Jay G M: (sometimes) a bad joke and (anothers) my home

Studying in JGM has being a story of love and dislike, I mean at the very beginning, the first time I arrived at the campus I was shocked. I saw trash and soil everywhere, for me the green areas men truly GREEN, not a part of grass and the other 80% just soil… But the girl who introduces me to the campus told me: At the end you’ll love this, I know I doesn’t look good now, but just give him time.

This was the first image I had of the campus

And I gave it. During my first year, the time with my classmates in the “pastos” and the Fridays show me that it wasn’t too bad, that in Santiago what we have in JGM is a precious space.

But now, the little we have is being destroyed by the Bicentenario project that takes our green areas. I know we need more classrooms, it’s a first order necessity, but we are facing deeply problems like the registry and tuition increase every year.

Another thing that worries me is the relation between the campus authorities and the food traders. In JGM we don’t have enough food shops so the “carrito” sellers are a good option when we are short of money or hurry.

We have a coordinating (Coordinadora JGM) that makes easier the communication between the people that study or works in JGM, but sometimes is not enough.

We as students should take responsibility of the problems that affect us as a community, and think more as a community that must be together to face the bigger problems. We can’t allow that thing like the JG workers reported happens again. 

Pd: I'm almost geting use to the "lacrimogena" smell.

Livig for it: Critical Theory

The curse is Critical Theory, and it’s the continuation of Functionalism. In both curses we talk about the theories of communication, in the first one was more focus on the movement of functionalism, and finish with the introduction to the Frankfurt movement and their writers and authors.

Now we are in Critical theory that goes deep in the Marxist theory, starting with Marx, going to Gramsci and finishing with Walter B. and others. I love that kind of theoretical curses and specific this one that makes us critique the society where we live and the way we communicate. The curse include some on sociology, area that I didn’t knew I love it, I discover in the progress.

At the beginning I chose the teacher Pierina Ferreti just because she is a woman, and because I didn’t want to have classes with a man that in the most of the cases he can’t deconstruct himself and give me a feminist education. But now I confirm my decision, she is a great teacher,  feminist, and so smart…

She is THE BEST.

I don’t want to change anything about the curse, but if you ask me, I really want to have a third part to get deeply in the discussion and to have more skills at the end of the career to communicate in the best way possible. But for now it’s OK.

Luis Orlando Lagos

He was a Chilean photographer that took some of the most important photos in the history of Chile.

His close friends call him “Chico Lagos”, he was born in 1913 and died in 2007 at 94 years old. He was the official photographer of Salvador Allende all along his political career. Some attribute him the photos of the defense organization during the coup d'état in 1973.

One of those photos were published at The New York Times and also won the World Press Photo in 1974, at that moment no one knew that Lagos was the author, and the photo was published without the author’s name, but before his death the newspaper “La Naciòn” wrote about that story and how Chico Lagos didn't want to give his name for security reasons.

There is a controversy around the authorship, because some other people attribute the work to Leopoldo Vargas another oficial photographer in the government.

But beyond the controversy and the price, Lagos was an important photographer and died without honors in a residential for old people, afflicted by alzaimer.

He is a great example how photography (and photojournalism as well) can capture a piece of history.

Stay stong, stay feminist

Feminism ruined my life, it changed all about me.

Where should I start? Maybe from my reality in the south. We usually associate rural areas to high rates of gender violence, and women murder. Well, I really don’t know if that is a general reality in that part of Chile, but I can truly say that is a reality all over the world and Chile is not the exception.

The culture in the rural areas encourage violence in all ways and expressions, especially against the most vulnerable parts of society, for example women.

I was part of that.

I really learned about Feminism when I arrived at the university, every word made sense to me. But the freedom comes with the responsibility to help other women and try to change a reality that affects everyone.

As I said at the beginning, Feminism ruined my life, but that was the only way to deconstruct, and rethink the way I was living my life, and also reform myself, to live (as much as I can) according to the feminist principles.

Strong women make this world a better one

This foto is history because it shows to Margot Duhalde using her uniform of war pilot in a moment of history that women were not allow to make “men’s job”.

She is the first war pilot of Chile and a pioneer of aviation in latin America.

Margot was born in Río Bueno (YAAAASSSS) and she lie about her age to make aviation lessons, and to get in the “Club Aéreo de Chile”, and she lie again to her family to travel to France for form part of the Free French Forces and from there she move to London to form part of the Royal Air force where she fight in the Second World War!!!!

Margot still alive and is a role model for young people and even for girls who doesen’t belive in her selves. She participates in many activities like the “Feria Internacional del Aire y del Espacio” (FIDAE) as an important guest.

There are some books about her life and her story. For me, Margot is an amazing rol model, she broke up the rules about what was the places assigned to woman and men in a hard time for the world histoy like it was the Second World War. I really admire her.

Drag for your life

My favorite series is RuPaul Drag race, it is a reality show that shows the competition between drag queens to become the next American’s drag super star.

At the moment it has nine seasons, and four more are confirmed. Every season has at least twelve episodes and in each one the queens work in competitions that prove their charisma, uniqueness nerve and talent, and at the end of the episode one of them have to lip-sync for their lives, and the loser has to sashay away.

The host is RuPaul (Luv u mama Ru), the most important drag queen in the industry, she is a model, singer, dancer, producer… omg everything, and created the show to help other queens, and introduce them in the industry.

It has a Chilean version, The Switch that copies a part of the original franchise, but (in my opinion) it’s not even close to the original and will have a second season with queens of the US version like Gia Gun.

My favorite Queen of season nine is Valentina, a Latina, very dramatic, elegant, funny and smart that is controversial because she has only been  a drag queen for ten months,  that is nothing compared to queens that have been working for years.

Some others series that I love are Stanger things, Orange is the new black and Adventure time.

A little friend in my poket

I can’t even imagine a world without a smartphone.  A time ago we were using just telephones, then cellphones and now we have a little machine that makes an important part of our daily routine.

Me first cellphone was little, simple, use polyphonic ringtones, and has a keyboard! In that time (2004? I don't remeber) me just dream about a touch screen or having a camera in the cellphone. I remember my classmates using “infrarrojo” for share some emo images or some short videos or the last porta’s song.

But technology goes faster than everything and now, just a few years later we have smartphones that can be cellphones, cameras, organizers, music players, games centers, alarms clock, and many other things! The list is longer.

At the beginning of this year someone stole my new smartphone (My father gave it to me less than one week ago!) And I feel a very deep sadness because it was a gift and also because it was an expensive one. Now I understand that those are material things and the most important things we have are not things. 

I hope that having these kind of tools doesn’t mean that we are able to forget the most important things. I’m trying to don’t depend on them and enjoy my life.  

Journalism for a beter world (?)

I didn’t expect to be a journalist, or even to study in Santiago.

Living in a little town in the south, I suppose that I wanted to enter to the Universidad Austral in Valdivia and look for a career that the universities near Rio Bueno were offering.

As a little girl I loved the careers related with health and helping others like nursing, teaching, veterinarian, and so on, but with the time I also liked the idea of working close to writing and reading, like lawyer or professional writer…

In the second grade at the school I loved robotic things and I was in the robotic team, we created machines, and played with motors, it was a good time, but I never thought about studying a career that could implicate numbers.

In third and fourth grade I participated in the debates tournament with my team, I lived for it!! During that time I thought translation or even teaching english could be a good idea.

At the end of many doubts, I read about journalism, talking with some people that were actually studying that at Universidad de Chile and I felt that through journalism we could help others and also be closer to writing. To know more about it I read the journalism program at Universidad the Chile, and made a contrast with Universidad Católica, and decided to enter here.

I think it was a good choice.

 My first walk for JGM. At the "aularios"

At the first day of "inducción"

Cata's story

Catalina Paz Solís Carrillo, born in Rio Bueno, on October 16th 1997. Is the second son of Elias Solís and Carla Carrillo, both native of Río Bueno, the other two siblings are Nicolas and Robinson. She studied in a catholic school, the Holy Cross school of Río Bueno from pre school to the secondary education.

All along secondary she thought about her vocation, she wanted to study other careers like nutrition, law, theater and also become a nun, yes, a “monja”.  But at the end of the school she came to Santiago to study journalism, because of her dream of becoming a writer.

She found a good option to get away from the loneliness in her job, at the radio and in the magazine, the “Bello Público”, in those places she also found friends and love.

Nowdays she lives in Ñuñoa, near to Juan Gómez Millas and can go to the university in her bike, or walking and even by bus. Catalina misses her home, but she knows that studying is a good way to have a nice life, help her family and reach her goals. 

My perfect party

I love party, so it’s funny to think how can be my ideal party. First of all, I don’t really like beer, but I love cocktails, my favorite one it’s a kind of blend so we’ll have a lot of that! The food it’s so important, and just to make sure all the guest will join the party we’ll have pizza, sushi, tacos, "empanadas" (cheese and meat), “anticuchos” and vegetables brochettes. The dance music will be loud and clear in all the house! I’ll be funny :D

The last time I did something new :0

The last time I did something new… I was scared, I men it cost an arm and a leg! I buy a camera, a reflex, what means it’s a professional one. I didn’t knew anything about photography, except the cell phone camera, that is more than less but not enough for handle a professional camera. I must buy one because of the photojournalism class. I used to practice in the building's garden and it's funny and a relaxing thing to do. Now I can take photos, not excellent ones but I’m learning about it, the internet helps a lot but and I have an entire semester to become a kind of photojournalist :) 

New is always unknow

How can I start? Well, first of all I'm excited to start this class, I really like english, and improve my skills. At the school I was in the debates team, it was so funny and I met great people and also made good friends. I hope this class can help me to remember all the skills and be able again to speak a fluid english. On the other hand meet my classmates, know them, and maybe make some friends!