Times of Violence and Revolution
Written by Carissa Georgelos | December 2020
Throughout the semester, we have learned the importance of foreign correspondents in journalism. In fact, it is important for readers to be aware of international news as it shapes many political relations between countries. Unfortunately, there is very low interest in Latin American news, Professor Alves explained during lecture. As James Reston said, “Americans will do anything for Latin America but read about it.” So how can foreign correspondents captivate American readers and encourage them to read and understand the social, political and humanitarian issues in Latin America? It's not just news platforms, clickbait headlines, or striking ledes that will encourage Americans to read about Latin America. It's the raw stories of individuals who are tainted with violence and injustice and yet hold onto hope that will grasp the world's attention.
Alma Guillermoprieto is an example of a journalist who has told the world stories of violence and revolution in Latin America during the 70s and 80s. Guillermoprieto’s beginnings were far from the journalism world. However, her experiences in Cuba set the course for her to become an award-winning journalist and later pursue the truth of a mysterious massacre with remarkable courage. Guillermoprieto’s fighting spirit and thoughtful mind are evident throughout her work and are an inspiration to many foreign correspondents.
Guillermoprieto was born and raised in Mexico in 1948 and later moved to New York in 1965 to pursue a career in dance (Guillermoprieto.28). In 1970, she reluctantly accepted a teaching job at the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte dance school in Cuba, where she was thrust into a shocking revolutionary world (Guillermoprieto.33-37). She quickly learned that in Cuba the arts were not held in high regard and her students would have to learn the techniques of dance without proper diets or mirrors (Guillermoprieto.50). While many of her coworkers and friends were passionate about Cuba’s revolutionary agenda, she struggled to accept it. “Why were all of them so perfectly in harmony with the Revolution, and why was I so sure I was only pretending every time I tried to pretend to feel the same way? What would I have to do to become as interested in politics as they were?,” (Guillermoprieto.71). As a result, Guillermoprieto quickly became obsessed with reading Cuban pamphlets and the Granma newspaper to better understand the politics and issues of her new reality (Guillermoprieto.115,120).
Since the 1960s, the United States has enforced a strict economic embargo on Cuba which was still in place during the presidency of Richard Nixon (Guillermoprieto.30). As a result, Cuba borrowed a large sum of money from the Soviets, leaving a gaping hole of debt in Cuba’s economy (Guillermoprieto.39). The people put their faith in the president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, who led a socialist government and a revolution against imperialism. Many people admired Castro, and Guillermoprietro stated that while in Cuba she, like many others, believed, “there never had existed a more lucid, heroic man. His physical beauty itself was the confirmation of his extraordinary spiritual energy,” (Guillermoprieto.108).
Guillermoprietro also learned about Ernesto Guuevera, more commonly known as Che, from the Cuban pamphlets in which he was often compared to Christ (Guillermoprieto.117). Che was Castro’s friend and strategist before the CIA and Bolivian army assassinated him in
1967 (Guillermoprieto.118). While in Cuba, Guillermoprieto admired Castro and Che and desired to imitate their heroism and passion (Guillermoprieto.119). “I loved knowing that heroes did exist, and that I was now living on a green island led by one of the greatest heroes of all time [Castro]!,” (Guillermoprieto.119).
The Times reports that Castro’s presence during the revolution was unavoidable as if he were omnipresent (Iyer). H e was the topic of almost every conversation and was viewed as a saint of the revolution (Guillermoprieto.120, Iyer). Further, Castro’s rhetoric inspired his people to do their part for the revolution and participate in the “Zafra de los Diez Millones,” or the Ten Million Ton Harvest (Guillermoprieto.39). Castro believed Cuba’s sugarcane production would enable them to pay off their debt to the Soviets, thus every Cuban over the age of eighteen was expected to participate in the zafra. Unfortunately, many miscalculations and machinery issues led to the failure of the zafra. Guillermoprietro explains, “the failure of the harvest was too great a disaster to allow most of us to take in that this was, in fact, the failure of the revolutionary project itself,” (Guillermoprieto.109).
Guillermoprieto further explains that during her time in Cuba she became aware of the “evil” that exists in the world (Guillermoprieto.105). America was at war with Vietnam, but Guillermoprieto knew little of the war’s severity. One evening, while at the movies with her friends, Guillermoprieto saw a newsreel showing the violence against Vietnam. “What I had just discovered in the ICAIC Newsreels...was that Evil wasn't something that existed only in that prehistory before I was born. I had lived alongside Evil – and in willful ignorance of it!,” (Guillermoprieto.105). This was a startling discovery for Guillermoprieto and thrust her into the depths of depression and insomnia (Guillermoprieto.212-218).
Guillermoprieto’s time in Cuba challenged her worldview and forced her to become involved in politics. The people she encountered and the lessons she learned set her course to become a journalist concerned with justice and truth. After Guillermoprieto returned to America, she participated in protests against the Vietnam War and dedicated her work to Latin America’s struggles for liberation (Guillermoprieto.283).
Eight years after her time in Cuba, Guillermoprieto reported on the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua for the Guardian. Four years later, in 1982, she began working for The Washington Post. During this time there had been rumors of a massacre in El Salvador. Guillermoprieto received a tip from another foreign correspondent, Raymond Bonner, that he had gained access to the site of El Mozote (Danner.97). Guillermoprieto traveled with photojournalist Susan Meiseles to the site where many locals believed a massacre had occurred (Danner.98-101).
Guillermoprieto was dropped off in the middle of the night on the Honduran border of El Salvador where she awaited her contact (Danner.98). She then met with a stressed guerilla group, interviewed vital witnesses of the massacre and sifted through the rubble where homes once stood (Danner.98-99). “The most traumatizing thing was looking at these little houses where whole families had been blown away -- these recognizable human beings, in their little dresses, just lying there mummifying in the sun,” Guillermoprieto stated (Danner.101).
The Washington Post published Guillermoprieto’s article paired with Meiseles’ photographs after the Times published Bonner’s story (Danner. 102). Although a retired Salvadoran air force general recently admitted the army’s hand in the massacre of 800 Salvadorans, many doubted the army's involvement in the 80s (Schwarz). Many believed the stories of El Mozote were propaganda efforts from the guerilla groups or that whatever happened in El Mozote could not be pinned on the Salvadoran Army (Danner.128-129).
In fact, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating their doubts and critiques of Bonner and Guillermoprieto’s stories (Danner. 135). They stated, “whatever the mixture of truth or fabrication, this was a propaganda exercise,” that Bonner was too “credulous” and that there was a lack of detailed evidence (Danner. 135). Nevertheless, the three American reporters stood firm in their evidence and investigative discoveries. “If I’d thought I was there to prove that a massacre had happened I would have imaged many more bodies,” Meiselas said (Danner. 99).
Guillermoprieto’s courage to seek truth is evident in her reporting of El Mozote and parallels her stance against cruelty and violence which she became conscious of while living in Cuba. It is evident that Guillermoprieto lived during some of Latin America’s most violent times and was a key witness to its political and economic changes.
Her experiences in Cuba sowed the seeds for her to become an influential journalist and fueled her passion to fight for injustices. Further, her desire to report on El Mozote and stand firm amid controversy shows her courage and desire to fight for the truth. Guillermoprieto is not only unique because of her untraditional entrance into the journalism world, but also because of her exceptional ability to tell complex stories about individuals whose voices have been silenced by violence and injustices. Her personal connection to Latin America gives her a unique perspective that evokes emotion in readers. In fact she has received numerous awards for her remarkable reporting, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 and Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in 2018.
Guillermoprieto has inspired me and perhaps many other young journalists to be thoughtful and always remain curious. Perhaps most importantly Guillermoprieto sparked America’s curiosity to read about Latin America. Her ability to, as she puts it, “explain Latin America from a Latin American point of view to a U.S. audience,” sums up the power of a foreign correspondent and the everlasting legacy of Alma Guillermoprieto.
Works Cited:
“Biography of Alma Guillermoprieto Mexican Journalist and Writer.” Salient Women, 30 Sept.
2020, www.salientwomen.com/2020/09/30/biography-of-alma-guillermoprieto-mexican-journalist-and-writer/.
Danner, Mark. The Massacre at El Mozote. New Yorker, 1993. Guillermopieto, Alma. “Salvadoran Peasants Describe Mass Killing: Women Tells of Children's Death.” The Washington Post, 1982.
Iyer, Pico. “Fidel Castro: Inside Life in Cuba.” Time, Time, 26 Nov. 2016, time.com/4582621/fidel-castro-dies-cuba-legacy/.
Miller, Marjorie. “Alma Guillermoprieto.” IWMF, www.iwmf.org/community/alma-guillermoprieto/.
Schwarz, Jon. “What the El Mozote Massacre Can Teach Us About Trump's War on the Press.” The Intercept, 28 Jan. 2020, theintercept.com/2020/01/28/el-mozote-massacre -reagan-war-on-press/.
This story was written for Professor Rosental Alves’s UT Austin class, Reporting on Latin America, in which I learned about so many heart-breaking stories and beautiful people.