BIROSCA CARIOCA
Merida y Birosca, Antecedentes
The city of Merida, capital city of the state of the same name, is a small city in the Andes of Venezuela. Home to an estimated 500,000 people with about a million statewide, its population density is approximately 90 people per square kilometer. With vast regions of mountains and valleys surrounding the city itself, as well as its various towns, Merida for half a century has painted a distinct panoramic for people seeking to live somewhere between urban, suburban and rural livelihoods.
Fotografia de Oscar Gonzalez
Arte de Profesor Johnny Porras
Jardin Botanica de la ULA
From 1960 to 1990 the city blossomed into a haven for both Venezuelans and international tourists interested in this opportunity for an alternative lifestyle. Untouched by the pervasive marketing of today, Merida's allure was organic. Its colonial history and architecture that had withstood time and attracted traditional tourism. Meanwhile its perfect climate which was warm in the day and cold at night, differing from the rest of Venezuela, attracted both national and international guests.
Additionally, situated between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra La Culata at 1600msnm, with a range of ecosystems similar to rain forests and extending through extensive cloud forest up to high mountain moorlands, Merida became a magnet for nature and adventure enthusiasts.
In addition to its megadiverse flora y fauna, Merida was home to the second oldest university of the nation, the University of the Andes, at this time the second largest in the nation. This institution, recognized worldwide in the 1990s, attracted individuals and institutions, professors and students, on a magnified scale. Often Merida was referred to as a university with a city within its walls: the influence of which was a base for the cultural and intellectual pursuits of the entire region, from the center of the city to the numerous towns surrounding it. .
Gasoline, practically free up until 2015, allowed people to seek out and build their homes in the countryside, where often basic amenities lacked such as phone service or electricity, but created distinct communities with distinct valuesA homogenization between the original residents, the university culture, and re-settlers from within Venezuela and abroad creating a unified front of a population thriving on its interest in art and music, nature and learning. The result was the ideal background for a revolutionary cultural space to emerge in 1991.