How Venezuelan Traditions Work

Some of the most ubiquitous foods are fried corn- or flour-based pancakes and bread, which are served with almost everything. Fruit is also popular, specifically mangoes, papayas, avocadoes, oranges, bananas, coconuts, passion fruit, melons, pineapples, guava and sour sap, which comes from the graviola tree.

Venezuela grows a lot of coffee and has a strong coffee culture, thanks to the introduction of espresso by Spaniards. Coffee is the most common beverage in the country and is always offered to guests. It's considered rude to say no if you're offered a cup of joe because it's a symbol of hospitality. Other typical drinks are fruit juices, milkshakes and chicha, a concoction crafted from ground rice, salt, condensed milk, sugar, vanilla and ice. Chicha is most common in Venezuela's llanos, or grasslands [sources: Hoag, Kwintessential].

Whether dining out or at home, some of the most common traditional menu items are:

Women's traditional outfits consist of long dresses with full, flowing skirts. The material is usually a floral print, reflective of the Venezuela's Spanish and Caribbean influence. The dresses, or blouses if a skirt-and-blouse combination is selected, are often worn off the shoulder or have one sleeve off the shoulder [source: Ahsan]. The outfits frequently feature ruffles, and women usually put flowers in their hair.

Tribal people have different traditional outfits, of course. Some tribal women favor shorter skirts, beads and cropped tops, for example, while the men have some variation on campesino (native Latin American who lives in a rural area) attire [source: Ahsan]. In general, though, Western styles predominate today for formal occasions.

While Venezuelans are definitely attuned to fashion, they're even more focused on physical beauty and overall appearance. For example, it's very important to Venezuelans that their contestants either win or place highly in the annual Miss World and Miss Universe pageants, and they have. Venezuelan women, in an amazing feat, have won the Miss Universe competition six times, a number only exceeded by the U.S., which has a far bigger population (312 million compared to Venezuela's 28 million) [source: Grainger]. And while the country traditionally has focused on women's beauty, an annual male beauty contest now takes place: Mr. Venezuela.

Because of their attention to beauty, Venezuelans -- both men and women -- often have plastic surgery performed. It's easy to find a plastic surgeon in the country, and banks do their part by offering inexpensive loans to have procedures done. So not surprisingly, it's no big deal to admit you've gone under the knife [source: Grainger].