The Criminalization of Venezuelan Street Culture

委內瑞拉街頭文化的犯罪化

節錄自 The New Yorker-The Criminalization of Venezuelan Street Culture

(用於個人翻譯作品集)

The Trump Administration is using an “Alien Enemy Validation Guide” to target supposed members of Tren de Aragua, but many of the items on the list — tattoos, sports jerseys, Jordans — are commonplace in urban style and music.

By Oriana van Praag

May 28, 2025

川普政府正在使用一份名為《敵對外國人認證指南》的文件來鎖定疑似「阿拉瓜幫」成員，但該指南上的許多項目 — — 如刺青、運動球衣、喬丹球鞋 — — 其實是都市風格與音樂文化中常見的元素。

On the morning of April 23, 2024, Claudio David Balcane González, a twenty-six-year-old musician from the state of Aragua, in Venezuela, arrived at the Texas border. In the previous three months, he had travelled through nine countries, before securing an appointment with officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through CBP One, an initiative of the Biden Administration to create a more orderly system for asylum claims. Border Patrol held him at the station until midnight, asking about his background and his many tattoos, which include a rose, a clock, a crown, and two guns. Eventually, he was released with a future immigration-court date. Balcane went to meet a friend in San Antonio and posted a picture with him on Instagram, with the caption “If you can dream of it, you can make it happen.”

2024年4月23日清晨，克勞迪奧・大衛・巴爾卡內・岡薩雷斯（Claudio David Balcane González）抵達德州邊境。他是一位來自委內瑞拉阿拉瓜州、26歲的音樂人。他在過去三個月內橫跨九個國家，最終透過「CBP One」成功與美國國土安全部安排面談。CBP One是拜登政府推出的一項計畫，旨在建立更有秩序的庇護申請系統。邊境巡邏隊在當地派出所扣留他至午夜，詢問他的背景，以及他身上多處刺青，包括一朵玫瑰、一座時鐘、一頂王冠，還有兩把手槍。最終，他被釋放，並獲得一個日後出庭移民法庭的通知。之後，巴爾卡內前往聖安東尼奧與一位朋友會合，並在 Instagram 上貼出與朋友的合照，貼文中寫道：「只要你敢夢，就能做到。」

Balcane, who performs as Davicito59, began making music at thirteen and spent years busking on buses around Maracay, the capital of Aragua. He started out as a rapper, but his focus has since shifted to dembow, a genre that originated in the Dominican Republic and has become explosively popular among Venezuelans in the U.S. A month after Balcane entered the country, he released a song called “Yo me voy por el Darién,” which describes the perils of crossing the jungle that separates Colombia from Panama — jaguars, soldiers, criminals — and the hopes that kept him going. “We ate rice with vulture meat but held our heads high,” Balcane sings. “We had left home with a mission: to make it big.” He called it “el nuevo himno de los caminantes” — the new hymn of the walkers — and it quickly gained a following on social media. Balcane was soon collaborating with more established musicians, including John Theis, a pioneer of Venezuelan dembow in the U.S. At a concert in Detroit, Theis teased Balcane onstage. “This dude is here signing baseball caps!” he said. “You weren’t signing caps in el Darién.”

藝名為 Davicito59 的Balcane，13 歲便開始創作音樂，長年在阿拉瓜首府馬拉凱的公車上街頭表演。他最初以饒舌為主，後來轉向源自多明尼加、在美國委內瑞拉移民之間迅速竄紅的音樂類型 — — dembow。入境美國一個月後，他推出了一首名為〈Yo me voy por el Darién〉的歌曲，描繪出那段橫越哥倫比亞與巴拿馬之間叢林的驚險旅程 — — 猛獸、軍人、罪犯接踵而至，而唯有心中那點希望，成了他堅持下去的力量。

「我們吃著禿鷹肉配白飯，但依然抬頭挺胸，」巴爾卡內唱道， 「因為我們離家時懷抱著一個目標：要闖出一番名堂。」

他稱這首歌為「為漂泊之路而唱的聖歌」（el nuevo himno de los caminantes），並迅速在社群媒體上獲得關注。 不久之後，Balcane開始與更多資深音樂人合作，其中包括在美推廣委內瑞拉 dembow 的先驅 John Theis。在底特律的一場演唱會上，Theis 在台上打趣地說道：「這傢伙現在在台下簽名簽帽子耶！你在達連叢林的時候可沒在簽帽子！」

Balcane’s real breakthrough came in February, when he teamed up with Junior Caldera, a popular dembow singer in Venezuela, and Luxor, a fellow-immigrant and a relative newcomer to the scene. The track, called “Donaltron,” is set to a hypnotic, frenzied beat, with lyrics that criticize the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown and plead with the President to show mercy. “I promise you I won’t smoke — I won’t drink more beer,” Balcane sings. “Well, only a little, that can’t hurt!” The video, clips of which have been viewed millions of times on TikTok and Instagram, shows the musician facing off with a dancer in a rubber Trump mask at locations around Chicago, including the city’s Trump Tower. “Just give me a couple of months to score an American girl,” Balcane sings. “I’ll give you a few cachapas in return.”

真正讓 Balcane 嶄露頭角的是在今年二月。他與委內瑞拉當地知名的 dembow 歌手 Junior Caldera 以及同為移民、剛出道不久的 Luxor 合作推出新歌〈Donaltron〉。這首歌節奏瘋狂、帶有催眠感，歌詞諷刺川普政府對移民的打壓，同時也帶著一絲請求寬容的語氣。「我保證不抽菸 — — 也不再喝啤酒，」Balcane 唱道，「呃……好啦，就喝一點點，應該沒關係吧！」

這支 MV 的片段在 TikTok 和 Instagram 上已累積數百萬次觀看，畫面中 Balcane 和一位戴著橡膠川普面具的舞者在芝加哥各地對決，甚至包括川普大樓前。「只要給我幾個月時間追到一個美國女孩，」Balcane 邊唱邊笑說，「我就拿幾張玉米餅（cachapas）當交換禮物送你！」

The song received mixed reactions online. Most listeners seemed to find it funny and refreshing, but others, including many Venezuelans, responded with disdain. “Those of us who behave make no noise, so they think we don’t exist,” one commenter wrote. “Those who misbehave, a small fraction, make a lot of noise and the rest of us get fucked.” Other posters were even more aggressive: “Please deport him to a remote island.” Someone else added, “Guantanamo.” Many of the commenters tagged Trump, ICE, C.B.P., and D.H.S.

這首歌在網路上掀起了不少討論聲音，正反意見都有。多數聽眾覺得它既有趣又新鮮，但也有不少人 — — 包括許多委內瑞拉人 — — 表達了反感。一位網友留言說：「我們這些守規矩的人都很安靜，所以大家以為我們不存在。反而是那一小撮行為惡劣的人吵得要命，害得我們全都遭殃。」

還有一些留言更加激烈：「拜託，把他遣送到某個荒島去。」甚至有人補了一句：「關去關塔那摩好了。」不少人還直接標記了川普、移民及海關執法局（ICE）、美國海關與邊境保護局（CBP），以及國土安全部（DHS）。

Two months after “Donaltron” was released, Balcane was intercepted by federal agents while leaving his apartment in Chicago. He was thrown to the ground and handcuffed; an agent kneeled on the back of his neck. When he protested, saying that he was an artist not a criminal, an agent told him, “We know perfectly well who you are. That’s why we are here.” (A senior D.H.S. official said, “Any accusations that an unusual amount of force was used are false.”)

《Donaltron》發行兩個月後，Balcane 在芝加哥住處外被聯邦探員攔截。他被壓倒在地、上銬，一名探員膝蓋抵住他的頸部。當他抗議自己是藝術家不是罪犯時，有探員回應說：「我們非常清楚你是誰，這就是我們出現的原因。」（美國國土安全部一名高層官員則表示：「關於使用過度武力的指控並不屬實。」）

Balcane was taken to an ICE facility in the city, where agents accused him of belonging to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that the Trump Administration has designated as a terrorist organization and claims is invading the United States. The agents provided no evidence other than Balcane’s tattoos, which they said were affiliated with the group. While searching his phone, they played the video of “Donaltron.” “How funny that he is singing against deportation and is about to be deported himself,” one agent remarked.

Balcane 被帶往芝加哥市內一處 移民與海關執法局（ICE）拘留中心，探員指控他是「阿拉瓜列車幫」的成員 — — 這個委內瑞拉幫派已被川普政府列為恐怖組織，並聲稱該幫派正大規模「入侵美國」。探員並未提出任何實質證據，只指出 Balcane 的刺青與該組織有所關聯。 在檢查他的手機時，他們播放了《Donaltron》的音樂影片，其中一名探員譏諷地說：「真好笑，他唱著反對遣返，結果自己也快被遣返了。」

Balcane relayed his story from a detention center in Wisconsin, where he awaits a hearing on May 29th. Santa Rita, where he grew up, is a dangerous area on the outskirts of Maracay, but people close to the musician deny that he is affiliated with Tren de Aragua; he has no known criminal record in the U.S. or in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru, where he previously lived. Balcane has stated that he fled Venezuela after receiving threats for songs that were critical of the country’s President, Nicolás Maduro. In 2016, he was waiting at a bus station when two men attacked him, hitting him on the head with the butt of a gun. “My music has always been a way to express my reality and my nation’s struggles,” he wrote in a declaration. “It addressed democratic erosion, economic collapse, and the violence used to silence dissident voices.”

Balcane 目前在威斯康辛州的一處拘留中心，等待 5 月 29 日的出庭審理，他從那裡轉述了自己的故事。Santa Rita 是他成長的地區，位於 Maracay 市郊，治安惡名昭彰。不過熟識他的人都否認他與「阿拉瓜列車幫」有任何關聯；他在美國、委內瑞拉、哥倫比亞、厄瓜多與秘魯等曾經居住過的國家，皆無任何已知的犯罪紀錄。 Balcane 表示，他之所以離開委內瑞拉，是因為遭到威脅，原因是他創作了批評總統尼可拉斯・馬杜洛（Nicolás Maduro）的歌曲。2016 年，他在一處公車站等車時，遭兩名男子攻擊，對方以槍托猛擊他的頭部。 「音樂一直是我表達現實與國家痛苦的方式，」他在一份陳述中寫道，「它談的是民主的崩壞、經濟的瓦解，以及壓制異議聲音的暴力。」

在翻譯這篇探討美國當局如何標籤與對待委內瑞拉移民、尤其是街頭文化的社論時，我深刻感受到語言不只是溝通工具，更是權力的延伸。

每一個字句的選擇，都必須在保留原文敘事張力與文化背景的同時，重新梳理事件與結構，讓讀者不只看見事實，也能感受到那份不安與壓迫。

翻譯不只是轉換語言，更是一場價值的取捨與位置的表態。透過這次翻譯，我再次確認，寫作與翻譯本身，就是一種介入現實的行動。