“I always wanted to be an artist, but I knew that I couldn’t stay in Venezuela”

From a very young age he knew he wanted to be an artist, but to achieve his dreams he had to leave his native Venezuela. This is how the story of Migguel Anggelo begins, a young Venezuelan who explained how the political situation in his native country and the violence led him to emigrate.

“I love my country, but I can’t stay,” he recalls.

Miguel Anggelo tells the voice of america that when he was very young he traveled to Germany to study lyrical singing because he never doubted his passion for music and art, but when he returned to his country he found that Hugo Chávez was in power.

“I was always aware of the corruption that existed in Venezuela, but since I saw Chávez I knew that this dictator was going to end my country,” says Migguel Anggelo.

But this young man full of dreams not only made the decision to emigrate for political reasons but also because of insecurity.

“The last time I went to Venezuela was in 2008 and they kidnapped me, they cut my leg with a knife and that’s when I told myself I can’t take it anymore, I can’t live here. I thought that nothing is going to come back to my country and look at how Venezuela is now,” said Migguel Anggelo.

It was thus that he decided to travel to the United States, specifically to New York City. “And now what do I do, I said to myself. I started washing dishes and realized that I had to learn English”, said Migguel Anggelo.

For this reason, she moved to Massachusetts to study the language and at the same time work in a hotel washing towels and bathrooms. During six months of hard study and work, she manages to improve his English and begins to shape her idea and dream of one day telling his story through his music.

This is how his new artistic proposal “English with an accent” begins to take shape, a dance theater work with the framework of original songs inspired by Migguel Anggelo under the musical direction of Carlos Lozano. There are a total of 13 musical themes through which Migguel Anggelo recounts his journey since she arrived in the United States and how she has been transforming until she has fulfilled herself as an artist, professional and human being.

From caterpillar to butterfly

An episode in the life of Migguel Anggelo as an immigrant in the United States was the trigger for him to start creating a work that represents change, transformation and transmits a message of hope.

“I was walking down a street in New York and they yelled at me: Go back to your country! At that moment I decide to transform that negative experience into something positive. I wanted to tell my story as an immigrant and the barriers I had to overcome, but in a different way. I love animals so I saw myself reflected in a caterpillar and its entire process of change”, says the artist.

“English with an accent” can be the story of any immigrant who struggles in another land to achieve their dreams. “When you arrive in this country you learn to live like a caterpillar and then after a time of adaptation and learning you learn to live like a butterfly until you finally have to die like everyone else,” explains the artist.

One of the most difficult challenges that this artist has had to face is being away from his family and friends, a feeling that is also reflected in his work that premieres in the capital of the United States, on Friday, April 1 at the Hispanic Theater GALA.

“Like any immigrant in this country I have encountered racism, xenophobia, bad experiences, but I have learned to move on. To transform the negative and positive, and that is the message I want to convey”, says Migguel Anggelo.

To my compatriots: “Do not lose faith”

Migguel Anggelo claims to have fulfilled his American dream, which consists only of being happy. “I miss my people a lot, the smell of Venezuela, but I would tell my fellow Venezuelans to never lose faith. The military are now with Nicolás Maduro in the government, but think that you are more than them, ”says the actor.

“If we all joined together, all Venezuelans in the world and in Venezuela, this would end quickly because they are nothing more than us. And as I say in the play, love is the only force, the strongest that can end hate”, concludes Migguel Anggelo.

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