed only exclusive clients which many residents found superficial and overbearing (estos temas deberia estar invertidos). Birosca appeared as almost the opposite of these establishments not only in its target clientele and atmosphere, but also in its musical selection.
La muerte de Oscar fue un golpe devastador para la comunidad de Birosca. Una figura única y poco convencional, su resistencia a las normas y tendencias sociales había sido un pilar fundamental del bar. Aunque no era una presencia constante, su personalidad y visión eran integrales para la identidad de Birosca como un espacio cultural y alternativo.
A pesar de estos contratiempos, Birosca no cerró. Sin embargo, quedó enterrada bajo casi siete años de trámites legales, agravados por la demanda de desalojo en curso. El bar también tuvo que navegar algunos de los momentos más difíciles que Venezuela haya experimentado, incluidos apagones nacionales y escasez de gasolina que generaron colas de hasta seis días. Los habitantes de Mérida a menudo se despertaban preguntándose qué nuevo obstáculo enfrentarían.
La década terminó con la pandemia global de COVID-19, que trajo desafíos adicionales. En un giro surrealista, una tienda de frutas temporal abrió en el espacio de Birosca, provocando una mezcla internacional de humor, indignación y nostalgia. Aunque la tienda de frutas duró solo una semana, simbolizó el futuro incierto del bar. Las puertas de Birosca finalmente se soldaron, permaneciendo cerradas hasta 2021.