The Venezuelan Week

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Chef Tamara Rodriguez

Embracing the love for her native Venezuelan way of life, celebrity Chef Tamara Rodriguez has skillfully combined her 20 years of experience in journalism with her natural talent for cooking.

The extraordinary mother of two has worn dual hats successively for 23 years. In her own words, she has merged ‘communication with cooking’ through operating her own radio station for her community, a fishing village in ‘Rio Caribe’ (the land where the sunrises).

Tamara who believes in giving back to her people, founded a community radio station eight years ago which airs programmes on cooking, health and communal subjects targeted at helping the villagers cope with the challenges of daily life and a special programme on the preservation of education to benefit the youth and those suffering from the ills of HIV.

With Great Pleasure

Everyone working in the Embassy of Venezuela is aware of our duty to promote Venezuela within Malaysian society in many different ways. So when the time comes to organize the Venezuelan Week in Malaysia, which this year reaches its eighth edition, everyone rushes to execute their specific task, followed by moments of tension, race against time and obstacles and the mess that comes along with the coordination process.

But not all is done in the name of duty and work, because at the same time, whatever we do for the people of this beautiful country to learn more about Venezuela and this gives us great satisfaction. Especially during the concerts, exhibitions, conferences and dinners with typical Venezuelan food, we noticed the Malaysian public shown sincere interest in the cultural diversity of Venezuela.

We are pleased that our musicians get a chance to travel to places this far from their everyday lives to deliver their productions. We also love to serve as hosts and take the opportunity to show them interesting aspects of Malaysia.

After the Venezuelan Week has ended, when we meet to evaluate the tasks done, it can be seen on the faces of the entire Embassy team that all the effort was worth it. The people and the Governments of Malaysia and Venezuela become closer in harmony.

Due to the difficult situation experienced in Venezuela earlier this year, with the illness and demise of our President, the tireless Commander Hugo Chávez; and then followed by the new presidential elections which prompted us to move this year's Venezuelan Week in Malaysia to the second half of the year. Thus we can now appreciate the different activities prepared for this eighth version between late September and early October.

Among other events, we proudly present Nelson González, a young musician and winner of the “Venezuelan National Cuatro Competition”. The cuatro is the key instrument in the implementation of traditional Venezuelan music.

We also have a photography exhibition of Venezuela’s "Dancing Devils of Corpus Christi", a popular festival that filled the colorful streets of Yare for more than 300 years, and which has been declared as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

In collaboration with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), we will be inaugurating Bolivar’s Public Lecture Series in honor of Simón Bolívar, one of the greatest heroes in the struggle for freedom for the people. The seminar will be presented by Venezuelan historian, Alejandro López who comes all the way from Venezuela to lecture on the life of Bolívar in the current struggle of the people for a new international order.

And in a country where we really enjoy the makan-makan, we could not exclude the Venezuelan Gastronomic Festival which will be held at Prince Hotel & Residence Kuala Lumpur with acclaimed chef, Tamara Rodríguez.

I would like to express my profound gratitude to our artists, sponsors and partners. To all who read these lines, do enjoy this Eighth Venezuelan Week in Malaysia. For this event we have put in all our efforts, and we have done so with great pleasure.

Manuel Antonio Guzmán Hernández

Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Malaysia

8th Venezuelan Week in Malaysia

8^th Venezuelan Week in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

23^rd September till 8^th October 2013

PROGRAM

Monday 23rd September 2013

7:00 am to 9:00 pm Official Opening Ceremony of the 8th Venezuelan Week at CoDA Gallery Taylor’s University

Tuesday 24th September

10:00 am to 5:00 pm Photographic Exhibition The Dancing Devils of Corpus Christi and Film Exhibition at CoDA Gallery Taylor’s University

Wednesday 25th September