The Field on the Narcosphere

By Al Giordano

This is it.

It all comes down to the next seventy-two hours, and who gets on the field and claws for every last inch.

The US House of Representatives will be in session this weekend to vote on Health Care Reform and every “whip count” on the tally shows it razor close.

The magic number is 216: That’s the number of votes that will be needed for the bill to pass (or, alternately, to kill it, if all members cast votes). The “yes” side claims 204 solid votes, the “no” side claims 210 (caveat emptor on both counts): In the middle, there are said to be 16 conservative Democrats being pushed and pulled from all sides.

But those “whip counts” can be deceiving because we now enter the hours where defections from both sides are already happening and likely to continue (plus, the predictable threats from Congressional critters seeking to exact eleventh hour concessions on other matters in exchange for their votes).

The President flew to Cleveland this week, turned US Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) from a “no” to a “yes,” and, with feeling, Kucinich then went on Democracy Now and pwned naysayer Ralph Nader (talk about a perfect foil) with his newfound support for the bill.

In these final hours, look for the media to ratchet up every rumor and morsel of distraction to make your heads spin; aimed in some cases at emboldening one side, or at demoralizing another, and in all cases on grabbing your attention.

Keep this in mind: NONE OF THAT MATTERS. The media doesn’t get a vote on this. Only members of Congress do. Health Care Reform is going to be decided in the trenches: district by district, member by member, phone call by phone call, and inch by inch.

President Obama has now cancelled his planned trip to Asia this weekend to quarterback these final minutes of the game. The AFL-CIO and the unions are on the field, blocking and running interference. 99 percent of the Netroots blogs are in the fight, led by the Daily Kos and with Nate Silver of 538 up in the coach’s booth with the binoculars. Organizing for America has the plays and instructions cued up and ready for everyone that wants to be on the field.

While the relevant players are calling, writing and faxing US House members, a good number of the kill-billies (on the right and the few stragglers that claim to be on the left) are in full freak-out mode. (Worrying about whether Rahm Emanuel is “vindicated” or not, and whether if he’s vindicated if that somehow vindicates their stalker-like obsession with Rahm; how lame is that?) We will deal with them handily after all is said and voted. How we deal with them will largely depend on whether Health Care Reform rises or falls this weekend.

Right now, and for the next 72 hours, the only thing that matters is the ground game: Which side generates more phone calls, faxes, visits, emails and other creative pressures on members of Congress.

Which brings us, once again, to this locker room speech from Al Pacino (remember the only other moment we posted this, Field Hands?): Life is a game of inches:

“We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time… Life is this game of inches… The margin of error is so small, I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One second too slow or too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break in the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know, when we add up all those inches, that’s what makes the fuckin’ difference between winnin’ and losin’, between living and dying… That’s what livin’ is: the six inches in front of your face.”

Spend four minutes watching it. Then go grab every last inch that appears for the next seventy-two hours. In the case of Health Care, for millions, this "game" really is a matter of living or dying.

History is never made from the sidelines. It is made on the field, by those who claw with our fingernails for that every last inch.

By Al Giordano

Ter García and Marine Lormant at the School of Authentic

Journalism. Photo DR 2010 Karina González.

Today we roll out the fourth in the series of videos produced at the 2010 Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, this one outlining easy steps of how journalists, writers, artists, musicians and other creators can utilize “copyleft” and other Creative Commons licenses as alternatives to copyright:

The video was edited and produced by class of 2010 scholars Marine Lormant and Ter Garcia. They wrote the following about how they made it:

The video, Share Creativity, is based on a series of plenary sessions at the School of Authentic Journalism given by Marine Lormant, a scholar on the video team. Since the plenary was quite long, we decided to record the audio anew to narrate this video. The goal of the video is, above all, explain as simply as possible how to license a Creative Commons work. Utilizing the freedoms that other Creative Commons users offer, we borrowed from videos, songs, photographs and other elements available on the Internet that give support to the lessons.

Most of the videos were found on the Internet pages of Creative Commons and Internet Archive. The process by which the video was elaborated also offers a clear example of the opportunities that these licenses offer. We chose to put the song, "Copying Is Not Theft," by Nina Paley, which has been infused by other styles of other artists, as an example of how existing works can be used to create new ones with the explicit permission of the author.

This video (original in Spanish with English subtitles) succeeds at an important goal we tell all writers and media makers: Don’t just tell the audience, show them. It doesn’t merely lecture the viewer on how to license works using Creative Commons (and the many reasons why creators might wish to do so). The video also demonstrates what can be done using and amplifying upon works that are already licensed that way.

Ter and Marine have been working round-the-clock here in the Narco Newsroom since the 2010 j-school ended in mid-February; capturing the many hours of video shot there and storing it on hard drives, archiving it all properly, doing the final edits and subtitles on the three previous videos we’ve made public so far, taking the leadership on this one, and they have still more on the assembly line coming soon to an Internet screen near you.

Marine has to return to New York tomorrow for work duties, which we all lament. Her talent and work ethic will be missed. But not to worry: she’ll be continuing to collaborate on the post-production of the videos from there... and I always visit our graduates in prison, er, the Big Apple!

You, too, will have the opportunity to meet Marine and Ter next month at the Narco News Tenth Anniversary Celebration, April 17, in New York City, and hear of their work and experiences at the 2010 School, along with a dozen other graduates of various generations of the j-school. Here’s who has confirmed so far:

* Johanna Lawrenson * Bill Conroy * Katie Halper * Josh Bregman * Erin Rosa * Bruce Miller Earle * Milena Velis * RJ Maccani * Marine Lormant * Richard Bell * Mariana Simoes * Barrett Hawes * Ter Garcia * Al Giordano *

Each of us will offer comments or stories of about five minutes apiece to share just how special and important this School - and the Fund that supports it - is to continuing and expanding the work of authentic journalism. As on previous Aprils, from Los Angeles to Seattle to New York, the anniversary celebration will be a benefit for The Fund for Authentic Journalism. The Big 1-0 of course will be a very special celebration. Trust us on this, you really don't want to miss it. Space is limited, so make your reservation at this link while tickets are still available.

By Al Giordano

When we last weighed in on the Congressional machinations in Washington over health care reform around the new year, there was more heat than light coming not only from the right but from some loud and shrill corners that called themselves “the left,” many even claiming to represent “the base” of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.

Two and a half months later, the situation has evolved to a very unique occurrence in progressive American politics: the authentic base rejected those grandstanders who wanted to let the perfect be the enemy of the good (the “bill killers” have pretty much wilted from their 15 minutes of overexposure), and has rallied around the cause of health care.

The US left (if such a thing has even existed in recent decades) for once in a lifetime did not fall for the orgy of petty bickering that led to so many previous epic fails, and what we see now is a convergence of forces, from the grassroots up, that can be defined as A. Pragmatic, in its multiple expressions in favor of advancing the ball down the field, and in rejecting the calls for “all or nothing” that had so defined many squandered US progressive political efforts over the past 30 or 40 years, and, B. Disciplined, including in the miraculous appearance of organizing to insist on discipline in the ranks of anyone who traffics in the term “progressive” to promote themselves.

I don’t know how it came to be, for so many years, that pragmatism and discipline were considered dirty words in many US activist circles. But the truth is, political battles have never been won without pragmatism and discipline.

Perhaps another time we can offer some historical thoughts on how it is that so many activists in the US came to see pragmatism as being “not pure” or not radical enough, and discipline as representing a loss of individuality and autonomy instead of an individual and autonomous choice to work together with others in strategic action.

I’d rather marvel, for now, at what has recently happened North of the Border to bring pragmatism and discipline back in vogue.

First, the evidence:

The national progressive group MoveOn (one that not too long ago would sometimes have the activist vice of allowing the perfect to be enemy of the good) recently polled its members with this question: “Should MoveOn support or oppose the final health care bill if it looks like the plan recently proposed by President Obama?” The result was that 83 percent support the bill to just 17 percent against it.

Among the authentic base, the tide has also turned against the longstanding tendency of holier-than-thou “purity troll” advocacy, as was recently evident in the cases of two Democratic US Representatives that had voted against health care on the first round because, they said, it did not go far enough. US Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) imploded and had to resign (yes, there were other more, ahem, prurient reasons for it, but he himself, at one point, claimed that the root of his meltdown was his vote against health care).

And now it is US Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in the hot seat.< ;/p>

You know the earth has shifted under Kucinich – long a proponent of a single payer health care system, for which the votes simply do not exist in Congress at present to achieve – when former supporters like Lisa Baskin of Massachusetts are posting this message on their Facebook pages:

“I have voted for, sent money to and agreed with Dennis Kucinich in the past. Now I want him to vote YES for the healthcare bill, imperfect as it is. Join me, Call Congressman Kucinich. Ask him to vote Yes.
Phone (202) 225-5871”

In this video from last week, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos offered a long pending smackdown of Kucinich’s position (it appears at two-and-a-half minutes into the video, after an entertaining segment about Rush Limbaugh). When asked if Kucinich should be challenged in a Democratic primary if he votes against health care reform this time, Kos said “yes”:

And five hours ago, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile posted a Twitter tweet saying the same thing:

“If a handful of Democrats decide to defeat this bill, they deserve to get a primary challenge to defend the status quo & insurance industry.”

It used to be that any attempt to invoke discipline on behalf of progressive political ventures in the United States would be met by screeching condemnations and accusations of heavy handedness and crushing of dissent. Gawd, that was a boring (and ineffective) era! The truth is that in the big leagues of any contest, no victory is ever achieved without pragmatic discipline.

The base – and by that I mean the authentic base (those that do the leg work and heavy lifting of political organizing, not just mere activism) – has lost its patience with the kooks and the constant complainers.

How and when did that happen? I would posit that it began to happen around last Christmas, when the self-proclaimed “progressive” bill killers overplayed their poutrage hand by calling for health care reform to be defeated. Folks at the grassroots level needed only to compare and contrast the behaviors of the different players on the left side of the dial in the US. Those that kept their eyes and hands on the ball and worked to get the best possible bill (which as with any legislation on any subject involves compromise) to move that ball down the field (especially including the White House) simply earned more respect than those who whined and pouted and offered increasingly shrill demands.

For now, I’ll just say how encouraged I am to see the authentic base asserting itself and adopting the necessary pragmatism and discipline to go out there and win this long political war over health care.

It has been 62 years since President Harry Truman first proposed national health care reform. And if, as momentum seems to be turning, perhaps as soon as this coming weekend the health care bill pushes through to historic triumph, it will be because pragmatism and discipline are no longer considered dirty words on the US left. That would be a miracle, and also harbinger of better days, and more victories, yet to come.

March 17 Update: And here's US Rep. Kucinich announcing that he will support the bill:

He had previously voted against it. But discipline has a way of getting around...

By Al Giordano

If you're among our many readers in the Massachusetts - where The Fund for Authentic Journalism is registered as a 501c3 nonprofit organization - please read this job description and, if you're interested in being a key part of this international team, write to search@authenticjournalism.org to let us know you might be able to do it.

It's an unpaid position but among its perks could be a complimentary ticket to the upcoming Narco News Tenth Anniversary Celebration on April 17 in New York (I'll tell y'all more about that shortly), or perhaps even an invite to the next School of Authentic Journalism.

From 1977 to 1996 I lived and worked mainly in the Bay State - from the Berkshires to Boston and parts North, Central and Southeast - and have many good friends, collaborators and colleagues there. Here's one way we can be in more regular contact.

Anyway, read all about it, and here's hoping you're the right the man or woman for the job!

By Al Giordano

Photo: DR 2010 by Jill Freidberg.

That's Sebastian Kolendo, 22, in the photo, above, 2010 scholar at the School of Authentic Journalism, from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. You may have already read his excellent essay, Cameras for the Shy, sharing some of what he learned last month in Mexico at the Narco News J-School.

While there, he also produced this video, tapping on his experience and observations as a volunteer editor at Wikipedia and as co-chairman of the committee there that mediates disputes over the online encyclopedia's content. This video informs you, in simple steps, how you can edit entries at Wikipedia, too, and also talks about the influence of that Internet resource on public opinion:

As part of our "The Making of the Video" series, I asked Seb to share with y'all more details of how he produced this video. He writes:

Three pieces of software were used in the making of this video: Screenium, a screen-capture program; Audacity, an audio tool; and Final Cut Pro, which mixed the video captured by Screenium with the audio recorded with Audacity.

Editing the audio in Audacity was the most difficult part. I actually made two recordings under somewhat different conditions, so they sounded slightly different from each other. Because these two recordings had to be cut together, they needed to sound similar.

In my first recording, the sound never rose above 5kHz. In my second recording, there was a faint crackling and the higher frequencies were significantly louder than in the first. While the tools used to correct this are simple enough, the task of making recordings sound similar was rather tedious. The first thing I did was analyze the spectrum of the two recordings. Audacity does this automatically, and returns a graph where the x-axis represents frequency and the y-axis represents volume. From there, I used a graphic equalizer tool to change the volume level in a given frequency range. Adjusting one audio track to have a spectrum that looks more-or-less like another takes trial-and-error and time.

The next difficulty was removing all the umms and pauses from the recordings. There were plenty: I wasn't using a script during the recording, so I largely spoke off the top of my head.  It's fairly easy to hear in the video where the audio is mismatched. (there is a very noticable “are” where I'm explaining the demographics.) It's clear that proper annunciation is important when recording to avoid words bleeding together that you later need to split.

Using Screenium was the easiest task. You just open a browser window to Wikipedia and tell Screenium to record for about 5 seconds. In Final Cut Pro, you can loop those videos as many times as you need for the audio.

Of all the videos that the viral video team produced, this one was probably the simplest to make. Tutorial videos are easy to create but hard to do right. This was my first attempt at a tutorial video – actually, it was my first video ever – so it's easy to see where there's room for improvement.

I personally really like this video. It follows "the KISS rule" ("Keep It Simple, Stupid") and demystifies two things that everyone can do: 1. Write and edit entries on Wikipedia, and, 2. Make videos to share your skills with others.

As Seb notes, he had never produced a video before attending the School. In ten days he learned to use a camera and also to produce video (with audio) and did it.

As to whether this great video can "go viral" (like our Torture in Egypt video that, since last week, already has more than 1,400 views on YouTube or Translations with Father Charlie video that now has more than 350) that's largely up to you. If you think it should, embed it on your websites, blogs, Facebook and other social networking pages, Twitter its link, among all the other creative things we can do to get these instructional and educational videos out there.

And I know that some of our regular readers and commenters here are also volunteer editors at Wikipedia, so please feel free to use the comments' section here to offer additional pointers and advice to our readers who would also like to do so...

By Al Giordano

Inaugural ceremony of the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism, February 3 at the Posada Amor in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

As we edit and post the many news stories and videos from the 2010 Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in Mexico, I don’t want to miss the chance to thank a lot of people and small businesses on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula who made the school possible from behind the curtain.

For many obvious reasons, we don’t publish the locations of the school in advance or while it is happening. Among them is that in past years, people showed up unannounced at the door – some having traveled long distances – hoping to attend the classes, even offering money to do so, and we’ve always had to turn them away. But now that the ten days of intensive training and sharing have completed, we can tell you a little more detail about where we went.

The school’s inauguration was held in Puerto Morelos, a small fishing and beach community about 25 minutes from the international airport in Cancún. Many thanks to Mario Gómez of the Hotel Inglaterra and Dinora Fernández of the Posada Amor for offering discounts on beds for 65 people, meals and meeting spaces.

The Posada Amor gave us use of their grills for two abundant fish dinners with many kilos of mero (grouper) and amberjack fish donated – yes, donated – by the Cooperativa Pescadores de Puerto Morelos (the local fisherman’s union). Our profound thanks goes to the cooperative’s president, Ramon Povedano Concha and also to la licenciada Alejandra Cordova and Donasiano Luis, local residents who aided the school in important logistical needs.

The charismatic Australian expat Catriona Brown did skillful advance work in that town. Light and sound engineer David Simpson, his wife Delaina and tech team made our inaugural session the best produced television program Narco News has ever made (coming soon to an Internet screen near you).

A special thanks to the mayor of Puerto Morelos Francisco Mendoza Reyna who helped in so many ways beginning months before the j-school came to town, and who offered inspiring welcoming remarks at our inauguration.

Mayor Francisco Mendoza Reyna welcomes 65 journalists from more than 30 countries to Puerto Morelos. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

From Puerto Morelos we went to the Cancún headquarters of the daily Por Esto! where managing editor Renán Castro Madera spoke with the 65 students and professors and led a tour of its newsroom and printing press. As you might imagine, kind reader, the logistical support of the region’s biggest daily newspaper helped in a multitude of ways (and continues to help with the post production of the film to come out of the School’s documentary filmmaking work group).

From there – including on the School’s “smokers bus” donated by Urbe bus lines of Mérida, Yucatán – we caravanned to Mérida and set up campus in the Hotel Trinidad with overflow rooms provided by its sister Hotel Trinidad Galería.

The "smokers bus" arrives at the Hotel Maranatha in Playa del Carmen on February 8. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

These were the same hotels that hosted the 2003 School of Authentic Journalism. Hotels Trinidad owner Mark Swain and manager Irma were as wonderful and gracious as the previous owner, the late don Manolo, Mérida’s first and greatest patron of the arts (the hotels – every room, nook and cranny – are veritable art museums, most of which was produced years ago by starving artists who don Manolo would allow to stay at his hotels in exchange for paintings and sculptures and such).

Many of the staff of the Hotels Trinidad were the same people who worked there seven years ago (for weeks prior to the school they kept asking us if the School social director Tiberio would be coming back with his legendary mojitos, which, of course, he did, together this time with Maia Facen). Although the hotels were filled to the brim for four days and nights the receptionists, cleaning staff and everyone involved with the Trinidad Hotels worked overtime professionally and met our every need. They made us wish we could all just live there forever.

Maia Facen making mojitos at the Hotel Trinidad in Mérida while authentic journalists dance. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

The 2010 School of Authentic Journalism was cosponsored by the Economics Department at the Autonomous University of Yucatán in Mérida, thanks to the leadership of department chairman Alberto Palomino, professor Jorge Luis Canche Escamilla and anthropology professor Carlos Bojorquez. They worked tirelessly in the weeks before the School to facilitate the travel visas for many of our students as well as securing us the Felipe Carillo Puerto Theater downtown for the keynote speech of the rev. James Lawson on February 4.

Also in Mérida, don Nerio Torres, leader of the Frente Unico de Trabajadores del Volante (the taxi drivers’ union) provided generous logistical and transportation support.

And it goes without saying that the main reason we took the School to Mérida was so that our students and professors could learn from Mario Menéndez Rodríguez, the father of the authentic journalism renaissance. Mario and the entire staff at the daily Por Esto! assisted in so many ways to make the School a success and facilitated that the entire Yucatán community opened its arms to us.

Key to our stay in Mérida (and not for the first time) were our good friends (and j-school graduates) Jim and Ellen Fields of the Yucatan Living website. With expat resident Martha Lindley (who picked up the rev. Jim Lawson at the airport, escorted him for three days, and dropped him back there one early morning for his flight home) they organized the rev. Lawson’s stay at the wonderful bed & breakfast Posada Luz en Yucatán.

Ellen Fields at the graduation ceremony in Playa del Carmen. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Jim and Ellen additionally hosted a tremendous School fiesta at their Mérida home with exquisite catering by Janice Fraser, her assistant Jennifer Hames, bartender Enrique, and servers Arvi Perez and Ana Toxina. And the charismatic Lane Gallagher (best massage therapist on the peninsula, bar none) joined us there as well as coming with Ellen as invited guests to our graduation dinner the following week in Quintana Roo.

Ellen’s assistant Beatriz Echeverria conspired in a surprise for all of us (especially me) when they produced this poster in the traditional art style of bullfight and lucha libre promotions. I had never seen it until I walked into the Fields’ party, and there it was on an easel. (Copies were gifted to all the students and professors.) It was a night of great abundance and we thank Ellen and Jim profusely for their generosity and the spirit they bring to the project.

Ellen Fields and Beatriz Echeverria designed this poster and gave one to every participant in the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism. DR 2010 Mariana Simoes.

Local restaurants in Mérida that gave the School important discounts were La Blanca Merida and Los Almendros (which catered the hours long interview with Mario Menéndez at the daily Por Esto!), as well as Vito Corleone Pizza, all downtown.

From Mérida the School traveled on February 8 to its Caribbean campus, the Hotel Maranatha in downtown Playa del Carmen. This was the first time we had held an event there and its 36 rooms all surrounding a large swimming pool housed 65 students and professors plus work group headquarters for the investigative, online, documentary and video projects and also plenary sessions.

Professor Josh Bregman (who did double duty as van driver) at the poolside of the Hotel Maranatha in Playa del Carmen which for five days became a campus. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Special thanks to Carlos Macias Rojas, manager of the hotel, who for weeks in advance helped us facilitate the wiring of the hotel for wireless Internet and helped in so many other ways. The staff was professional and friendly.

Chef Marja Miranda and her crew offered fantastic breakfast buffets each day at the hotel (many participants cited those as their favorite meals). Hotel Maranatha is really an oasis of decency in fast-growing Playa del Carmen, where so many hotels and businesses are more dedicated to the fast buck over quality of service. A few blocks away from the expensive pedestrian tourist boulevard, in the middle of town, it is the pearl of Playa del Carmen. We were lucky to be able to host the School there.

Near to the hotel, two restaurants – the seafood restaurant El Gusto Jarocho on Calle 30 and El Faisan y El Venado, serving typical Yucatán traditional food, alongside the highway – hosted and fed the school to the great satisfaction of all.

Also in Playa del Carmen, Por Esto! bureau chief Manuel Chuc aided us before, during and after the School in so many ways, as did telephone workers union leader Marcos Vasquez.

Telephone workers union leader Marcos Vasquez, with Fernando Leon Romero, Mercedes Osuna and Johanna Lawrenson, at El Faisan y El Venado in Playa del Carmen. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

I would be negligent if I didn't thank the hundreds of readers who made the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism possible from a distance, those of you who donated to The Fund for Authentic Journalism, and also the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict which answered our appeal with generous matching support, as well as informational materials and experienced presenters in the curriculum on civil resistance. Without all of you, there literally would have been no j-school this year and none of the good works that have come out of it and will continue to come. Give yourselves a round of applause!

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the support staff for the school (who also doubled as professors and in one case, student).

The tech team David Briones and Chris Fee, who worked around the clock before, during and after the school to set up and maintain wireless Internet coverage among many other jobs they did to make the School a success.

Chris Fee and David Briones, keeping the wi fi and everything else working, at the Hotel Maranatha. DR 2010 Sunny Angulo.

Greg Berger and Jill Freidberg, who arrived days early to prepare the video and documentary work groups and whose work ethic was unparalleled at the School.

Greg Berger. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Jill Friedberg. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Tiberio Tinarelli and Maia Facen, as the school's "social directors," made sure that nobody was thirsty nor sad at any moment!

Tiberio and Maia. DR 2010 Sunny Angulo.

Victor Amezcua grilled many kilos of donated fish and taught students from many lands to dance salsa, as well as doing vital logistical support daily and nightly.

Victor Amezcua is called to receive his diploma at the graduation ceremony at El Gusto Jarocho in Playa del Carmen. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Mercedes Osuna of Chiapas – one of the best community organizers I’ve ever known in a lifetime of knowing the best – handled so many details, large and small. The School would not have been possible without her.

Mercedes Osuna receives her diploma. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Kristin Bricker, who along with the rest of the crew waited hours at the airport for incoming flights and shuttled students and professors to the campus.

Kristin Bricker and Fernando Leon Romero working at the poolside of the Hotel Maranatha. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

Mercedes, Greg, Kristin, David and professor Josh Bregman who drove the vans and vehicles each time the school moved from the Puerto Morelos to the Mérida to the Playa del Carmen campuses.

Fernando Leon Romero – my assistant at Narco News as well as our Spanish Language Editor – who had the thankless job of knocking on every participant’s door each morning to wake them promptly at 7 a.m., often after long nights of socializing and fiesta.

Fernando Leon Romero (also in photo: Erin Rosa, Hugo Ramírez, Jillian Kestler D'Amours and Milena Velis). DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

And, finally, Johanna Lawrenson - who 25 years ago took me to Latin America on staff for the first time as she and her husband Abbie Hoffman shepherded a tour of 50 North Americans through Nicaragua – and whose skills at “herding cats” played a vital role in keeping the School and its 69 participants moving. (I suspect she had a lot to do with the fact that this was the first j-school ever in which I did not get to make an example out of someone showing up late and have the bus leave without them.)

On February 4, we all celebrated Johanna's birthday with a cake and sung "Las Mañanitas" to her.

"Congratulations compañera Johanna," on her birthday cake with ten candles... because she's a 10. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

It was Johanna and Abbie who, in my youth, invested so much time and energy in showing me the ropes of community organizing and communications, in an era when most members of their generation were too self-absorbed to pay any attention at all to us younger folks. With their lessons I also learned the necessity of building multi-generational movements and investing in the next generations. In that sense, Johanna has always been part of the inspiration for the School and the reasons we founded it eight years ago.

Johanna Lawrenson receives her School of Authentic Journalism diploma on February 12 in Playa del Carmen. DR 2010 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky.

At the closing ceremony of the School on February 13, as each participant spoke in turn, Johanna remembered a lifetime of gatherings, conferences, congresses, tours, and organizing events we have attended together. She spoke for me, too, when she said, “this one, out of all of them, was the most inspiring.”

A big part of what made it all possible was the friendliness, honesty and competence of the people and small businesses across Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. I hope all our readers can someday visit that unique land, its beaches, ancient Mayan ruins, traditional cuisine and warm and welcoming peoples. And if you have a chance to stay or eat at one of the above mentioned hotels or restaurants, you will have been as lucky and satisfied as we are with our travels there. They will leave you wanting, as we do, to return for more.