Model UN has the power to bring people together from around the world and foster dialogue on important issues. However, what happens when your country is the topic of conversation? What if you are representing your country on the MUN stage, and is there a deeper meaning to participating in MUN?
MUN in Latin America has become increasingly popular, with delegates from Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru competing head to head with delegates from the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I had the chance to sit down with delegates: Diego Berebecita & Maria Fernanda (Venezuela), Valentina Velez (Colombia), and Josemaria Soriano (Peru) and ask them what is it like for international delegates to compete at conferences in North America and what this means for the future of MUN for international participants and in Latin America.
Why compete internationally?
Maria Fernanda: Expanding our frontiers is very important and one of the most important parts during our tour of the North American circuit is competing at HNMUN and with other international delegations. Competing at these conferences holds a deeper meaning for us, it’s how you measure yourself as a team and it’s the most important part of the season for us. For the Venezuelan teams, we prepare ourselves for 9 months before HNMUN and once we’re there we’re concentrated on giving it our absolute all, we’re focused on doing as well as possible and spend so much time training, researching, and preparing. It’s about proving ourselves to everyone else.
Diego Berebecita: For Venezuelans to go to a conference like HNMUN, it is to measure ourselves in front of the world, having a global presence, and truly competing on a global scale. It is a challenge we want to take on and it’s a big change for us to compete in English when we are all native Spanish speakers, but we are proud to take on to represent our universities and where we come from. In Venezuela there are a lot of problems that we face and often there is a certain perception of the country because of media coverage. People see Venezuela in one kind of light and we want to show that Venezuela is more than the crisis that we are currently enduring. The future of Venezuela will be different than what it is now, we want other delegates to see that the future is in our hands and MUN is one of the best ways for us to demonstrate our willingness to enact change and the hope that young Venezeulans have for the country in the future.
Valentina Velez: It gives prestige to Colombian universities, it’s an opportunity to meet people from all around the world. For us it’s huge, for others it’s just another conference. The university invests in us, and we can give Colombia a position in the world where we are represented beyond stereotypes that people may have about Colombia or Colombians.
For me personally, it’s also about challenging myself and speaking in English and with people from top universities all around the world that we don’t normally get to interact with. We’re always told we’re a third world country, we’re developing, but that shouldn’t define us. We want people to know that there are capable and smart people in these countries, we’re out there to prove ourselves as just as good as somebody from other top institutions in the world. We’re not native English speakers and to build those skills puts us in a unique position and opportunity to become ambassadors for Colombia in an academic context and to shine a light on the excellence that exists beyond just North America but in South America as well.
Josemaria Soriano: MUN is the art of diplomacy, and you cannot accurately simulate international diplomacy if you don’t actually debate internationally. Diplomacy is about learning how to blend into other cultures in a respectful but decisive manner so you can set your country’s agenda. The real challenge of diplomacy is working over that cultural barrier. That is why I wanted to compete internationally, because not only it is a very exciting challenge to debate and work together with delegates with different cultures from mine, but also to debate with people that have completely different concepts of what determines a best delegate or what is the best strategy to win.
What are some challenges you’ve faced while competing in the US?
DB: Venezuelans can be seen as outside of the conversation because they don’t understand the cultural nuances or the subtle things that happen when Americans that know each other bond over. While getting to know each other, one of the things that puts most pressure is sometimes feeling excluded when it comes to social interactions, inside jokes, references to some pop culture, its hard to blend in and make friends when perspectives can be very different. There’s often a lot of stigma towards Venezuelan delegates or a “reputation” but we’re trying to build those connections across the world and make new friends wherever we are and shine a positive light on ourselves wherever we can.
We as Venezuelan delegation prepare for 9 months and we don’t know anybody until we get there [to HNMUN], but on the other side, the Americans and Canadians have tons of schools that often intermingle, they had inside jokes and I had no idea what they were talking about or even how to make friends, there is a barrier that exists when you’re not plugged into that social dynamic.
MF: That is the biggest challenge, we prepare without knowing how the competition changes. We had the biggest change of all which is the online format. Every year it’s a big change. There’s no one way to prepare or to be ready for a conference in one year that can be wholly copied to the next.
When we arrive, we often perceive a stigma of working with Venezuelan delegates, [is it] scary to work with us? It happened to me and it sucks especially when we are there to make new friends and work on MUN together instead of trying to stick within our comfort zone of friends we already know.
VV: It is very difficult to compete against North Americans, they have a sense of humour I don’t get, the slang and words are different for native speakers and to be able to compete with them, it is very hard to stay up and the negotiations and the dynamics are very different. I’ve also experienced feeling a little bit left out, like an outsider, because the North American delegates seem to know each other and they seem to interact well. Latin Americans, we compete against each other because it’s very competitive between Colombian and Venezuelans, and the competition is much more fierce between Latin Americans. I feel as though there is more school spirit between the Latin Americans than the other delegates is something I’ve noticed, we wear our universities on our sleeves for sure, it’s a matter of national pride when we do well at MUN against these large American and Canadian schools.
JS: I would say that the biggest one was to understand what a “Best Delegate” is in the US debate sphere. At the end of the day, the ones who choose the awards are the directors, so it is crucial to understand what a best delegate is for them. The reality is that the Peruvian style of debating has the characteristic of being very intense and confrontational, and I may suggest that this is a common trend in all the Latin American circuits. However, the US style is completely different, and defining and adapting to that in just a weekend is hard.
What can be done to better accommodate international delegates?
DB: The answer would be to know each other more or to compete in more conferences. The virtual environment allowed us to go to McGill and we got to meet lots of new people. We can host more practices together with other delegations and get to know people more, that would for sure help in bridging the gap when making friends during our training season.
MF: Practicing more [with other delegations] will be amazing for Venezuelans and other international delegations.This year there was a rule that you cannot work with the same delegation [at HNMUN], competitions that promote these kinds of rules [are needed]. If you are from the American circuit, work with other people that might be from schools you never get to interact with. As Venezeulans, we do need to expand our horizons but we need to prepare for 9 months as well, it’s all about striking a balance. There is a definite disadvantage when some delegates have these pre-formed alliances because of the connections they’ve made from previous conferences. Ensuring that international and North American delegations work with each other will really help in building those friendships and help everyone feel more included.
VV: I do believe that a lot of people don’t know that they will encounter people from different cultures, so making people aware they will have international students and the cultural differences [would be helpful] . This year we’re looking to invite other universities. We’re under a lot of pressure to type and write certain things faster while not being native English speakers so more understanding from native English speaking delegates would be go a long way in helping us feel more included. Emphasizing on fairness, we have to put in double the effort, debating and negotiating in MUN is known to be a challenge let alone in a completely different language.
JS: I would say that the hardest part was to have the apps that are popular in the US, such as GroupMe and others. I believe the conference should state in advance which app to use, so international delegates can download them in advance. Of course this was an issue pertinent to the virtual environment because of the pandemic.
What do you think is the future of MUN in your respective countries and in an international context?
DB: I think that each year is different and it adapts in a certain way. It means going to more conferences, that will be the future of MUN in Venezuela especially as it becomes more popular.
MF: I hope there is a future for MUN in Venezuela, fundraising is a huge challenge for us, and international conferences can help Venezuelan MUN. The financial aid that a conference could provide will be an amazing way to help, raising $30,000 in 9 months is a lot of money for us and anything a conference can do to make it easier for international delegations goes a long way in ensuring great quality debate and that all voices are heard.
For example, for HNMUN 2020 we had to take a plane from Venezuela to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and then a flight into New York and then a train to Boston. In terms of flights and money, it’s a lot to organize and have together. Since we started 25 years ago, we’ve had to fund it all ourselves through fundraisers.
VV: We [Colombians] do have a key role in developing understanding that developing countries have people who are competent and capable. By going to MUN conferences we are demonstrating that we are capable and that developing countries have potential and a bright future ahead. There are many people who want to go out and be very successful and to prove to the world and the future of MUN will rest with the addition of perspectives from all countries.
JS: I believe Peru MUN will keep growing, because more and more young people in my country get engaged with politics every year. Our generation is tired of seeing so much instability and incompetence in our political sphere, that’s the reason why they feel attracted to MUN. And this is the case of numerous countries around the World. If North American conferences manage to make their expenses more affordable for international delegations keeping in mind the currency exchange rate, then they will attract a significant number of international delegations.
It is clear that Model UN has become a global phenomenon with reach all over the world, however while we debate on the most effective policies for our own pretend countries, it’s important that we listen and work with some of the international representatives closest to us – perhaps the delegate right beside us.
