Season 4, Episode 1 – Yotama Se Va Voldando (Venezuela)

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The Festive Fans are starting out the fourth season with Venezuela, but we are feeling a bit sheepish.  We love the country but honestly feel like we just showed up with an uninvited guest or were overserved at the Christmas party.  I mean what do you say to a country that your President invaded in the middle night, arrested their President, and now he wants their oil.  It really seems like a social faux pas.  We hate showing up to this episode empty-handed when the featured country has clearly been snubbed.  I mean maybe not wine or chocolate, but an ornament or a poinsettia for the country being fleeced would have been a nice gesture.

To start the new year, we purposely selected Venezuela. Why Venezuela? Season Four should start with a little surprise. And Christmas in Venezuela has plenty of them.  If we’re going to spend another season talking about Christmas, we want to start somewhere where they have food wrapped in plantain leaves, incredible music, and residents roller-skating to church. If you think about it, that’s a pretty difficult opening show to try to beat. Venezuela provides us a strong jumping off point because it sets the tone for what our fourth season is about – discovery and grace.

That’s why Venezuela feels like the perfect place to begin. There are plenty of other people willing to talk about governments, raids, and everything bad that happens between countries. We like to talk about more important things, like Christmas. It is a tradition shared by people around the world, but every country brings its own history, food, music, faith, and local customs to the holiday.  Venezuela?  It gives us a colorful, meaningful, and surprising place to begin this journey.  For one episode, at least, we can put our politics aside and discover how Venezuelan families celebrate. This gives us a chance to laugh, learn, eat, and talk about roller skates. The world has enough political podcasts.  Let’s go find Christmas!

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