Venezuelan: the new app that brings migrant families closer together

Photo of Rob Hampson in Unsplash

Ronald Kanzler, a 37-year-old Venezuelan artist and programmer with a degree in Arts, created Venezuelan, a game app launched in July 2025, with more than four million downloads. Its objective: to guess Venezuelan colloquial words (such as malandro, churupos, and bululú) through clues from different regions of the country—a rich slang that is being lost to those who emigrate.

The game functions as a cultural bridge between generations and territories. Kanzler states that Venezuelan "It has served to unite families who are, for reasons we already know, separated." Living outside of Venezuela forced him to find ways to keep alive the connections with his language, his culture, and his childhood memories.

Kanzler has lived in Spain since 2019, the year she decided to emigrate for health reasons related to her son's condition—a type 1 diabetic—and the vital need to refrigerate medications, something that became difficult in Venezuela due to frequent power outages.

The project is also a family endeavor: her sister, Katty Kanzler, a social media content creator, joined in the development. Both grew up in Colonia Tovar, Aragua state, an area with strong German ancestry, though deeply Venezuelan in customs.

More than a thousand regional words make up the repertoire so far, chosen after researching expressions from different generations and locations in the country. Venezuelan It not only entertains, but revives conversations, identities and memories that migration fragments.

Kanzler has already received offers to adapt the game in other countries. For now, he's devoting himself full time to Venezuelan allowed him to quit his previous job to focus on design, updates, and keeping that shared identity alive between those who are far away and those who stayed behind.

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Sources:

• ABC Newspaper
• EFE