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María Margarita Vargas Santaella

b. 1983

Born
21 Oct 1983, Caracas
Country of birth
Venezuela

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
1
images and files
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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Caracas

    Birth, Caracas

What was it like?

The world around Caracas, 1983: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

María was born around the same time as Britney Spears, Natalie Portman, and Christina Aguilera.

Born around the same time

  • Britney Spears

    1981 · American singer, songwriter, actress and model (born 1981)

  • Natalie Portman

    1981 · Israeli-American actress (born 1981)

  • Christina Aguilera

    1980 · American singer, songwriter and actress

  • Iker Casillas

    1981 · Spanish association football player

  • Serena Williams

    1981 · American tennis player (born 1981)

  • Zlatan Ibrahimović

    1981 · Swedish association football player (born 1981)

Fashion

1980s Youth Trends and Accessories

In the 1980s, teenagers often wore rubber bands from baby food jars (ligas de compota) on their wrists and decorated their shoelaces with small plastic colored balls.

The 1980s Tubito Pant Trend

A popular 1980s fashion trend involved folding pant hems to create a tight "tubito" style, worn specifically to fit snugly over Reebok boots.

Music

Carnival calipso music and traditions

For Carnival in El Callao, people celebrated with calipso music, which featured instruments like the cuatro, acoustic guitar, metal rasps, triangles, and drums called bumbac. Street parades included thematic groups called comparsas, where dancers marched through town wearing costumes like nineteenth-century Creole apparel.

Drums at the San Juan Festival

During the three-day San Juan Festival, Afro-Venezuelan communities celebrated by playing long, narrow wooden drums called culo e' puya in plazas and in front of homes. This intense, improvisational music accompanied singing and dancing that continued from early morning until sunset.

Getting around

Shared taxi systems in Venezuela

The carro por puesto service operated as a form of shared taxi or microbus, where passengers paid per seat rather than renting the whole vehicle.

Around 1975–1978

Daily commutes in 1970s Caracas

In 1978, commuters in Caracas made an average of 1.6 to 1.74 trips per day, with private cars accounting for nearly half of these journeys.

Daily life

Cooking fuel habits in Caracas

Cooking was primarily powered by bottled LPG, used in 59% of dwellings, while piped gas served 33% and electricity was used by only 7%. Kerosene, once common, was found in only 1% of dwellings by the early 1990s.

Household lighting and electricity usage

In Caracas, an average household had 11 light points, with ranchos having an average of 7.5 and houses or duplexes having around 32. Almost all dwellings were electrified, and incandescent bulbs were far more common than fluorescent ones.

Food
Around 1970–1979

Trendsetting 1970s Caracas eateries

In the 1970s, Le Drugstore in Caracas was a trendy social center for young people where they served oversized hot dogs measured by the centimeter. The establishment was also known for offering massive beer pitchers that attracted attention.

Prices and wages

Daily wages and meat prices, 1960s-1984

Before the 1984 financial crisis, a laborer's daily wage ranged from 10 to 20 bolivars, while a kilogram of prime meat cost three bolivars.

Cost of everyday footwear in Venezuela

In the past, ordinary shoes cost between ten and twenty bolivars, while economical alpargatas made with recycled tire soles cost 1.25 bolivars.

Work

Hard labor and specific currency rates

Manual labor was common in industries like construction or agriculture, where workers sometimes earned payment per unit, such as a locha (a small coin) per lata of crushed stone. A new dump truck cost 25,000 bolívares, and specialized tobacco bales could sell for 3,000 to 4,000 bolívares.

Long hours and intensive labor tasks

Working days often stretched for long hours, with tobacco leaves undergoing 60-hour continuous firing processes and construction workers laboring day and night to supply projects like the university. Informal sector workers often had no fixed breaks, sometimes taking only an hour for meals if the workload permitted.

News and letters

Alternative delivery methods

Due to the state telephone company's inefficiency in the late 1980s, mail service was often unreliable, leading many to use motorcycle couriers for faster delivery.

Domestic mail transit times

Between 1975 and 1999, domestic mail sent via the state postal service, Ipostel, typically took between three and nine days to arrive.

During their lifetime

  1. 1989

    Economic Austerity and 1989 Riots

    In 1989, President Carlos Andres Perez implemented an austerity program, leading to widespread riots and state-imposed martial law.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.