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Reporter's Notebook: Al Giordano

2004 Narco News Journalism Scholars

Posted by Al Giordano - May 17, 2004 at 10:54 pm
Last night, in Los Angeles, 2003 graduate turned 2004 professor Sunny Angulo and I announced the list of this year's scholarship recipients who will be attending this year's Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, July 30 to August 8, in Cochabamba and the coca-growing Chapare region of Bolivia...

Obviously, a lot of super qualified and interesting applicants did not make it. There are two more, beyond this list of 34 below, whom we are trying to find a way to get them there (but our finances and theirs preclude granting them even partial travel expenses so far), and...

One scholarship applicant, Venezuelan Martín Sánchez, copublisher of Aporrea.org and Venezuelanalysis.com, has been invited not as a scholar, but as a professor.

It is now my great pleasure to introduce you to the Authentic 34 of the Class of 2004 of the Narco News J-School! 1. From La Paz, Bolivia, 29 and filmmaker, Soraya Aguilar

2. From San Salvador, El Salvador, and Houston, Texas, 25 and Pacifica radio journalist, Karla Lorena Aguilar

3. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, 25, currently in New York City where he helps edit The NACLA Report for the North American Congress on Latin America, Teo Ballve.

4. From New York City, currently in Mexico, 30 and documentary filmmaker, director and author of "Gringo-thon," Gregory Berger

5. From São Paulo, Brazil, 28 and documentary filmmaker, Jacques Gomes Filho

6. From Vandalia, Ohio, 32 and talented writer and journalist, Amy Casada Alaniz

7. From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20 and documentary film student, Andre Lobato

8. From Lawrence, Massachusetts, 30 and talented writer and journalist, Sean Donahue

9. From São Paulo, Brazil, 25 and investigative journalist with the national Forum magazine, Nicolau dos Santos Soares

10. From Sweden, currently in Guadalajara, Mexico, 23 and talented writer and journalist, Tigran Feiler

11. From Campinas, Brazil, 22 and radio journalist, Daniel Alcántara Domínguez Fleming

12. From La Paz, Bolivia, originally from Cochabamba, 24 and talented writer and journalist, Alexandra Flores

13. From Cochabamba, Bolivia, 24 and radio journalist, member of the Bolivia Indymedia collective, Maria Eugenia Flores Castro

14. From Tepoztlán, Morelos, in México, 17 and already a documentary filmmaker, Sarahy Flores Sosa

15. From México City, 30 and radio reporter and member of the México Indymedia Collective, Vladimir Flores García

16. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, living in Porto Allegre Brazil, 23 and documentary film student Pablo Francischelli

17. From Cochabamba, Bolivia, 27, radio reporter and investigative journalist, Gissel Gonzales

18. From Evanston, Illinois, 21 and documentary filmmaker, director of "El Gas No Se Vende" about last autumn's popular uprising in Bolivia, Sarah Harris

19. From Los Angeles, California, 25 and investigative journalist, Sterling Harris

20. From Bellingham, Washington, 22 and talented writer and journalist, Amber Howard

21. From Los Angeles, California, and Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, 26 and talented writer and journalist, Adrianne Jackson

22. From Santa Fe, New México, 26 and reporter for the daily Santa Fe New Mexican, Yasmin Ali Khan

23. From the state of Maryland, 31 and assistant webmeister and online journalist for the Drug Policy Alliance, Baylen Linnekin

24. From La Paz, Bolivia, 35 and investigative journalist, Inga Lopez

25. From Framingham, Massachusetts, 24 and investigative journalist, Ben Melançon

26. From New York City and sometimes under arrest in the Chapare of Bolivia, 28 and photojournalist, Lucian Read

27. From Cochabamba, Bolivia, 25 and documentary film student and member of the Bolivia Indymedia Collective, Leny Olivera Rojas

28. From Barquisimetro, Venezuela, 27 and Community Television Reporter and Producer, Gerardo Rojas

29. From Lesotho, South Africa and Asheville, North Carolina, 27 and Community Radio reporter and producer, Ronald Sebilo-Tibbits

30. From Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 30 and investigative journalist, Julia Steinberger

31. From Rosario, Argentina, 27 and talented writer, journalist, and harm reduction worker, Romina Trincheri

32. From São Paulo, Brazil, 25 and investigative reporter and editor for the national magazine Caros Amigos, Natalia Vaina

33. From Portland, Oregon, writer and co-editor of the book "We Are Everywhere" on Verso Press, Jennifer Whitney

34. And last but not least, from Riverside, California, 22 and talented writer and journalist, Andrea Wilkins y Martinez

Some Notes and Precisions:

To the more than 200 applicants who did not make it this year: there were many of you who deserve this scholarship, too. Unfortunately, space considerations and economics didn't let us bring every one of you this year. There will be a next year though, and two of our participants this year were 2003 applicants who did not make it then, but were persistent in staying in touch and involved in the project. One comes this year as a scholarship winner, the other as a professor. The application process is not an end, but a beginning.

Also, two pre-invited scholars from our smaller sessions in 2003 who were invited back for this year have informed us that due to other obligations they won't be able to attend. Thus, a rain check is given to Sandra Alland of Canada and Annalena Oeffner of Germany.

We have received many, many, late requests for extensions, but, sorry, the process is now closed. The campus is full. Also, for those making noises about "coming no matter what," Please, please, do not make plans to "attend anyway" if you are not on the list above or an invited professor, because there is no room and we will sadly but firmly have to turn any such folks away at the gates, for the sake of the manageability and security of the school and its participants. Please respect the necessity to keep this an invitation-only event. Thanks.

And thanks to all the applicants, each of whom filled out a very long and intensive application.

Shortly, readers will learn more about, and read more directly from, the 2004 scholars. This is a really super group of Authentic Journalists, and I could not be more pleased and excited about the Class of 2004.

About Al Giordano

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Publisher, Narco News.

Reporting on the United States at The Field.

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Special Thanks for L.A. Event...

Submitted May 17, 2004 - 11:56 pm by Al Giordano
To Barry Crimmins, who saved the day.

To Andrew Grice and The Fund for Authentic Journalism.

To the Orchid Restaurant.

To Suzy Williams and Bill Burnett of The Boners, who finally gave me the chance to say in public, "the boners are up next."

To Vessy Mink.

To Mike Gray.

To Copublisher Chris Fee who flew out from Ohio to help out with and attend the event.

To Copublisher Kevin Okabe, who stayed with the posse from entrance to exit and pitched in with everything imaginable.

To Sunny Angulo.

To Class of 2004 scholars from the LA area who came and said a few words, Sterling Harris, Andrea Wilkins y Martínez, and...

...a special thanks to 2004 scholar Adrianne Jackson who also got us the venue and did so much advance work to make the event happen before she even knew she was getting a scholarship.

To my sister Lisa Thurston ("Isn't she gorgeous, boys? Careful! That's a trick question! If you say yes I'll kick your ass! If you say no... I'll kick your ass!") who came in from out of town. She came, she charmed, she conquered! (Angulo is already lobbying me to hire the ever-popular Lisa as trip director for the J-School.)

To my longtime friend, colleague, and prolific painter of canvasses, Corina del Carmen, who I met in Zapatista lands in 1997 and who also came in from out of town for the event.

To Dan Pasley and the rest of the gang at the ACLU of Southern California and the San Pedro Alternative Media Council, who gave me that very attractive UPPIE Award (yes, I got it through Customs), and who made all the other events possible by bringing me to L.A. Thanks!

And Thanks to everyone I did not mention on first blush. It was great fun all around. And we raised some scholarship bucks, too. Grice will have a report forthcoming shortly.

Congrats to all! Felicitaciones!

Submitted May 18, 2004 - 11:50 pm by Trevor Top
The scholarship winners and to those who contributed to what sounds like a successful event.

Despite the exclusivity of the event, I hope that journalists are encouraged to meet, collaborate, socialize, etc. whenever the opportunity arises. It would be a shame to have an ongoing event "of the masses" such as this not allow that.

To that end, I will be in Cochabamba for June and then north through the Andes in July/August. I hope I am able to at least buy a drink for those that I can meet along the way.

Clearing up a misconception

Submitted May 19, 2004 - 11:17 am by Al Giordano
Put yourself in our shoes.

We have 70 or 80 journalists who only have ten days to A. meet each other, B. produce good works of investigative, radio, and documentary journalism, C. travel together in the coca growing regions, D. meet, hear from, and interview campesinos, indigenous, workers, their political leaders, human rights defenders, politicians of various tendencies, some chingón Bolivian journalists and academics stopping by to do a presentation, E. daily "poolside blogging", AND F. attend a plethora of extremely valuable presentations, classes, debates, plus the daily work of the workgroups in investigative reporting, radio, and video-documentary through which good works will be produced, translated, and spread throughout the world.

The problem is not one of "not enough" exposure to the masses. The challenge is that there is already so much! ...a constant stream, both on campus, and off, of direct exposure to the social, political, cultural, and mediatic, currents in Bolivia. And in the middle of all of it we have the probability of espionage forces (and perhaps dirty tricks agencies) already engaged in efforts to discredit the school and looking to do real damage when it happens, and we're not going to lose a single participant to their efforts to cause problems. We've done this in Mexico and we know exactly how to do it, and how not to, in Bolivia, where we have long experience already.

To paint the necessary precautions as somehow against our trademark and reputation of always doing everything with, of, by, and for, the masses is not accurate, nor is it a fair characterization. It also disregards the shining truth that we've always done everything that way, and seems stingy on the matter of "benefit of the doubt" that, not being novices at this, we have earned from most corners. Forgive me for swatting it down in this manner, but a myth travels halfway around the world before the truth can put it's pants on, and I'm a mother lion when it comes to protecting the flock.

In this case, obviously, the masses are Bolivian. They're our hosts. And the security concerns come most vocally from them: they want us and all our participants to succeed in this course as much and more than we did in Mexico last year, where we also respected absolutely the recommendations of our Yucatán hosts, to the great benefit of all, the visitors and the locals. (Not to mention a good number of visiting participants have voiced questions and concerns along these lines, too, because as journalists they know that a "low intensity war zone" is nothing to shake a stick at, or be careless with.)

As for your own personal travel plans, or those of anyone else traveling through the region during the same time period, obviously a public forum is not the place to discuss details, but I and the Narco News team are at your service, and anybody else's, via email... for your own security and benefit as well as ours.

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