Covering Trauma in Latin America

Presenters

Marta Murillo Chinchilla, psychologist, co-founder, Resiliencia Center for Investigation and Emotional Support for Journalists, Colombia
Marta Murillo Chinchilla is a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. She holds an M.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in special education. She opened her private practice in Bogotá in 1989 and is the co-founder of Resiliencia Center for Investigation and Emotional Support for Journalists, which she directed during its first four years. During that period she held workshops for journalists covering combat zones in Colombia that explored journalism and PTSD. She also conducted research on the emotional well-being of regional journalists in Colombia. Chinchilla currently treats journalists who are exposed to trauma as a result of their work. As a psychological adviser for the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), she collaborates with other NGO’s that work with journalists in Colombia. With FLIP, she developed the Manual of Emotional Support for Journalists.

Donna DeCesare, photojournalist, associate professor, University of Texas School of Journalism, Austin, Texas
Donna DeCesare is an associate professor at the University of Texas School of Journalism, a faculty affiliate of the UT Latin American Studies program and an advisory board member of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. A documentary photographer known for her work on youth identity and gang violence, she coordinates the Dart Center's activities in Latin America and curates visual journalism for Dart Media. Many news and arts publications have featured her award-winning photographs, including the New York Times Magazine, Life, Mother Jones DoubleTake and Aperture. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award, the Dorothea Lange Prize, the Alicia Patterson Fellowship, the Mother Jones International Photo Fund Award, the Soros Independent Project fellowship and, most recently, a Fulbright Fellowship in Colombia. DeCesare is currently documenting narratives of loss and survival among those who have suffered paramilitary violence in Colombia. Images and text from this project published on the website Crimes of War won a top award in the National Press Photographer’s Best of Photojournalism contest. Since the New York opening of her 2006 exhibition "Sharing Secrets," it has traveled to Washington DC, Korea, Poland and China.

Anthony Feinstein, M.D., professor of psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Dr. Anthony Feinstein is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He received his M.D. in South Africa and his training in psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital in London, England, specializing in neuropsychiatry at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square in London. He also holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, England. His neuropsychiatry research focuses on the search for cerebral correlates of behavioral disorders associated with multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury. His work in the field of conversion disorder has involved developing functional MRI paradigms that complement psychoanalytic interpretations. Feinstein is involved in a series of studies addressing how journalists who cover war are affected emotionally by their work and what motivates them to pursue such dangerous occupations. In 2000-2001 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study mental health issues in post-apartheid Namibia. He is the author of Dangerous Lives: War and the Men and Women Who Report It (Thomas Allen, Toronto 2003), The Clinical Neuropsychiatry of Multiple Sclerosis (Cambridge University Press, 1999, second edition 2007), In Conflict (New Namibia Books, 1998), and Michael Rabin, America’s Virtuoso Violinist (Amadeus Press, 2005).  His most recent book is Journalists Under Fire: The Psychological Hazards of Covering War (John Hopkins University Press). He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has authored many book chapters.

Daniel Mosca, M.D., president, Argentine Society for Psychotrauma, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Daniel Mosca is the director of the psychiatric emergency team and director of the Trauma and Anxiety Center at the faculty of medicine, both at the National University of Buenos Aires. In addition, he holds the titles of director of INAPSI (National Institute of Psychopathology) and president of the Argentine Society for Psychotrauma. Mosca was previously the director of the Annual Course of Clinical Psychopharmacology and Psychiatric Emergencies at the Torcuato de Alvear Psychiatric Emergency Hospital as well as director of the Psychotrauma Journal for Iberoamerica. Mosca is currently a member of the Section on Mental Health in Disasters of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), where he previously served as general secretary. Additionally, he is an ex-officio member of the board of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He has presided over the International Congress on Traumatic Stress and Anxiety Disorders and the IV World Congress on Traumatic Stress. He has also been a professor at the University of Salvador and an instructor in the area of psychiatric emergencies for the emergency medical system of the City of Buenos Aires.

Elana Newman, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Dr. Elana Newman is the McFarlin Chair of Psychology and director of graduate clinical training at the University of Tulsa. Her research on journalism and trauma has focused on occupational health of journalists, and she has several studies underway examining the effects of journalistic practice upon consumers. She co-directed the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma’s first satellite office in NYC after 9-11 and now serves as research director of the Dart Center. Newman also conducts research regarding the psychological and physical response to traumatic life events, assessment of PTSD in children and adults, substance abuse and understanding the impact of participating in trauma-related research from the trauma survivor's perspective.  She is a past president of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, the premiere trauma organization dedicated to trauma treatment, education, research, public policy concerns and theoretical formulation.  

Jack Saul, Ph.D., associate professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
Dr. Jack Saul is a psychologist and family therapist.  He has worked since the early 1980's in clinical and community settings creating programs that address the psychosocial needs of children and families suffering from domestic, urban and political violence. He currently directs the International Trauma Studies Program in New York and is assistant professor of clinical population and family health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Saul co-founded the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in 1995 and was its clinical director until 1998.  In 1999, he established Refuge, a resource center in New York for survivors of political violence and forced migration and a member of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs. Refuge implemented the FEMA funded Downtown Community Resource Center, a demonstration project in community resilience for residents and workers in lower Manhattan after 9/11. Refuge recently developed African Refuge, a community drop-in center for African refugees and immigrants in Staten Island, where Saul is currently researching family and community engaged services. He has worked internationally with reporters and photographers on the coverage of survivors of severe human rights violations, collaborated with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and currently consults with humanitarian, legal and media organizations on the development and implementation of staff welfare programs. He is the recipient of the 2008 American Family Therapy Academy Award for Distinguished Contribution to Social Justice. 

Participants

Cristian Alarcón, Argentina
Cristian Alarcón is the author of When I Die I Want to Play Cumbia, a book that chronicles the lives of children growing up in Buenos Aires. He has written extensively about violence and conflict for magazines and newspapers including TXT, Leopard, Rolling Stone and Crítica de la Argentina and was awarded a prize for journalistic integrity from the North American Congress of Latin America (NACLA). Alarcón serves as a professor of journalism at the University of San Andres and the School of Journalism and Social Communication of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and as a visiting professor at the Universitat de Barcelona/Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  He was a Noble Foundation Scholarship winner at Clarin and the recipient of an award for best newspaper reporter in 2001. Alarcón holds a degree in communications from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina.

Mariana Alvarado, United States
Mariana Alvarado is an award-winning journalist based in Tucson, Arizona. She has over 12 years experience as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers, wires and online media outlets. Alvarado is currently a metro reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, covering issues affecting Hispanics, including immigration and border issues. Before joining the Arizona Star, she worked at Grupo Reforma, a newspaper company in Mexico, and as a correspondent and freelancer for several international publications. Alvarado received her master's degree in journalism from Florida International University.

Daniela Arbex, Brazil
Daniela Arbex is a special reporter for the newspaper Tribuna de Minas in Minas Gerais, where she has worked for 14 years covering corruption, violence and human rights issues involving children and teenagers. She is a member of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism and the Brazilian and Latin American News Agency for Children’s Rights. She has won numerous awards for her work, including a prize for her coverage of corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean, a special award from the United Nations and the Esso Journalism Prize. Arbex holds a degree in social communications from Juiz de Fora Federal University and has completed journalism training at the Ayrton Senna Institute and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism.

Marco Antonio Cruz, Mexico
Marco Antonio Cruz is photo editor of Proceso, a magazine in Mexico. Prior to assuming that position, Cruz was the editor of the ProcesoFoto agency and the founding photographer and former director of the news agency Photo Imagenlatina, as well as the founding photographer of Diario La Jornada. Cruz is the author of two books, Coffee Grower: Indigenous Workers in Chiapas, Mexico and Against the Wall: Violence in Mexico City. He is also the editor of several books, including Mirrors in Silver and Press Photography in Mexico.  Cruz has judged several Mexican photography competitions, including the VIII Biennial of Photography and has won many awards for his work, including the 2009 Grange Prize. He was a finalist for the CEMEX-FNPI New Journalism Award and won the 1998 Fernando Benitez National Cultural Journalism Prize.

Carlos Dada, El Salvador
Carlos Dada is the founder and director of the news website El Faro, which has become a reference for independent and high quality journalism in Central America since 1998 and is known for its investigations of corruption and violence. Dada has reported from various conflict zones including Iraq, Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala and, most recently, Honduras. His work has been published in Latin America, the United States, Bosnia and Spain.

César De Luca, Argentina
César de Luca has been a photo editor for the Spanish news agency EFE since 2003, covering Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. His work has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines, including Clarin, La Nacion, El País Semanal and Newsweek. He is currently working on a photo essay about drug users in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. De Luca studied industrial design at the University of Buenos Aires and has taken courses in photography at the International Center of Photography and in photojournalism at the New School, both in New York.

Anthony DePalma, United States
Anthony DePalma is the writer-in-residence at Seton Hall University. He was the first foreign correspondent of the New York Times to serve as bureau chief in both Mexico and Canada. Starting in 1993, he has covered some of the most tumultuous events in modern Mexican history, including the Zapatista uprising, the assassination of the ruling party's presidential candidate and the peso crisis that quickly spread economic chaos to markets all over the world. DePalma has also reported from Cuba, Guatemala, Suriname, Guyana and, during the Kosovo crisis, Montenegro and Albania. From 2000 to 2002, Mr. DePalma was an international business correspondent covering North and South America and he wrote over 85 of the Portraits of Grief after September 11th that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2002. After returning to the Times, he became part of the team of correspondents and editors that produced the Class Matters series and book (Times Books, 2005). His book Here: A Biography of the New American Continent was published in the United States and Canada in 2001.

Lorena Frankenberg, Mexico
Lorena Frankenberg is a Research Fellow at the Center for Communication and Information Research at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey Tec) in Monterrey, Mexico and Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies at the Universidad de Monterrey.   Her research focuses on cultural media studies as well as political and mass communication.  Frankenberg has published and lectured widely on the impact of the media on citizenship and on political behavior.  Her articles have appeared in academic journals in the U.S., Spain, Chile, Brazil and Mexico and she has delivered papers at conferences across Europe.  Frankenberg also writes regularly for the Mexican popular media.  Her columns on citizenship and the media have appeared in El Norte, Reporte Indigo and elsewhere.  She produces and anchors a weekly radio program “Quinto Poder” which analyses how the media affects the exercise of citizenship in Monterrey.  Frankenberg recently become an adviser to Grupo Plenus, a Mexican-based corporation working in the education sector. Frankenberg’s work with Plenus centers on improving the quality of professional education, particularly in journalism.  She received a B.S. in Mass Communication and Journalism from Universidad de Monterrey, an MBA from Tecnológico de Monterrey, an M.A. in Philosophy from Universidad de Monterrey and a Ph.D. in Communication and Cultural Studies from Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Karla Gomez-Escamilla, United States
Karla Gomez-Escamilla has been a news reporter in the border region of Southern Arizona for over 11 years and at Univision Arizona in Tucson for the last three years. She covers issues such as undocumented immigrants crossing the desert and the war between drug and human smugglers. In 2008, Gomez-Escamilla was a fellow with USC Annenberg’s Justice and Journalism Fellowship in Ethnic Media where she focused on the complexities of reporting on immigration. Gomez-Escamilla produced an eight-part series about tragedies taking place in the Arizona desert. For this project, she traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to meet the family of an immigrant woman who died while trying to cross the border into the United States.  She also appeared on the radio program “Feet in Two Worlds” with John Rudolph to discuss the situation at the border. Gomez-Escamilla has earned four Emmy nominations for her reporting, and her coverage of border and immigration issues has been featured in national Univision newscasts. Gomez-Escamilla holds a B.A. in media arts from the University of Arizona.

Mónica González, Chile
Mónica González is the head of the CIPER Investigative Journalism Center in Santiago, Chile. Previously, she was the editor of the magazine Siete +7, which later became the newspaper Diario Siete. She has also been the editor of the newspaper La Nacion and the magazine Cosas and a correspondent for the Argentine newspaper Clarin. As a student of journalism at the University of Chile, González began working for the newspaper El Siglo, where she covered the coup. She went into exile to France for four years and returned to Chile in 1978, while the country was still under dictatorship. As a result of her work as a journalist for the magazines Cauce and Analisis during that time, she was jailed twice. Among her awards, González has received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize and the Fundacion Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) award. In 2009, together with Francisca Skoknic and Cristobal Peña, she received first prize for excellence in journalism by the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Chile. González teaches investigative journalism workshops for FNPI throughout Latin America.  She is the author of three books, including Secrets of the Joint Chiefs, Bomb in a Street of Palermo and The Plot: The Thousand and One Days of the Coup.

Chris Hawley, United States
Chris Hawley became the Mexico City reporter for the Arizona Republic in 2004. In 2007, USA Today began a joint bureau arrangement with the Republic, and Hawley became Latin America correspondent for both of these Gannett newspapers. Hawley was born in New Mexico and raised in Pennsylvania and Michigan. At age 16 he got his first experience as a foreign correspondent, writing columns for the Harbor Beach (Mich.) Times while living in Japan as an exchange student. Before working for the Republic, Hawley covered courts, City Hall and the legislature for the San Juan Star in Puerto Rico. Hawley then worked as an editor on the Associated Press Caribbean Desk and its International Desk in New York. Hawley spent a year of college in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, where he wrote articles for the town's newspaper in exchange for use of its darkroom. He graduated from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Zuliana Lainez Otero, Peru
Zuliana Lainez Otero is a journalist and editor of Crónica Viva, where she has worked since 1998. She is also secretary general of the National Association of Journalists of Peru, which is part of the International News Safety Institute (INSI). Lainez is a member of the International Federation of Journalists and the National Association of Journalists, among others. She has participated in various journalism training programs, including those sponsored by the International Federation of Journalists, the Uruguayan Press Association and the International Center for Journalists in Washington, DC. At these programs, Lainez has spoken about issues of human rights, the electoral process, the Internet and press freedom, gender and citizenship and media and social development in Peru. Lainez received her bachelor's in journalism from the Jaime Bausate School of Journalism.

Lissette Lemus, El Salvador
Lissette Lemus is a currently a photojournalist with El Diario de Hoy, covering a wide range of issues affecting El Salvador. Prior to joining El Diario, she was a photojournalist with Diario CoLatino. She has received many awards for her work, including the Ibero-American Prize for black and white photography, a special award from Save the Children Sweden, and the World Press Photo Prize. Lemus has participated in programs at the Maine Photography Workshops, the International Photojournalism Workshop and the University of Oviedo, Spain. She holds a degree in public relations and communications from Tecnológica University of El Salvador.

Mariana Martinez Estens, Mexico 
Mariana Martinez Estens is a contributor to the Associated Press and Radio Bilingue, as well as a professor for the Border Issues Seminar at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Tijuana, where she is currently redesigning the curriculum for a month-long immersion program for undergraduates. She recently attended the Rory Peck/Article 19 News Coverage in Conflict Zones Training Program and the Trauma Journalism Conference at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. Martinez Estens has been honored with the Henry Taylor Award and a Cabot International Journalism Scholarship, among other awards. She is the author of three books of poetry. Martinez Estens is an honors graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and has a B.A. in communications from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Tijuana and a degree in English/Spanish translation and interpretation from the University of California, San Diego.

Marcelo Moreira, Brazil
Marcelo Moreira is the editor-in-chief of RJTV, the local nightly news broadcast of TV Globo in Rio de Janeiro. TV Globo became a member of the International News Safety Institute (INSI) after reporter Tim Lopes was killed by drug traffickers while doing an investigative story inside a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Prior to joining TV Globo, Moreira was a reporter for O Dia and Journal do Brasil and is the author of several award-winning investigative stories including The Most Expensive Subway on Earth, which explores the cost of construction of Rio de Janeiro’s subway system. Moreira was a finalist for the prestigious Brazilian Esso Prize. In 2006, he was elected to the board of INSI and in the last two years has worked with the organization to bring safety training to journalists in Brazil.  In this capacity, Moreira has participated in seminars and meetings about safety in the media in Bonn, Berlin, Istanbul, London, Amsterdam and Brussels. Moreira has a degree in Journalism.

Ginna Morelo Martínez, Colombia
Ginna Morelo Martínez is a journalist at El Merediano de Córdoba. She is the winner of the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award, the Semana-Petrobras Journalism Award and a three-time winner of the Amway Environmental Journalism Award. She has also been a finalist for the Ipys-Transparency International Award for the best investigative story of a corruption case in Latin America. Morelo Martínez was a fellow of the Fundacion Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) and member of Consejo de Redacción, an organization that promotes investigative journalism in Colombia. She is the author of Tierra de Sangre (Land of Blood, the Victims' Memories), a compendium of 15 chronicles about victims of paramilitaries. She is currently working toward a master's degree in communications.

Merval Pereira, Brazil
Merval Pereira is a longtime political journalist for O Globo, the main newspaper of the state of Rio de Janeiro and one of the most important Brazilian dailies. He also is a political analyst for GloboNews cable television and the CBN radio news network.   He began his O Globo career as a reporter in 1968, working since then as a national editor, managing editor, executive-editor and director of journalism for press and radio of the Globo Organization, Brazil’s largest media company. In 1979, Pereira received the Esso Prize for Journalism for a series of reports on the last presidential succession of the military regime. The influential series is a prime reference for that crucial period of Brazilian history. In addition to other writing honors, Pereira spent a year studying at Stanford University as a John S. Knight Foundation fellow, where he specialized in international politics. He transferred to the New York Globo office in the summer of 2008 to cover the U.S. presidential election.  He is currently a visiting scholar at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.

Maria Teresa Ronderos, Colombia
A veteran of broadcast and print journalism in Colombia, Maria Teresa Ronderos is currently the editor of Semana.com and VerdadAbierta.com.  She was previously the political editor of Colombia’s principal newspaper, El Tiempo, editor-in-chief of the biweekly business magazine La Nota Económica and general editor of the country’s leading news magazine, Semana. As a teacher at the Fundacion Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), she has taught journalism workshops on political and social journalism throughout Latin America since 1998.  Ronderos is the author of the book Portraits of Power, a series of profiles of guerrilla, paramilitary and political figures. As a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, based in Washington, she has participated in two global investigative stories on how major tobacco multinational corporations were implicated in cigarette smuggling and tax evasion, as well as one on the privatization of water utility companies, later published in the book The Water Barons. Ronderos has won numerous awards, including the Maria Moors Cabot Prize and the King of Spain Iberoamerican Award. She was a finalist, together with Carlos Huertas, in the 2003 and 2004 Ipys-Transparency International Award for the best investigative story of a corruption case in Latin America.

Sandra Sebastian, Guatemala
Sandra Sebastian has been passionate about photography all her life. She began taking pictures as a 12 year-old working with her photographer father and continued doing so throughout her journalism studies at the Universidad Panamericano in Guatemala City.  Sebastian worked for the Guatemalan newspaper Siglo Veintiuno for five years and then with the newspaper El Periódico de Guatemala, where she began to collaborate with the Associated Press (AP). Since 2006, she has worked as stringer for AP, AFP and Reuters, and as a freelance photographer for Polaris Images as well as other national and international media outlets and humanitarian organizations.  In 2006, Sebastian received the National Geographic All Roads Photography Award, as well as several prizes in the Images that Speak competition at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. Sebastian is currently studying visual anthropology and ethnography and, with the support of the Ford Foundation, working towards a master's degree at the University of Barcelona. She also continues to work on her project about violence in Guatemala, which she began in 2002.

José Rubén Zamora, Guatemala
José Rubén Zamora is president and founder of elPeriódico in Guatemala and founder of Siglo Veintiuno and Nuestro Diario, two other important newspapers in that country. Throughout his career in journalism, Zamora has faced censorship attempts, death threats, defamation and political persecution. During the regime of Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), Zamora was politically persecuted for his investigative work in elPeriódico. Physically attacked, intimidated and threatened by members of a clandestine state apparatus, Zamora and his family (who witnessed the attack) were ultimately forced into exile until the arrival of a new government in Guatemala. Zamora’s work on behalf of press freedom has been recognized nationally and internationally. He has been awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Knight Award. In 2000, the International Press Institute named Zamora one of 50 Heroes of Press Freedom of the 20th Century. Zamora holds degrees in industrial engineering from the University San Carlos de Guatemala and a master's in business administration (with honors) from Incae. In 2008, he graduated from the political science and sociology doctoral program at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, where he will soon present his thesis.