Georgetown Americas Institute

Maggi’s dissertation analyzes how various literary and audiovisual narratives reflect internal conflicts related to the memory and national identity of Venezuelan migrants in the twenty-first century. In Caracas, he conducted research in the archives of the Biblioteca Nacional and the libraries of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, the Universidad Metropolitana, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración, and Fundación Polar. He also interviewed six people from different social classes about Venezuela’s political, economic, and migration crisis in the last five years. Transcripts of these interviews will be used as an appendix to his dissertation.

The GAI Student Grant award significantly contributed to his academic experience at Georgetown. First, he found numerous valuable materials in the libraries in Caracas, where he conducted archival research. He examined data and statistics on wealth, income, occupation, education, and other aspects of Venezuelan social class and racial divisions that occurred in the last hundred years. This historical background will help him define the main characteristics of each social class and race in Venezuela. He will use this to analyze how the dissertation’s selected works build Venezuelan migrants’ national identity and memory. He also found essential texts about the history of migration in Venezuela, which will contribute to defining how the Venezuelan migration of the last ten years constitutes an unprecedented event in the history of this country.

Additionally, the interviews with Caracas residents from different social classes about Venezuela’s political, economic, and migration crisis allow him to compare the fictional characters’ views on Venezuela under Chávez and Maduro in the selected works with the opinions of people living there.