Venezuelans recycle worthless bolivar bills into crafts
A family of Venezuelan immigrants to Colombia are repurposing their worthless bolivars into origami-made paper wallets, belts and even purses as the currency plunges further in value amid four-digit inflation.
Each collector item produced by Richard Segovia fetches between $10 and $15 — a huge markup from the pennies that bolivars retrieve on Venezuela’s black market.
Segovia, 24, arrived two months ago to the Colombian border city of Cucuta with his wife and a cousin fleeing a dead-end job at a warehouse in Venezuela, where he made the equivalent of just $2.50 a month. He came up with the idea to make artwork one night when he and his cousin were back in Caracas staring at a pile of cash.
« We had a lot of cash but nothing to buy, because in Venezuela your money is worth nothing, » he said.
So, he started folding and creasing Venezuela’s colorful bills into trinkets and then larger creations like purses and bags. Each item consists of around 800 to 1,000 mostly 50 and 100-bolivar notes — less than 50 U. S. cents.
He has found a sympathetic audience among Colombians looking to extend a helpful hand to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who’ve flooded across the border in recent months.
On a busy day, Segovia can sell as many as 20 items, and a bulk order recently came in from a woman who runs a boutique in Bogota who heard about his creations on local TV.
With his earnings, he manages to send around $15 to his family in Caracas whenever he can.
« It’s not a lot of money, but it’s enough to have breakfast, » he said.
While sales are brisk, he’s hardly living high on the hog.
He and his wife, who is five months pregnant, sleep at a flophouse provided for free by a local transportation company. They set up shop daily on a busy sidewalk near the bus station, seemingly unconcerned by the prospect of a thief snatching away the piles of money that sit like bricks on their plastic table.
« I’m not going to run out of raw material, » he jokes.
