Write Stories, Spark Change.
Venezuela is one of my homes, even if I’ve never truly lived there. My project is a way to stay connected to tell the stories many people never hear. Through fiction rooted in real events, I want to give voice to a country too often forgotten. This is how I fight back.
KAKIKA
Why telling stories matters.
My name is KAKIKA, and I’ve never had a simple answer to the question “Where are you from?” I was born in Barcelona to a Spanish father and a Venezuelan mother, but I’ve lived in Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and then back to Switzerland. I grew up surrounded by different languages, cultures, and homes and yet, Venezuela has always held a unique place in my life, even though I’ve never really lived there.
My mom left Venezuela in 2003, in the middle of a deepening political and economic crisis. She met my dad in Spain, and after both of them lost their jobs during the 2008 financial crisis, we moved to Switzerland. Since I was little, my mom has kept Venezuela alive for me through the stories she tells, the music she plays, the food we cook together. I’ve always felt connected to it, not just as a country my mom comes from, but as one of my homes. We’ve visited family there a couple of times, and each visit made the connection more real and more painful.
Because the truth is, Venezuela is a home I can’t truly return to. Not freely, not safely, not like I would want to. It’s a place I love deeply and from a distance, and that distance carries both guilt and privilege. I’ve had access to opportunities, education, and stability that so many people I’m connected to by blood and love have been denied.
This project is my travail de maturité (TM), a major part of the Swiss maturité program a year-long independent research and writing project that’s meant to reflect our interests, passions, and academic skills. I chose to explore Venezuela not just through facts and figures, but through stories. My TM is a collection of short fictional texts inspired by real events, testimonies, and family memories, set in the broader historical and political context of Venezuela’s crisis. I was especially inspired by Petit Pays by Gaël Faye and The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, two powerful works that blend fiction with personal and political history.
Through these stories, I want to show what it means to live through (or away from) crisis not only the pain, but also the resilience, the hope, and the humanity behind the headlines. Writing them has helped me process my own identity, my place in this story, and the weight of being between worlds. This TM is my way of giving something back, of using my voice and the tools I’ve been lucky to gain through my education to speak about something that matters deeply to me.
This isn’t just a school project. It’s personal. It’s my way of staying connected, of fighting back, and of refusing to forget.
