«Como mujer joven, no fue fácil convencer a toda una cadena de personas para que invertieran recursos en estos proyectos pequeños en escala, pero grandes en su impacto. En ese tiempo, estaba instaurada la idea de que el Estado era el único ente capaz de financiar la escala de actuaciones en el barrio y por lo tanto el único responsable de su transformación!.
The La Palomera neighborhood has been one of the main places where the Enlace Foundation has focused its work. How did you begin your work there? Before creating the Foundation, we had already been working in the La Palomera neighborhood, creating public spaces, including infrastructure for children and meeting opportunities for adults. These experiences were very positive, especially with the neighbors, and we were motivated to create a stronger and more lasting alliance with them. La Palomera is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Caracas, dating back to the late 1930s, and has 6,000 inhabitants. It is a safe place, it does not have the violent dynamics of young gangs, and it has a lot of traditional culture, among other remarkable aspects. We were interested in working with the people and planning the territory with them, identifying pos- sible opportunities to transform it through local and organic actions. What was the process of convincing private actors to support your work like? Our work began in 2007 in the La Morán neighborhood in western Caracas, with students from Universidad Central de Venezuela and later with a project financed by CAF. We identified the potential public space to mitigate risk and improve solid waste management. As a young woman, it was not easy to convince a whole chain of people to invest resources in these projects, small in scale but large in impact. At that time, there was an idea that the State was the only entity capable of financing the neighborhood's scale of action and there- fore the only one responsible for its transformation. For me, that vision was just an easy way of washing one's hands from the possibility of contributing differently. However, we were coming from a country with a legacy of a lot of money and the idea of a developmental state had a lot of inertia. I think one of the few benefits of having lived so many years in a failed state has been the activation of civil society. How did you get them to believe in you? I was lucky enough to win the Harvard Wheelwright Fellowship which allowed me to travel through several South American countries and return to Venezuela with an arsenal of tools, experiences, and constructed and measurable examples, which helped me give better answers to all the doubts and questions I was facing. In addition, we made the CABA Publication: Cartografía de los Barrios de Caracas 1966-2014, which consists of a record of all the city's neighborhoods and how they had grown over 50 years. This gave us the foundations to demonstrate that, in the case of Caracas, at least half of the population lives in a neighborhood and that it is not a marginal, peripheral or removable condition.
Entrevista / Interview
↧ Encuentro en julio de 2019 con los fundadores de La Palomera y sus descendientes para contar la historia del barrio, la otra historia de la cuidad que queda pendiente registrar e incorporar en la historia "convencional" de la ciudad. A meeting in July 2019 with the founders of La Palomera and their descendants, telling the neighborhood´s history - the other history of the city that has yet to be recorded and incorporated into the city´s "conventional" history.
El barrio La Palomera ha sido uno de los principales lu- gares donde la Enlace Fundación ha centrado su labor. ¿Cómo comenzó su trabajo en ese lugar? Desde antes de formalizar la fundación, ya veníamos trabajando en el barrio La Palomera, creando espacios públicos incluyendo infraestructura para niños y opor- tunidades de encuentro para adultos. Esas experiencias fueron muy positivas, sobre todo con los vecinos y nos motivamos a una alianza más fuerte y duradera con ellos. La Palomera es uno de los barrios más an- tiguos de Caracas, data desde fines de los años 30, y tiene 6 mil habitantes. Es un lugar seguro, no se da la dinámica violenta de bandas jóvenes, y tiene mucha cultura tradicional, entre otros aspectos destacables. Nos interesaba trabajar con la gente y pensar en el territorio con ellos, identificado posibles oportunidades de transformación desde acciones locales y orgánicas. ¿Cómo fue el proceso de convencer a actores privados para que apoyaran su trabajo? Nuestro trabajo se inició en el 2007 en el barrio La Morán en el oeste de Caracas, con estudiantes de la Universidad Central de Venezuela y luego con un proyecto financiado por CAF. Habíamos identificado el potencial del espacio público para mitigar instancias de riesgo y mejorar el manejo de desechos sólidos. Como mujer joven, no fue fácil convencer a toda una cadena de personas para que invirtiera recursos en estos proyectos pequeños en escala, pero grandes en
T
A ras crecer en Estados Unidos y estudiar arqui- tectura en Harvard, en 2007, Elisa Silva quiso irse a Venezuela, país de origen de su padre, una decisión que, según cuenta, era totalmente a contra corriente tomando en cuenta las con- diciones políticas y económicas que se vivían en el país. En Caracas comenzó a dar clases en la Universidad Central y sus primeros talleres tuvieron que ver con el barrio donde llevaba a sus alumnos a explorar junto con las comunida-
↥ Maqueta de La Palomera, en La Palomera, durante el día de la celebración Cruz de Mayo. Año 2019.
fter growing up in the United States and studying architecture at Harvard, in 2007, Elisa Silva want- ed to move to Venezuela, her father's country of origin, a decision that, she says, was totally against the grain considering the country's po- litical and economic conditions. In Caracas, she began to teach at Universidad Central and her first workshops had to do with the neighborhood where she took her students to explore, along with the communities, pertinent ways of approaching
La Palomera Model, in La Palomera, during
the Cruz de Mayo celebration. 2019.
des formas pertinentes de aproximación. El barrio terminó siendo medular en su trabajo. En ese tiempo acababa de fundar Enlace Arquitectura –oficina que hoy ha desarrollado una variedad de proyectos tanto en entornos urbanos como rurales y que ha sido reconocida con diferentes premios nacionales e internacionales– y, movilizada por la idea de que el espacio público podía mejorar la calidad de vida en los barrios, armó Enlace Fundación. Esta ONG trabaja junto a comunidades y a un equipo multidisciplinario, que incluye periodistas, comunicadores, músicos y artistas visuales, para construir experiencias de integración social a través de talleres, cursos, recopilación de historias orales, desarrollo de proyectos artísticos, por nombrar algunos, así como también busca aplicar procesos de diseño participativo con las comunidades y desarrollar programas culturales para concientizar a la ciudadanía en temas sociales y ambientales.
it. The neighborhood ended up being central to her work. At that time she had just founded Enlace Arquitectura -an office that today has developed a variety of projects in both urban and rural environments and has been recognized with different national and international awards- and, motivated by the idea that public space could improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods, she set up Enlace Fundación. This NGO works with communities and a multidisciplinary team, including journalists, communicators, musicians, and visual artists, to build experiences of social integration through workshops, courses, collection of oral histories, and artistic project developments, to name a few, as well as looking to apply participatory design processes with communities and develop cultural programs to raise awareness about social and environmental issues.
«As a young woman, it was not easy to convince a whole chain of people to invest resources in these projects, small in scale but large in impact. At that time, there was an idea that the State was the only entity capable of financing the neighborhood's scale of action and therefore the only one responsible for its transformation.»
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AOA / n°47
Entrevista internacional / International Interview
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