What We Carry: The Packing List of Venezuelan Displacement

Join us for a presentation by journalist Shandra Back, COM ’25. Shandra is an international journalist specializing in Latin American migration. She serves as the Podcast Director at the BU Center on Forced Displacement.

Last summer, with a BU Center on Forced Displacement Travel Grant, she reported from the Colombia-Venezuela border during the Venezuelan elections. There, she collaborated with aid organizations and published several journalistic pieces, including a magazine article titled “What We Carry: The Packing List of Venezuelan Displacement.”

In her talk, Shandra will discuss the hardships faced by those leaving Venezuela on foot and why this is the only option for hundreds of thousands. She will share the stories of the people she met and the items they carried, framed by the context of the fraudulent Venezuelan election results.