Seeing It for Wearing It: Autoethnography as Black Feminist Methodology

Abstract

Intrigued by what I understood to be a socialist revolution committed to improving the material and socio-cultural conditions of Black/African descended peoples, unfolding in my lifetime, I set out to study the role of Afro-Venezuelans in the Bolivarian Revolution. Because Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez were comrades and Cuba supported Venezuela's revolution I was also curious if Venezuela had learned from the racial mistakes Cuba made as it birthed its communist revolution. [...]I remember people defending the Venezuelan revolution while simultaneously critiquing it, declaring it their responsibility to ensure the revolution served them, that it was not Chavez's job alone. Because Facebook allows your network to see when you are active online, I couldn't pretend I didn't see his message. [...]the film pans to a mission named in honor of Simón Rodríguez5 also constructed with funds from the Venezuelan government, which was serving more than one-thousand students at the time.