“We Are All Chávez”
Charisma as an Embodied Experience
by Lucia Michelutti
The current chaotic post-Chávez political and economic scenario affords a little certainty: Chávez is still very present in the everyday life of contemporary Venezuelans. Chávez as a martyr, as the second Bolívar, as a saint, as a spirit, is becoming part of the religious and social life of a great number of people. Despite being dead, he continues to shape Venezuelan revolutionary selves. An examination of Chávez’s legacy through the lens of divine kinship provides important clues to understanding how charisma is embodied in people and things and circulates through networks of kinship (and fictive kinship) from gods, spirits, and ancestors to democratically appointed leaders and their ordinary followers.
