In this editorial office there are no bosses or employees. They all act as reporters, editors, translators and designers. They do not charge for their work. On the pages of the publication there are almost no advertisers, and there is definitely no directory. The magazine comes out every month with the volunteer work of these young people in their twenties and thirties. It is a group of no more than 15 people, plus those who arrive, collaborate for a while and then leave. The editorial office is in a building that was squatted in the eighties and which today houses some NGOs, a theater, a bookstore, a bar, a shelter for homeless people, and whose walls overflow with colorful, loving, rebellious street art. It would seem that this magazine, Lateinamerika Nachrichten (Latin American News), is the product of the improvised work of a restless and dreaming youth. If it weren't for the fact that, in reality, this magazine has been published in the same way for 50 years, uninterruptedly, generation after generation, and is an institution in Germany for specialized reports on Latin America.
Today there are Fred, Martin, Lya, Anna, Cassandra. Before, there were other men and women who carried out the work. There are no photos of them. Their faces are hardly remembered. Their names do not appear on bronze plaques. There was a time when texts did not even have an author's signature, from the perspective that who writes does not matter as much as what they report, the news itself. Although, it is also true, these were times of persecution of ideas in Latin America and Germany, before the fall of the Wall, in 1989. Latin America This year it has celebrated half a century of existence.
It is no coincidence that it has also been 50 years since the coup d'état in Chile. The magazine, more of a black and white magazine the size of a comic strip, was born in June 1973 with the name Chile Nachricthten (Chile News). The founders observed that the laboratory of neoliberal policies of the Chicago School had been established in the South American country. They saw the signs of a threat to democracy and, like bloodhounds, or rather like journalists, who sniff out the news, they anticipated the coup d'état against the democratic Government of Salvador Allende. They documented it, and continued reporting life in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet for some years, until they realized that the political circumstance of Chile was part of a whole, in which the common denominator was the interventionism of the United States and the consequent establishment of military dictatorships, the perfect combination of authoritarian government and ultraliberal economic policy. The military coup in Argentina in 1976 reinforced the conviction that there had to be a change of outlook, and also of name. They would have to be Latin American News starting in 1977.
In one of its recent editions, the magazine recovered a text written by one of the founders, Urs Müller-Plantenberg. The author remembered nostalgically how everything had emerged more like a solidarity committee for Chile. Not many years ago, the upheaval had occurred, the shaker of May 1968, and the left-wing German youth wanted, by any means, to help the Chileans: publish articles, give conferences, send them bicycles? They opted for the first. Gathered in a bucolic house in Hesse, West Germany, the founders did not have in mind publishing a full-fledged magazine, but rather an informative brochure of a few pages, almost for internal consumption.
In June 1973 the first issue came out, of which only 50 copies were printed. At first it was a biweekly publication. “Anyone who reads today the texts of the first five issues of Chile News You will find that they clearly demonstrate the inevitability of a right-wing coup in Chile. That was not intentional, on the contrary. In discussing and writing, everyone was more or less optimistic that the situation could still be changed. It seemed too scandalous that the world dared to tolerate a coup against an elected government,” Müller-Plantenberg recalled.
Revolution in an editorial office
Pinochet's coup convulsed the world and disrupted the dynamics of the disorderly writing of News. The small pamphlet began to have a strong demand from readers. In November they were already printing 6,000 copies, each with 60 pages. Economic pressures were increasing. The same as the political pressures of various communist organizations that wanted the magazine to become their organ for disseminating propaganda. The young editors of News They resisted and defended their independence. The same year it became a monthly publication. Since then, and until now, it has been supported by subscriptions (today it has 1,300 clients), and also, although to a lesser extent, by the sale of the printed edition and donations. Half a century swimming against the current. Müller-Plantenberg, therefore, chose this title for his commemorative column: “A small miracle every month.”
“Today young people work in the editorial office who were not yet born when the name Chile Nachrichten “It was already buried,” wrote the founder, who is now 86 years old. The current editorial office, in the building squatted last century, it shares space with the Chile-Latin America Research and Documentation Center, which has a vast archive gathered over five decades. In the office there are some desktop computers, a meeting table, a kitchen. There are also shelves with old issues of the agency Latin Press (Cuba), Ecumenical Presence (Venezuela) and Process (Mexico), and other significant materials, such as guerrilla communications, posters and cassettes. Books abound on Latin American socialism, independence struggles, and American colonialism.
Many of the archive materials are in Spanish. Most of the collaborators also speak Spanish, some more fluently, others struggle. The majority also have university studies on Latin America. The magazine does not pay the editors or the photographers, says Martin Schaefer, one of the oldest collaborators, with a hint of regret, because, he explains, it is not very socialist not to pay for the work done (but, it is a consolation , equally no one charges). News publishes texts written by Germans living in Latin American countries or by local authors that are later translated into German. In 50 years, the editors have interviewed presidents Lula Da Silva, Pepe Mujica, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, Gustavo Pedro and Gabriel Boric, and also revolutionary figures of culture and entertainment such as Manu Chao, Buenavista Social Club, Rubén Blades, Residente and Willie Colón. Eduardo Galeano himself once published a text in these pages (he did not charge either).
The new wording of News It is in keeping with the spirit of the time. Since there is no left, that is, neither unique nor immutable, all nuances must be addressed. For example, coverage of Daniel Ortega's government in Nicaragua has been treated critically over time. It began as good news, the illusion of the proletarian revolution, but it has been transformed and has now become a plea against the regime's abuses towards dissidents.
“Our motto is: 'Critical, supportive, independent.' We understand ourselves as a space of a non-dogmatic left and we are inclined to criticize all governments if there is something to criticize them, regardless of whether they are called right or left,” says Schaefer. “The magazine has a history, and in the past its political stance was much more marked. I believe that today it has a left-wing, environmentalist, feminist, indigenous, anti-racist position,” Fred Schnatterer agrees. “We feel close to grassroots social movements. I don't know if we would call ourselves journalism activists. We are following the professional standards of journalism, but the focus of the issues is on social movements,” Schaefer replies.
On the walls there is a collage of the covers published in half a century of existence. There are faces of influential figures, for better or worse, such as Hugo Chávez and Carlos Salinas de Gortari, but above all there are photographs of ordinary people, the Zapatistas, the Mapuches, the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, workers, students, victims of human rights violations protesting in the streets. In addition to reports and analysis, the magazine publishes art criticism and poetry. The last section of each issue tries to give the reader one piece of good news, just one, of which there is. The magazine itself is, it is the good news. Remember the founder's article, remember the miracle every month.
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