Finding Other Spaces for Expression: Isla Presidencial, A Critique of Contemporary Politics

• In Event: (In)coherencias espaciales en Venezuela: acercamientos críticos a la producción del espacio

Abstract

In this paper, I examine La Isla Presidencial, a Venezuelan cartoon series that first appeared in 2010. I argue that the creators of La Isla Presidencial, employed the anime cartoon style, to cope with the repressive and oppressive political conditions common under Chavez. Their gesture ensured that the internet worked as a spatial medium to criticize the government, and thus avoid censorship. I propose that cannibalism, derived from Brazil’s modernist movement of the 1920s, has become a trope that stands for other critical and selective cultural appropriations. My paper analyzes the different types and levels of cannibalism found in the cartoon series, ranging from actual representations of cannibalism, legacy of colonialism in the Americas and metaphorical cannibalism by appropriating a foreign cultural practice for the benefit and use of the Venezuelans and by extension other Latin Americans. My work explores La Isla Presidencial’s spatial dynamics that map political repression and violence in contemporary Venezuela, and obviates how this cultural production uses the internet as an alternate space for expression beyond the confines of national borders.

Author

• N Carolina Bloem, University of Utah