Irady: “I have the map of Venezuela in my head”

This Thursday, July 11, the XX International Book Fair of Venezuela (Filven 2024) begins, which for 10 days will be installed in the National Art Gallery and where Professor Benito Iradi will be honored, the greatest promoter and person responsible for Venezuela having nine intangible cultural heritage of Humanity before UNESCO (and others that will be obtained soon).

His desire for writing is intact, so he is at his best to produce books, but on this occasion he will present four of his texts.

—Which books will you present at Filven?
—One with which I won the Stefania Mosca National Prize is going to be republished, in the chronicle genre, which is The Book of Cruz Quinal; It will be a new edition made by the National Book Center, and in this case it will be accompanied by a photographic series by Rafael Salvatore regarding that important character. In addition, I will present A century with María Magdalena Rodríguez, with her testimonies. I was very close to her between 1972 and the time of her death. It is a book that records her life. Then comes a novel: I began to entertain the idea of ​​writing the history of a century of oil; from that Venezuela where there were all the export possibilities to this Venezuela of today that has gone through so much. The story is very long and I thought I would write that novel in four parts. The first of the books is going to be published, which is Mr. Cody’s Story. And then came The Thunder Box, which is of the testimony novel genre. It is regarding three women from the Gulf of Cariaco, two of whom died: their names were Berta Vargas and Guillermina Ramírez. The one who lives is Berta Cova.

—He always goes for testimonies, stories and that passion for telling stories. What comes next?
—I have visited many towns and for 55 years I have never separated the stories of those towns. They are scattered, in books, in publications, newspapers. I am organizing them for a future project of a book for each Venezuelan region with those testimonies of what Indio Figueredo, from the Venezuelan plain, might have been like; Luis Mariano Rivera, from eastern Venezuela; Cruz Quinal himself, which is this book… I have traveled throughout Venezuela. I have the map of Venezuela in my head and I meet those characters who were also my friends.

—Will you do stories regarding characters from each state?
—I have registered these characters from each state, some indigenous, others Afro-descendant, others Venezuelan. I come from all regions and at this stage of my life the desire returned to me to organize myself to write because most of the time I gave it to the management of culture, which is also valid, to being a cultural promoter. That made me connect with those wonderful people.

—How does it feel to be the promoter of nine intangible heritages?
—I am responsible for a team that I put together. When I was given that task, I decided to create a technical liaison office with UNESCO, attached to the Center for Cultural Diversity. A team of anthropologists works in that office. There are many people who have ties or who are advanced students or who have already graduated from the UCV School of Anthropology. A work methodology is required. I get involved with them and with the communities.

—What are the next files?
—In December, a set of files should be discussed in Asunción, Paraguay, among which Venezuela appears, for the first time, sharing experiences with other countries such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti and Honduras on casabe. It is the first multinational file in Latin America. Next year the file on the Venezuelan joropo must be evaluated. In 2026 the file on the tamunangue must be evaluated and we hope to complete the file on the Venezuelan arepa this year, which would be for 2027.