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Motherland
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Ana Osorio
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
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Motherland
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Summary
From Venezuelan reporter Paula Ramón comes a powerful memoir about one woman’s complicated relationship with her family as her beloved homeland collapses into ruin.
In the span of a generation, oil-rich Venezuela spiraled into a dire state of economic collapse. Reporter Paula Ramón experienced the crisis firsthand as her middle-class family saw their quality of life deteriorate.
Public services no longer functioned. Money lost its value. Her mother couldn’t afford to buy food, which was increasingly scarce. The once-prosperous country fell into ruin. Like many others, Ramón’s family struggled to survive each day in their beloved city, Maracaibo—until, one by one, they each made the unbearable choice to leave the home they love.
In the end, it was Ramón’s mother, a widow, who stayed behind, loyal to the only home she’d ever known. In this heartbreaking mix of lived experience, family chronicle, and journalistic essay, Paula Ramón explores the anguish of her own relationships set against the staggering collapse of a country.
Motherland is a uniquely human account about the ties that bind—and the fragile concept of home.
Critic reviews
“Venezuelan American narrator Ana Osorio offers a masterful performance as she sensitively describes the rise of a middle class with unlimited potential, the promising start of Hugo Chavez's presidency, and the diaspora of nearly an entire Venezuelan generation as Chavez's policies wreaked havoc.… Amid the chaos, listeners are privy to the heartbreaking effect on the author's mother and brothers. This expressively narrated account of a country in crisis balances detailed research and political insight with snippets of daily life. A must-listen that pairs well with Raul Gallegos's Crude Nation and Rory Carroll's Comandante.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“A Venezuelan reporter who left her home country in 2010 chronicles the traumatic fate of her family and her broken nation…Throughout, the author vividly portrays the unfolding tragedy shared by all Venezuelans. The collapse of a nation told through the poignant story of one family.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The author writes wrenchingly of her mother’s struggles to provide for her and her siblings while their neighborhood deteriorated around them, and catalogs Venezuela’s political troubles with rigor and concision. It’s a fascinating and devastating account of one family’s fate amid a national crisis.”—Publishers Weekly