CRÓNICAS DE OTROS PLANETAS
DEBATE. Random House Mondadori
There is a brilliant generation of Latin American journalists, all forged in the furnace of exhaustively documented, carefully written, and lengthy, experimental reports. The majority of these journalists have attended the workshops of the Fundación de Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (Foundation of New Ibero-American Journalism), created by Gabriel García Márquez.
Due to my huge respect for them, I feel honored to have been included alongside them, in the book Crónicas de otro planeta (Articles from Another Planet), published by Debate (Random House). This is a selection of the best works published in the history of the iconic Latin American magazine Gatopardo.
The book brings together reports by 25 professionals who practise journalism that delves into the stories, examining subjects and themes in great detail and from every possible angle, and that offers the reader an attractive and creative narrative.
My article has an apparently superficial starting point – the global media fame of the president of Bolivia's stripy jumper – from which I unveil the true, comical, and disconcerting story that was never told. A surprising truth that lies behind the misinformation spread at that time by the media.
The English writer Evelyn Waugh, author of the satirical novel Scoop (1938) would have laughed out loud at the story, as it confirms the irony and the ruthless criticism he poured on journalistic bad practice, and the eventual distortion of reality by some media for its own ends.