What spurred the move from the country to Venezuela’s cities, especially to the capital, Caracas?
T.M: Beginning around the 1940s and accelerating through the ‘50s and ‘60s on, there was a migration into the major cities, but especially into Caracas. Caracas is in the north central part of the country in a valley. Besides the downtown area the more affluent area are in the east part of Caracas, sometimes just called East Caracas. And in terms of numbers the population density began to tilt towards the rest of Caracas, sometimes just called West Caracas, because that is where there is space for people to construct small ranchos up on the hills. But now these are small houses made with a kind of breezeway brick and corrugated tin roofs. When you are in Caracas you see the tiny flickering of lights that go all up and down the hills throughout West Caracas. It gives you some idea of the numbers of people that are there. And that’s one of the strongest bases for current government support. Within this area is where Grupo Madera or “Group of Wood” came from. They developed in the barrios
