Figure 1.--This Venezurlam photo was taken in front of a small store in rural town during 1905. we see many adults and children. The children are clothed in different ways, some as campesinos, other with better, more fashionable clothing. Most of the adults and children have hats. Very few children wear leather shoes, most of them go barefoot or wear canvans shoes, even children well clothed. Notice the burros, included the loaded one in the background. Notice the children with baskets, apparently sent by mother to pick up food items fordinner. Notice that the street is not paved. Venezuela at the time was fully self sufficent in food production. Notice that all the children and adults are well fed and healthy. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the scene.
We do not yet have much chrological information about Venezuela. All of the Andean countries in the 19th century were relatively poor countries. Venezuelafut into the genral patern, although it did not have a substanial Amerindian popukation which tended to be poorest grouo throughout the Andean region. This is important because photography was affected by national wealth. Poor countries tend to have a smaller photographic record than more affluent countries. And this was especially the case of countries with small populations. We have not yet found any early format portraits (Dags and Ambros). Annd the few albumen portairs shoe well-to-do children wearing European fashions. As best we can tell, most boys wore the ibiquitos compansion clothing, basically rounded-crown straw hats, white shirts, and white pants of varuing length, cut somewhere to the knee to above the ankles. Most campesino boys went barefoot or wore alpargata (non-leather sandals). (The word for sandals varies among Latin American countries.) This began to change with the turn-of-the 20th century. First, photograohy moved out of the studio as family snapshots became possible. Here we see a snap shot in front of a small store in a rural town in 1905 (figure 1). Second, oil was discovered and Venezuela become the most prosperous Andean country. As the oil industry develooped, may more Venezuelan children were able to aford more fashionable clothes and dress like children in Europe and America, although the oil money was not well destributed. Venezuela by the 1960s was one of the most consumer crazed countries in all of Latin America. I recall traveling to Isla Margarita which at the time was a free trade zone. Returing on the ferry was a madhouse with people picking uo their luggage, boxes, and plastic bags chocked full of duty free items. And this is a country that Chavez and Maduro have turned into a country of starving people and empty store shelves.
