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Learn moreFrom Venezuelan reporter Paula Ramón comes a powerful memoir about one woman’s complicated relationship with her family as her beloved homeland collapses into ruin.
In the span of a generation, oil-rich Venezuela spiraled into a dire state of economic collapse. Reporter Paula Ramón experienced the crisis firsthand as her middle-class family saw their quality of life deteriorate.
Public services no longer functioned. Money lost its value. Her mother couldn’t afford to buy food, which was increasingly scarce. The once-prosperous country fell into ruin. Like many others, Ramón’s family struggled to survive each day in their beloved city, Maracaibo—until, one by one, they each made the unbearable choice to leave the home they love.
In the end, it was Ramón’s mother, a widow, who stayed behind, loyal to the only home she’d ever known. In this heartbreaking mix of lived experience, family chronicle, and journalistic essay, Paula Ramón explores the anguish of her own relationships set against the staggering collapse of a country.
Motherland is a uniquely human account about the ties that bind—and the fragile concept of home.
Paula Ramón is a Venezuelan journalist who has lived and worked in China, the United States, Brazil, and Uruguay. She is currently a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, based in Los Angeles. She has written and reported for the New York Times, National Geographic, Columbia Journalism Review, and Piauí magazine, among other outlets.
Reviews
“Ana Osorio's youthful voice seems an appropriate vehicle for recounting the story of a young Venezuelan reporter who experiences the personal and political upheaval that is taking place under the government of Hugo Chavez.… Osorio's voice takes on a tone of concern as the Venezuelan economy begins to collapse and Maracaibo, Ramón's home, once the center of the booming oil industry, falters. For a time, Ramón escapes this fate by leaving the country, but Osorio's narration expresses Ramón's increasing anxiety as she watches her mother slipping further into poor health amid the total disintegration of their homeland.” —AudioFile Magazine
“Venezuelan American narrator Ana Osorio offers a masterful performance as she sensitively describes the rise of a middle class with unlimited potential, the promising start of Hugo Chavez's presidency, and the diaspora of nearly an entire Venezuelan generation as Chavez's policies wreaked havoc.… Amid the chaos, listeners are privy to the heartbreaking effect on the author's mother and brothers. This expressively narrated account of a country in crisis balances detailed research and political insight with snippets of daily life. A must-listen that pairs well with Raul Gallegos's Crude Nation and Rory Carroll's Comandante.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“A Venezuelan reporter who left her home country in 2010 chronicles the traumatic fate of her family and her broken nation…Throughout, the author vividly portrays the unfolding tragedy shared by all Venezuelans. The collapse of a nation told through the poignant story of one family.” —Kirkus Reviews
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