De qué se trata #unabuenahistoriaparacompartir

Una de las quejas frecuentes que gente como tú tienen respecto a la cobertura de noticias es que la oferta existente parece concentrarse solo en las malas. Éso produce que mucha gente prefiera no ver noticieros o leer diarios por una especie de instinto de supervivencia: si me va a desanimar, ¿para qué? Y créanme que yo siento lo mismo, a pesar de ser parte de la industria de las noticias.

Y como parte de esa industria, sé que también hay buenas noticias, historias que merecen ser contadas porque nos inspiran a cambiar positivamente, a querer lo nuestro, a querernos, o simplemente a tener un optimismo a tope. Pero, la cosa se pone mejor si te digo que tú puedes generar esas buenas noticias, esas buenas historias para compartir.

De primera mano, se te va a alzar una ceja. ¿Cómo es éso que yo voy a generar una buena historia y encima voy a compartirla con todo el mundo? ¡Precisamente de éso se trata esta iniciativa que estamos lanzando desde aquí! Consiste en una serie de webcasts (transmisiones solo disponibles por Internet) inicialmente en vivo, durante las que te contaremos esas historias en un estilo muy espontáneo e interactivo. Sí, tú podrás participar con tus preguntas, opiniones y saludos. Aquí está el primer webcast que hicimos el 7 de agosto de 2019.

Pero hay más. Por supuesto que hay más. El proyecto #unabuenahistoriaparacompartir incluye eventos en vivo: jornadas privadas (individuales incluso) mediante las que pretendemos hacer un viaje dentro de ti para encontrar esa buena historia, sacarla a la superficie, darle la forma que quieras, y compartirla con todo el mundo mediante los medios que se tengan a mano, incluso los grandes medios de comunicación. Sí, aunque no lo creas, sí es posible poner en agenda buenas noticias en los grandes medios. Te lo aseguro.

Entonces, tienes dos opciones: seguir nuestros webcasts y participar en ellos, o solicitar tu experiencia individual o colectiva #unabuenahistoriaparacompartir totalmente vivencial y motivadora.

Para más información, me puedes seguir aquí, o mediante mis cuentas de Facebook o Twitter. así como mi canal de YouTube.  Ah, y muy pronto tendremos sorpresas para quienes nos sigan o hagan la experiencia en vivo. Yo tengo #unabuenahistoriaparacompartir ¿Y tú?

Lon-term love is possible and sustainable

Ayabaca is a lovely place to me because has been the destination of my mid-year vacations. My mother’s parents, as many Ayabaca-natives know, lived at the right entrance, where Piura and Arequipa Streets begin at the same time, just in front of so-called White-Trunk Cross, on a promontory from where you could look at the three emblematic mountains of the Ayawaka people, especially Aypate, toward the Sun rises.

So my earliest memories start in that my grandparents’ big house, now remodeled as a restaurant and  home (after my grandparents passed away, my family sold out the estate), those continue downhill passing beside the cemetery, the long flat sometime called Maracaná, until following down the road to Suyupampa, finding some of those doors, going down through a path to a place called Rosales, where one of the Castillo Family’s acres where located.

To satisfy the curiosity of the one reading or listening to this op-ed, the other acres where located on the path to Montero, just at the site known as The Devil’s Nose, the most complicated place to advance for who pilgrim to the Captive Lord Festival every October.

Then, even when it doesn’t seem, Ayabaca is an issue I’m concerned about by a double reason: first, by my interest as a journalist, second, because of that emotional connection. That’s why when the Ayawaka Cultural Association invited me to join a debate about development chances for the zone, it was impossible to say not. But what development does Ayabaca need?

First step – Think of multi

A couple of months ago, the local people, or a portion of it, demonstrated against a mining project that is being announced 15 years ago, and what, anyway, because an opposition in Ayabaca and Huancabamba Provinces as well, it’s not possible to start. I was wondered about that protest because its advocates insisted of its local development model was based on the agriculture and the tourism. Great, we already evolved!, I said, because monocathegorizing a development model is the same than considering a person as monotalented for the lifetime, and the truth is that’s not true. The persons, if they want, can be multitalented.

The same happens to the development model at any territory. It should be multicathegorized, and the reason why is such simple as the development is built by the people, not the schemes. If you take the person out the scheme, the scheme borns dead.

The agricultural development model for Ayabaca, priorly, has no discussion, and who doesn’t convince, walk just a mile away the city and get without doubts. And the agriculture comes together with the cattle, if not, it becomes unsustainable. And inside the agriculture itself, the idea would be to have a whole stock catalogue this land could grow for good. The question is – which ones?

Second step – Love the numbers

And the interesting thing comes here. Many people defend development models based on slogans, the priorly, but when you ask someone to sustain it in a real way, the problems begin. First lesson: the priorly could motivate me but is not enough to me because in most times, it comes from an anticipated judge, and that’s a big mistake.

The real way to sustain that your development model is the model is based on diagnosis made with field information as well as statistics. Yes, I know that the numbers have nothing romantic, but the numbers help us not to put the chariot before the horse… although almost nobody uses horses.

I remember that after that demonstration, I wrote an op-ed on El Regional de Piura where I left a homework for Ayabaca people, and for everybody who reads me in general, that we start with a key index saying us how much sustainable we are in terms of economy, the gross domestic product. It seems an interesting basis to me to know what the GDP that Ayabaca has got because its agricultural-cattle activity, for instance. Does somebody know it? As I said then, the information is available on the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, even by clicking. So now, what is it? Just as a clue, the Peruvian agricultural GDP is more than 7%, the double of the Peruvian general GDP projected for 2019 in 3.6%.

OK, if we can’t unfold at that level, at least what the Ayabaca Province’s or the District’s GDP is. Of course, the GDP is not the only index, but it is indeed fundamental, what must complement to  others as the existent land surface, the land proportion dedicated to cropping, cattle, forest conservation. In the end, numbers, numbers, numbers, and you’ve got my number.

If you want to pitch your development model to who you want to convince or debunk, I should stand up strongly on those indexes, and honest indexes, not supposed, not guessed, not made-up. It’s going to cost us to work but the true loves are not easy. I’m sure about that.

Third step – Turn-on the fan for refreshing the air

And not only with the agricultural-cattle sector. The same, priorly, I believe that the tourism in Ayabaca has an amazing potential, but it’s priorly, and we already established that holding to the priorly is a huge mistake. If we think of Ayabaca being Aypate, we fall into a dangerous reductionism, very similar to the people have about Talara when they believe that everything is Máncora, or when they believe that Piura is only beaches. And here I pay the attention about why we don’t end to convince everybody that Piura is touristically multicathegorized around and across.

Let’s return to Ayabaca. Reducing the all beautiful to Aypate already means a problem to me as a journalist and more as a tourist, because after Aypate, what? I know as a journalist that there is also Samanga, that I’m personally much interested on, or Huamba, or Cujaca, or Yanchalá, or El Toldo, or Olleros, or Yanta, or Culucán, or very near the city, in Socchabamba, or still pretty near the city in Yacupampa, where that beautiful combo is, composed by the Yantuma, the Chacas, and the Cuyas-Cuchayo clod forest. And I learned around of some waterfalls those somebody wants to launch. Excellent!

And even the Ayabaca City itself is able for beautiful urban circuits those you, at the most, haven’t realize like one that my producers and I were invented, beginning at the Main Square, going through all the balconies of Arequipa Street, reaching my granparents’ former house, resting for a while in the White Trunk Cross, and going down along the Piura Street until arriving to the Main Square again. And there is another through the path to Pampa de Lobo. And look - I don’t live in Ayabaca.

Until there, the existent offer. Now, what services do we have to offer to the tourist considering just two basic aspects like assistance quality and essential services: safe water, adequate management of spaces & supplies, safety. We have to quantify all that. Of course, the romantic ones will say me “the troublemaker is already here”, but if you already convinced that the priorly is not enough, you are ready for upgrading the next level. Once we quantify all, we have to specify which ones apply for minimum quality standards those motivate the tourist to come once, twice, and everytime, and bring more people. Right then, we’ll have a sustainable model!

Fourth step – Project to the world

Once we have all this well fixed, we can put that other component right, that’s my best professional talent – how we release it to the planet. Not your next-door fella, not the Ayabaca-natives living abroad, but the whole planet, where you truly contest, and where even you have to speak in codes we haven’t grown.

And, sure, how to feature all this with a text, picture, sound, hook production of marketing that makes irresistible going to Ayabaca, but once you be in Ayabaca, prove it’s better than they told it to you. And here is when the romance just borns strong and everlasting.

Fifth step – Real goals

In this sense, Ayabaca can place as a brand, the Ayabaca Brand. I know many people have thought on that, but if you pretent to get it by skipping from A to Z not passing along the whole alphabet, you’re going to give up. And the successful way to go along starts from knowing wwhat we have, knowing how it is, knowing what we can improve, knowing how we’re going to feature, knowing how we’re going to react before the response, and knowing how we’re gonna to evolve upon the first results.

In other words, people, strategic planning, because it’s not worthy to me that something is beautiful if I don’t have a whole network behind pointing me out goals, activities, resources, persons, results those allow me to measure if I am advancing through the right way or I am falling down. Yes, something like going madly the Yantuma uphill from Yacupampa, and getting unsteady and releasing you had no liferope once you reach the summit.

Sixth step – Be proactive

So now, I know very well that many people will say this is the authorities job, and notify us when you have it already to see how I take advantage. I’m sorry but I have to inform that in the Peruvian context, that is the simple and fast way to give up.

I understand that the ideal is in the social construction of every community, our leaderships open the way, or at least they say us where it goes, but the reality has proven that our leaderships have shown to be incompetent, selfish, and even corrupt. Then, what do we do? Unmotivate? No, that’s not the choince.

If the formal leaderships are not as high as the challenge that demans to launch a brand like Ayabaca, don’t cry, don’t regret. Let’s bet for our own initiative capability, and in that aspect I consider that the private initiative, even being incipient anywhere, can be the same or the better good than the public initiative. And I’m not talking about corporations. Peru has proven it moves 70% of its economy because the little companies, as well as the many independent entrepreneurs (including me). So, if it rains limes, make a lemonade. I mean, if your productive system is mostly the littlest or the independent, build your social network from there and manage the development model from there.

Yes, the authority is going to feel lost but I think there’s no most punishment for any leader when sees not to have a place in the picture. And that’s what the world demands! If you see the international reality, the governments are not those moving the processes but the people like you or me who do it. It happens exactly to a community like Ayabaca!

Then, when that attitude changes, and moves the things into a most proactive direction, believe me that the human asset will be an irresistible added value for that natural, archaeological, commercial, agricultural, cattle, touristic assets, whatever you decide for Ayabaca, looking for including everybody who wants to work on and get it. In other words, when a community becomes competitive, when it transcends from the priorly to the factually, it’s when it really improves the things, and when the things improve, it’s when we have a good story to tell, and when there is a good story to tell the world, well, it’s when you count on me.

Pleased again for the trust, and how good that the Ayabaca people are looking for solutions everywhere. If you keep that way, I guarantee you have a good portion of the success for sure. And if somebody wants not to join, you know?, don’t lose your time by criticizing. Get focused on the good that you’re getting because you’re going to get so far that way.

La migración como un tema de cobertura periodística

Aunque ha impactado en todo el continente americano, la migración venezolana debido a la crisis política y económica ha impactado mayormente en Sudamérica. Al cierre de esta entrada, el Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados estima que casi cinco millones han dejado su país, y de ellos más de 800 mil se están quedando en Perú de forma permanente o temporal, entendiéndose como permanente a hacerse residentes mientras la situación cambie en Venezuela, posibilidad aún remota a la luz de las últimas noticias. Por ahora, Perú es el país con la segunda población más grande de migrantes venezolanos detrás de Colombia.

La migración ha supuesto un gran problema logístico debido a que Perú no tiene infraestructura ni recursos suficientes para manejar tal cantidad de personas, lo que está siendo resuelto por la buena voluntad de diversas organizaciones sin fines de lucro y personas en general que se han solidarizado con el problema; pero también ha generado un conflicto social debido a la aparente competencia desleal existente en el mercado laboral (que el gobierno peruano ha intentado frenar mediante la expedición de documentos que regularicen el estado migratorio) y la delincuencia en la que algunos migrantes han decidido incursionar. Éso, sazonado con un mal entendido sentido nacionalista, que se manifiesta especialmente en las redes sociales, ha creado ciertos entornos hostiles para muchos venezolanos y muchas venezolanas no solo en Perú sino en los países a los que han llegado.

Sin embargo, también hay otras historias que vienen con la migración, como aquéllas en las que la persona llega a un nuevo país y comienza desde cero. Personalmente me he dedicado a buscar este tipo de historias no con el afán de idealizar al migrante sino para mostrarle como una persona común y corriente fuera de su país que hace lo mismo que hacemos todos y todas: ganarnos la vida con creatividad. No ha sido una búsqueda fácil, pero sí ha sido fructífera, basada en confiar en el instinto para oler una buena historia y construir una relación de confianza con cada una de las fuentes.

En ese sentido, uno de mis mayores socios en esta cobertura ha sido el abogado laboralista Manuel Leonardo Martínez Marcano , natural de Maracay, Aragua, pero ahora residente en Chorrillos, Lima. Hace poco, Manuel no solo convalidó su título profesional en Perú, sino que ya está habilitado para ejercer su profesión acá, y no es el único referente; en todo caso, es con quien tengo una relación cercana, al menos de carácter virtual. Gracias a él, he podido conocer historias excelentes para contar como las de Jorge Pignoloni, quien se estableció en Arequipa, o Andrés Citerio, que ha comenzado a organizar grupos de atletismo, o Magno Concepción, quien descubrió que la hostilidad es relativa luego que una mujer y un fisicoculturista peruanos lo defendieran de un agresor en un ómnibus de transporte público, o recientemente a Luis Rodríguez, quien escribió un hermoso artículo motivador sobre la cultura física. Por mi cuenta también he hallado a Moisés Vívenes, quien empezó de cero vendiendo tizana en Piura luego que administrara un equipo de fútbol en Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, y mantengo el contacto con varios migrantes, quienes me sirven como fuentes anónimas o han aparecido en materiales que he co-producido, como el caso en Tambogrande, donde trabaja el ingeniero Gerardo Arellano.

Y quizás, una de las historias más entrañables que quise producir fue la del cantautor Fernando Fajardo, Feyco, con quien grabamos una #NelsonEntrevista en San Lucas de Colán, un balneario de Piura, teniendo como fondo el primer templo católico construído por los españoles en América del Sur (1540), lugar donde él estaba produciendo un videocclip.

El aprendizaje frecuente en estas historias es que el periodismo puede ser una herramienta muy noble cuando se trata de educar a las personas acerca de polémicas sociales, mostrando a sus protagonistas como seres humanos. Así de simple. Quizás se usen ciertas notas al pie o acotaciones para que el gran público entienda los patrones culturales para quienes suelen no entender, pero de éso se trata mi trabajo.

Y lo mismo pasa con otros colectivos a quienes solemos hacer de lado por características salvables: el color de la piel, la orientación sexual, la lengua materna, la condición física, la creencia o cualquier diferencia de ese estilo. Partiendo de la premisa en que la neutralidad puede romperse ante lo que es objetivamente bueno o malo -la discriminación no solo es mala sino que es un delito penal en Perú-, lo que tienes que preguntarte como comunicador o comunicadora es hasta qué punto tus miedos y prejuicios se proyectan en los materiales que produces, y de qué manera éstos ayudan a cohesionar o disgregar a tu comunidad. Si no eres capaz de tener una respuesta, es necesario que recibas ayuda, puesto que esas construcciones mentales tarde o temprano afloran en en lo que digas, muestres, o no digas u ocultes.

Respecto a la migración no hemos comenzado nada ni hemos terminado nada. Es otro capítulo de una conducta humana tan antigua como la historia del homo sapiens. Mientras no lo entendamos así, llegará el día en que la noticia seamos tú o yo. Las cosas pasan para extraer las lecciones que traen consigo y compartirlas con la audiencia. Dicho ésto, sigo atento a la próxima gran historia para contar.

“Risky Teenage Love” – Five years later

There are two principles I was proving in those years because of my work: everybody is summoned to make science, and your professional title does not limit to the scientific field you want to explore. After this, I can say that in the difficult and almost misunderstood scientific divulgation market, I’ve got achievements I’m proud about. Across Piura Region, the journalists who specialize in that are a little handful, and I’m the youngest among them, I guess.

The scientific divulgation, in my opinion, is important because it allows to enable the curiosity of the audience about something they knew a few or ignored at all. And the curiosity you break out comes from your own curiosity, that is also based on the curiosity of some proffessionist, specialist in a science topic, who asked a question that seemed unnecessary one blessed day, went into it, and realized at least that he was found a key for a door that was not open even by using dynamite, or that we were sat down on pure dynamite, and we were not aware, neither. And that was the case of Risky Teenage Love (Somewhere Piura Andes), published on El Regional de Piura, in his original Spanish version, on July 30^th, 2014.

The story’s idea came from the curiosity of Obstetrician Marco Paulini Espinoza when he asked how much the teenagers of the fifth grade Bellavista de Cachiaco high-school, Pacaipampa District (Ayabaca Province), knew about a condom in terms of contraceptive method. And upon that knowledge basis, what attitude they had about its using.

Paulini took the issue because he was doing his Rural and Uptown Health Service (Serums, as its acronyme in Spanish) between ending-2013 and beginning 2014, just in that village. The story of how he landed there is epic, and the better is he tell you live by himself someday.

You will say – why to get focused the study in teenagers just months before leaving the basic regular education?Simple, folks. One of the strongest problems we have across Piura, and about what we can’t chant victory yet, is the teenage pregnancy, what means to have pregnants between 13 (11 in some countries) and 19 years old. And some stories we gathered at Piura Andes revealed us there are pregnants under 13 years old.

It’s supposed the teenage is  when many

women and many menare thinking what to do abouth their life so they mature. Then, whatever the reason, a boy or a girl comes on, and much of these plans postergate or abort, what, in many cases, stresses the poverty conditions. And Pacaipampa is one of Piuras districts with highest poverty levels. Add to this, Piura is one of Peru’s regions that has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates, 14% to 16% in the last five years, above the Peruvian rate around 13%.

Plus, if you invite Marco anytime to hold an educational session, a conference, or you include him in a debate, that he tells you about the levels of existent gender-based violence, which is very engaged to machismo and the precarious life quality there is in many parts of Andean Peru.

As I ever say, the value of that investigation was nobody requested it to him. He was proactive about making it, and he proposed it as a thesis project (despite he had sustained and approved his own undergrade thesis months before) and, in fact, the original work  from the four-and-a-half-page story was almost 100 A4-size pages, which we excerpted the part of results, conclusions, and we added an introduction to give it a journalistic value, so we sent for releasing.

Of course, that is the brief story. The manner how it born is almost funny. It was around nine at night on July 15^th, 2014, when Marco talked me quite sad because he was trying to engage in a job after his Serums in Pacaipampa, unsuccessfully.

In my effort to comfort him, because that was the reason, I proposed him to work on some topic of his area that could awake the public interest. Then, we had one and a half months meeting each other, and one of the recurrent themes was his life in Pacaipampa. I presume, because of his reaction, that my proposal sounded him like fried egg over ice cream, but he didn’t say no, what was a good signal.

The next he did was to recuperate his whole papers he had brought from the Andes and he put to process them into one of these softwares specialized in statistical work, then he began to write the full document adding almost one hundred pages. We can say he was all the possible time to do it then, and it was usefully advantaged free time too.

Let’s make elipsis and skip to 2014 Peruvian Anniversary. While everybody was rested or got drunk meaning to celebrate Peru, Marco and I spent a whole day –lunch included- working the story, and messaging the poor El Regional de Piura’s publisher Andrés Vera that, please, wait for us because it was to arrive any way before the closure time, after I spent three days pitching the idea to him. If I don’t remind bad, we became to send it with photos attached, then or twelve minutes to five in the afternoon, one of the deadlines, and very despite our web producers, who wanted already to go home for resting. Did I mention it was July 28^th?

One day later, 29th, we changed the original title maybe twice until it stood in its actual writing country song-style. Well, the story was produced at a rural environment, so the literary license was appropriate.  Then, I figured out the rural philosophy was making a short circuit wwith all the policies of pregnancy prevention or sexual initiation postergation, and, in my opinion, the answers the teenagers gave were romantically absurd, like I could make it with my boy friend not using a protection as a love proof. So, forgive me, but there is nointerculturality you allege about: or you apply rationality to your life project, or you waste your life by opening or closing the eyes, not that you’re thinking of because it could sound quite ugly.

Yes, of course. I was also a teenager, and I also belief I could bring down all the starss to the being who you love to. But as you grow up, and you understand that the metaphoric sounds nice but scientifically improbable, and it also generates a vulnerable scenario for a part of the population, there’s no worthy romanticism. Or you act with maturity, or you are part of the problem.

Thus, as Marco says, if you are not to protect, at least see how you are going to prevent, and the condom has proven it can be until 97% success for avoiding pregnancies and 95%success for prevention of sexually transmited diseases, including HIV/AIDS. And in a region like Piura, that is 150 thousand people up to reach two million habitants, according to the last Census, the decisions that teenagers and young take regarding to their sexuality are, indeed, a public health issue, especially when you have 5^th-grade high-school kids having a 7% knowledge and 5% positive attitude before the using of condom. And the other 95%, what?, I mean.

And if we carry that to public policies management, that have actually accostummed the poorest people to government or corporate dependence, then you understand the transcendence of investigation works wit those characteristics. Look – I don’t say this is the only one of its kind, what I say is this is one of the few when the author trusted in a journalist and decided to make it public.

That is the value of Marco Paulini’s study, and that is the value that almost nobody , except the colleagues of Radio Cutivalú (add to El Regional de Piura’s crew, I mean), could see once published, and, forgive me, even the efforts of the Regional Government of Piura for decreasing the rates in some districts, where they inclusive have put specialized offices in teenagers assistance, had the expected result despite the work, neiter.

I don’t insinuate it’s lost time and money. What I say is that no matter the effort our authorities do, the problem is the cultural environments where teenagers and young grow up, and where an anti-Semitic-style campaign, because it is so, anti-Semitic, Hitlerian, says there’s no right to act. Maybe no acting, but actually displaying enough scientific information for teenagers and young to take their own decisions, because if you don’t teach them to be responsible since kids, and realizing Maluma and company, and the Peruvian union of cumbia as well, are fucking brainwashers, tthey won’t be responsible along their personal, family, professional, and social life. Already, if with all the information, they insist to disgrace their lives, it’s their business, but the government already played its part, no matter if it seems pretty cruel.

Paulini himself repeated the task in 2016, this time with family planning service users in Huasimal de la Solana, Lancones District (Sullana Province), now about the attitude regarding the emergency oral contraceptive, that recently was supported by the Peruvian justice for being distributed in the health public system for free, and he found again that cultural and religious believes of the population, many of them based again upon the machismo, ended to put in risk the life of women and kept many violence cases ending in unwanted pregnancies, and the obsessive attitude of mothers who confessed they would control the sexuality of their kidsas much as forbidding the use of contraceptive methods.

And what deserved Marco Paulini in exchange for its effort? Nothing, no thanks neiter. Even with the published story and blasting in hits (all Marco’s stories ended 2014 with more than 20  thousand hits on El Regional de Piura), the Health director entity, at least in regional level, felt like a mosquito flew, slapping included. Maybe the administration of Jorge Camino, instead, recognized him on behalf of Sullana Province Municipality, and La Matanza District Municipality invited him to hold an educational session in its townhall and a local high-school (then the mayor was Nelson Mío, now Morropón Province’s Mayor), but Pacaipampa District’s and less the Ayabaca Province’s reported not to be aware about.

OK, they maybe had not to be aware, but if you’re an authority concerned to solve problems in your community, at least you had to phone him: “Obstetrician Paulini, and what action plan do you suggest?” And that feature had –well, has- actually an action plan: to insist in educating for prevention, and making closer the sexual and reproductive health services to teenagers. Eventually, the Peruvian government has implemented the second one. The first one, I insist, with this fake veil of the moral has sserved to disguising doctrinal-religious argues, instead of widely technical-scientific debates. Because in those cases, you forgive me, the science will save us. There’s no other way.

And Marco Paulini proved it when he was assigned by the Luciano Castillo Colonna Health Under-Regional Bureau  to the posts network at Sapillica District, reaching with that crew and the prominent district’s institutions the feat, because it is so, to reduce the annual amount of maternal deaths (it was three) to zero (yes, zero) by ending 2016, record that held, until I checked out in our archive, during 2017. By the way, the machismo –the negative cultural patterns, again- is one of the causes for maternal mortality, at least in that territory.

That’s why is too important the professional contribution he did to the international campaign One Billion Rising from Sullana, for fighting against the gender-based violence, understanding that the effort can’t last one only day but everyday, every minute, or his virtual participation to the 2014 Annual Conference of Businesspersons, held in Paracas, Ica, where El Regional de Piura had a pretty lot to do.

And that’s what I celebrate five years later. That the solutions journalism, like it’s called now that type of the contents production, had generated, first, curiosity in the audience, second, the need to see if it’s about a general pattern or an isolated fact (we realized it’s the option number one),  and third, these plans have to be pitched into the existent social forums for these facts to reverse or prevent.

And in the scientific divulgation journalism, the investigative journalism, or the solutions journalism, or just journalism, if you don’t ally to someone who never went into a newsroom to explore these action plans, you’ll hardly see that a reality changes.

And in this point, I want to remember the divulgation work that Marco does on his own blog https://marcopaulini.blogspot.com/ that has given us the satisfaction of getting positive interactions in English-speaker audience, at very complicated markets as the United States, England, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and even Jordan and Afghanistan. And they are organic twitterers, just in case.

Although nobody else cares about it, I’m proud for making that little milestone, and making that the contens we have produced help you to take better decisions. And of course, I’m proud of Piura’s talent that continues to row ahead and above, that follows to evolve. I continue to generate contents that way, Marco follows working wit me when he can and is free from his Human Medicine studies at Piura’s César Vallejo University, pretty scored by the way. I’m excited to believe there will be an upcoming challenge, and we’ll take it for sure!

¿Una marca comunidad? Nunca olvides ésto

Pareciera que estamos viviendo una revolución acerca de las marcas en los últimos años. Pareciera. Si uno se pone a leer un poco, verá que desde que la humanidad organizó el comercio en la Edad Antigua, ya se hablaba de marcas, muchas de ellas relacionadas con lugares. Y bastaba que el comerciante mencionara el sitio, fuera verdad o no, para que el cliente automáticamente evaluara su opción para adquirirla en términos de calidad. Y fue una tendencia mundial.

Lo que pasa es que, conforme nos sumergimos en la sociedad de la información en tiempo real, las marcas se han vuelto más competitivas que antes. Se han incrementado en número, algunas han incrementado su calidad; pero la forma de elegir una marca no ha variado en casi diez mil años de historia.

Entonces, ¿por qué ha cobrado tanta importancia en las últimas décadas? Simplemente, porque si no logras posicionar tu marca, no existes; y si no existes, no vendes, entendiéndose esto como el proceso de proporcionar un bien o un servicio recibiendo un valor a cambio, que no necesariamente se reduce a dinero.

 

Pero, ¿qué es una marca?

Es todo elemento que se puede ver, escuchar o representar una y otra vez de la misma forma, y que es propio de nosotros y nosotras, de nadie más. Y ése es su requisito fundamental. Puede que otros lo imiten o lo superen, pero eso que somos y que no es nadie más, es, precisamente, nuestra marca. De hecho, cada quien es una marca, y por lo mismo cada quien tiene su propia marca.

Aunque los componentes de una marca varían según el autor que consultes, creo que podemos concentrar nuestra atención en tres que me parecen fundamentales.

1. Nombre: Es la palabra o palabras que nos diferencian de otro u otra, y que es nuestro.  Ppuede estar escrito, hablado o sonorizado, o de ambas maneras; pero es nuestro y permite diferenciarnos de otros y otras de nuestra especie o de cualquier otra especie. Al margen de que sea un nombre conocido, un nombre que tomé de otro idioma, el nombre de un lugar o una persona, o hasta un nombre que me inventé, mi marca primero se hace conocida por un nombre.
2. Símbolo: Es la  representación artística que me es propia y de nadie o nada más. Al igual que el nombre, el símbolo puede ser gráfico o sonoro.
3. Identidad: Es todo el conjunto de características que son nuestras y de nadie o nada más, y que nos diferencia de alguien o algo de manera inmediata.  Dicho en cinco palabras: es lo que nos describe. Por lo mismo nuestra identidad es única. No es de nadie más.

Solo un apunte adicional sobre la identidad de una marca. Si alguien quiere ser como soy, me está imitando. Y si yo quiero ser como alguien más, estoy imitando.

La imitación no es una forma de identidad. En todo caso, es la ausencia de identidad; es decir, alienación.

Pero, se supone que estamos construyendo una marca comunidad. Ya revisamos lo que es una marca; pero, ¿y la comunidad?

Comunidad:

Es toda agrupación humana que se siente conectada por orígenes, historia, espacio y objetivos comunes. Vamos desglosando ese concepto:

• Primero, es una agrupación humana.  No es un conjunto de una sola persona.
• Segundo, se siente conectada. Es decir, se siente unida, ligada, integrada, incluída.  No es que les conectemos y ya; es gente que siente que esa conexión va más allá de tiempo y distancia, al punto que, aunque estén muy lejos, siempre sentirán que están aquí.

Entonces, pensemos en una comunidad como el conjunto de personas en el que siempre quiero estar porque me siento bien, y el resto hace que me sienta bien. Por lo tanto, nos sentimos como si fuésemos uno solo o una sola. Como si fuésemos una unidad. Como una unidad. Comunidad.

Una vez que logremos ese sentimiento casi mágico, el resto viene solo, en especial el tema de los objetivos comunes. Y uno de ésos puede ser la construcción de su propia marca comunidad.  Si ese sentido de comunidad no existe, entonces tampoco la marca comunidad. Claro que igual se podría gestionar como una marca, pero no representaría a nadie más que a la persona que la gestiona.  Por eso es importante que todos y todas nos sintamos incluídos e incluídas.

¿Por qué es importante la inclusión?:

La inclusión es la acción de integrar, y esa integración surge principalmente de saber identificar aspectos comunes en cada persona, antes que en los aspectos que nos diferencian. De hecho, incluir es generar unidad a pesar de las diferencias. Y para eso debemos partir de consensos mínimos.

Un consenso es un acuerdo unánime, un acuerdo de todos y todas sin excepción bajo el que haremos o dejaremos de hacer algo bien concreto. Otro aspecto: un consenso no es el acuerdo que impone una mayoría sobre una minoría, ni al revés. Para que hablemos de consenso, necesitamos que el 100% esté de acuerdo. Claro que también podríamos construir acuerdos sobre la opinión de la mayoría, pero no son consensos; son acuerdos mayoritarios. LO digo para que no se use el término en forma equivocada.

En la medida que exista un consenso en torno a lo que hace única a tu comunidad, todos sus integrantes sentirán que pueden aportar algo útil que construya en favor de la misma; si eso sucede, la comunidad progresa. Si a pesar del consenso tomado, la gente decide irse cada quien por su propia cuenta, entonces no funciona de manera comunitaria sino individual, o grupal en el mejor de los casos.

A partir de estos conceptos (marca, comunidad e inclusión) ya podemos comenzar el trabajo. Ahora bien, ¿a qué nos comprometemos por consenso? Ése es el siguiente paso a dar. Para profundizar, puedes escribirme a factortierra@gmail.com o a mi cuenta de Twitter, o dejarme tus comentarios aquí abajo.

A community brand? Never forget this

It could seem we are living a revolution about the brands in the last years. It could seem.  If you start to read a little, you’ll see since the humankind organized the commerce in the Ancient Age, it already spoke about brands, many of them referred to places. And it was enough the salesperson mentioned the site, whether it was true or not, for the client authomatically evaluated the purchasing option in terms of quality. And it was a wworldwide trend.

What happens is as we go into the real-time information society, the brands became more competitive than ever before. They have increased in number, some have increased their quality, but the manner to choose a brand has not changed in almost ten thousand years of history.

Then, why has it reached so much importance in the last decades? Simply, because if you don’t get to place your brand, you are not. And if you’re not, you don’t sell, understanding it as the process to provide a good or a service deserving a value in exchange, what doesn’t necessarily reduce to money.

 

So, what is a brand?

It’s every element  posible to see, to hear,  to perform once and once again in the same way, and what is our own , not nobody else’s. This is the fundamental requirement. It’s possible the others imitate it or overcome it, but what we are and it’s nobody else’s, it’s, precisely, our brand. So, each one is a brand. Then, each one has an own brand.

Although the components of a brand are different according to the author you consult, I think we can pay attention on three that are fundamental, in my opinion.

1. Name: It’s the word or words how we differentiate from others, and what is own. It can be written, spoken or sounded, or it can be both ways, but it’s ours and it allows us to differentiate from others in our species or any other species. No matter it’s a known name, a name I took from other language, the name of a place or a person, or even a name I invented, my brand makes known by a name, first.
2. Symbol: It’s, indeed, that artistic performance what is my own and nobody else’s or nothing else’s. Like the name, the symbol can be a graphic feature or a sounded performance.
3. Identity: It’s the whole set of characteristics those are ours and nobody else’s or nothing else’s, and those differentiate us from someone else or something else in an inmediate way. Said in five words: it is what describes us. So, our identity is unique, not nobody else’s.

Just an additional note about the identity of a brand. If somebody wants to be how I am, is imitating me. And if I want to be like somebody else, I’m imitating.

The imitation is not a kind of identity. It’s the absence of identity, rather, what is called alienation.

But, it’s supposed we are building a community brand.  We already reviwed what a brand is, but what about the community?

The community

A community is all human group that feels linked by a common origin, history, space, and objectives. Let’s go unwinding that concept.

• First, it’s a human group. It’s not an only-1-person set.
• Second, it feels linked. I mean it feels united, connected, joined, included. It’s not about we link them and that’s it. They’re people who feel that link goes beyond time and distance, at the point that although they’re too far, they ever will feel they’re here.

Then, let’s think of a community as the set of people within I ever want to be because I feel good, and the rest makes I feel OK. So, we feel as we were only one, Like we were a common unity. Like a common unity. Community. Once we get that almost magic feeling, the rest comes alone, especially the common objectives issue. And one of those ones may be the building of its own community brand.

If there’s not that sense of a community, so there’s no community brand neither. Of course, it could be managed as a brand the same, but it wouldn’t represent anybody but the person who manages it. That’s why the important is everyone feels included.

Why is the inclusion important?

The inclusion is the action to integrate. And that integration breaks out mainly from knowing to identify common insights in every person, despite the insights differentiating us. In fact, to integrate is to generate unity despite the differences. And we have to start from basic consensus for that.

A consensus is a unanimous agreement, an agreement of everyone without exception under we’ll do or leave to do something very real. Another aspect – a consensus is not the agreement a majority imposes to a minority, or the opposite. For we to talk about a consensus, we need the 100% agrees. Sure, we also could build agreements upon the majority’s opinion, but they’re not consensus. They’re majority agreements. I say it for the term not to be used wrong.

As much as there’s a consensus about what makes your community unique, every member will feel to contribute something useful that builds in favor of it. If that happens, then the community progresses. If despite the reached consensus, the people decide to go by their own, then it doesn’t work in a communitarian way but individual or rather group.

From these concepts (Brand, community, inclusion), we already can begin to work. So, what do we commit to by consensus? That’s the next step to make. You can write me at factortierra@gmail.com, talk to me on my Twitter account, or leaving me a comment right velow.

#EstoEsTambogrande Así se grabó el episodio 2

El viernes 28 de junio se lanzó el segundo episodio de la serie documental #EstoEsTambogrande que coprodujimos Freysi Bereche, Freddy Juárez y yo, de manera independiente, pero con un propósito bien concreto: explorar y promover los potenciales del turismo rural en el distrito de Tambogrande, Piura. Ésto significa desplazarnos hasta los sitios destacados para grabar cada episodio, y, aunque parezca divertido -de hecho lo es-, la parte tediosa sucede antes de prender la cámara: planificar cada episodio.

Primero, mira el producto terminado, y a partir de él, te iré contando el detrás-de-cámara:

Lo primero que demanda producir un programa como éste es la investigación de campo, que es el paso previo. Al menos en nuestra metodología de trabajo, no es que vamos al lugar y captamos lo primero que aparezca. Si vas a la aventura y tienes mucho tiempo y presupuesto, quizás pueda funcionar, o si es que sabes qué vas a grabar pero no sabes qué va a suceder, como me ha pasado cuando participé como equipo de producción de largometrajes documentales basados en hechos históricos, donde no puedes prever qué sucederá, puede que funcione. Pero, si estás yendo a grabar historias inactuales, como las de este episodio, tu investigación inicial te dará dos datos clave: qué grabar y cuánto tiempo te demorarás haciéndolo.

En nuestro caso, todo el episodio nos lo grabamos en un lapso de seis horas, incluyendo desplazamientos, sobre la investigación de campo que ya tenía Freddy Juárez, el productor ejecutivo del programa. Lo siguiente que hizo fue conversar conmigo sobre qué historia se tenía que contar, y ahí comenzó mi trabajo: establecer una pauta de grabación o 'escaleta', y a partir de ella, construir un guion, que es la planificación de qué vamos a ver y qué vamos a oír durante la reproducción o representación del producto.

Me encanta escribir guiones. De hecho, suelo practicar en mis ratos libres solo para estar en forma a la hora de plantear uno que sí va a salir al aire. Creo mucho en el poder de la gimnasia no solo a nivel físico sino mental, así que yo recomiendo usar tus ratos libres para entrenarte sobre cómo escribir un guion. Y escribirlo parte de una línea argumental (cuál es mi enfoque), una sinopsis (cuáles son la historia y el conflicto centrales) y un argumento (cómo puedes contarme la historia en la menor cantidad de espacio posible).

el resto es ir planteando escena por escena cómo se debe comportar todo el mundo: el escenario, la luz, el movimiento de la cámara, la coreografía del talento a cuadro, la sonoplastía, incluso las transiciones entre escenas. Salvo que exista un acuerdo demasiado rígido, algo que por consenso muchos autores no recomiendan, cuando construyas un guion trata de ser lo más flexible que te sea posible. Puede que tengas la película completa en tu cabeza, pero -como suele pasarnos- puede que en la realidad no exista todo lo que pensaste, entonces hay que adaptarse a las circunstancias. Ahora, insisto, si tienes todo el dinero y todo el tiempo del mundo para controlar hasta el mínimo detalle, adelante. Sigamos.

En este episodio inicialmente planteé nueve escenas, incluyendo un 'teaser' o 'gancho' inicial, una 'intro' y la historia propiamente dicha contada en los tres actos clásicos: un planteamiento, un enredo y un desenlace. Todo lo audiovisual se plantea así porque de esa forma capturas el interés de tu audiencia. No hay mucho secreto ahí.

Ahora bien, otra ventaja del guion es que te permite conservar un orden lógico. Una cosa viene detrás de la otra, y en muchos casos obedece a la vieja premisa del causa-efecto. Esta técnica es útil especialmente si tienes que escribir obras muy largas, donde perderse es muy sencillo. El orden del guion también permite que, cuando planifiques tu grabación, no lo hagas necesariamente de manera cronológica.

De hecho, si bien el primer episodio de #EstoEsTambogrande fue grabado en el mismo orden como fue editado, y aquí te lo recuerdo por si no lo hayas visto, el segundo episodio no siguió esa secuencia en campo. en efecto, la entrevista que aparece antes de la escena de despedida fue lo primero que grabamos al llegar a la locación (Miraflores Alto), y solo el desayuno, la secuencia con la señora que fabrica el queso y el señor que movía el guano sí siguieron el orden cronológico. Perdón, lo olvido casi, mucho antes que todas esas tomas, lo primero que se grabó fue la explicación de Gerardo Arellano, que en la edición aparece desde la mitad. Mis presentaciones a cámara sirviendo como elemento de transición las grabamos todas en el mismo lugar pero variando el tiro, y la escena de despedida sí fue realmente grabada al final de todo.

¿Cómo fue que se ordenó todo? Ahí entran las manos y la paciencia benditas de Freysi Bereche, quien, además de ser el videógrafo (y el autor de las fotografías que ves en esta entrada), fue el editor. Sentado con Freddy, se tomaron el trabajo de ubicar cada 'clip' de video, ponerlo en el programa de montaje, agregar música, títulos y efectos, homologar ('renderizar') los archivos y subirlo a YouTube, que es la plataforma que utilizamos para distribuir el producto al mundo. Bueno, y el resto lo haces tú que lo reproduces. Aquí está de nuevo el producto terminado.

Si quieres capacitarte sobre cómo hacer tus propias producciones, puedes dejarme tus inquietudes en los comentarios aquí abajo o a mi cuenta de Twitter. Si deseas una capacitación más intensiva, me puedes escribir a factortierra@gmail.com. Mira más fotos fijas de este episodio y coméntalas aquí.