Did the oil industry help promote Venezuelan culture and music?
How did gaita music develop? T.M: Oil in Venezuela has been both a blessing and a curse because it’s tended to allow people to neglect other parts of the economy. And I think that’s the reason why so many, even Afropop Worldwide listeners, have not had much opportunity to hear Venezuelan music. It really has not left the country very much. And one of the types of music that is a perfect candidate to have much more exposure within the ‘world music’ market, so to speak, is gaita music. It’s not the gaita music that you might have heard from Colombia, it’s gaita music from Venezuela, and it comes from the Maracaibo area. Maracaibo is the second largest city in the country, and Lake Maracaibo is the largest fresh water lake in South America. It’s in the northwest part of the country. And that music has a definite African origin to it. Then in the southeast part of the lake, there were communities that were able to establish themselves as free men and women, and be fairly independent. We kn
