Journalists

Some startled friends have asked me what enthuses me about a project as this magazine so much since, for them, it’s just a piece of paper. And hard as it is to put into words, I think I’ll give it a try.

A magazine gathers many of my deepest dreams. It combines my job, which I am making myself more and more fond of, with some of my dearest hobbies, writing and technology. True, I can do them without any publishing, but there appears my third joy, the newest culture of sharing. Writing on you own, nurturing as it may be, does not give you the excitement of exchanging points of view, the thrill of discussing with others, the new insights. Borges used to pride himself not so much on the texts he had produced as on those he had had the pleasure to read. Similarly, a journalist is able to enjoy as much with the texts he puts out as with those he inspires, or the ones in which he took part with a subtle correction. Signing becomes, in the end, something trifle. Teamwork provokes more thought and fun than writing, and I would not give up on any of them.

Quoting Borges again, «The notion of a “definitive text” belongs to religion or perhaps merely to exhaustion» (1). The idea of perfection is at odds with our daily haste and deadlines. Every month, the magazine comes out with a dampened excitement. Once published, the journalist can breathe and start thinking about their new article. Before that day, there is always reviewing. No one can stop thinking of a better word for his key paragraph, or an epithet. There, technology plays a decisive role. We work with blueprints and drafts, we read them every Tuesday from six to seven. We polish the punctuation, the pictures, the lines.

Whereas learning new applications is something tiring, learning on the go, to improve the quality of an article is one of the most exciting things in publishing. Shadows, lines, dots, frames and typefaces become as important as the very text to convey ideas, and finding the right ones makes the effort of technology worthwhile.

It’s been three years now since I started this journey in the magazine. I haven’t published as much as I wished, in order to leave room to others and to train my ear, rather than my voice in the sound of the pages. I have always welcomed people aboard, and I always will. Some students in the CEPA feel overwhelmed by the quality of their fellow writers, and reluctant to join us. I especially invite them to make their voices heard. Ours is not a select club with entry rules. Ours is a welcoming friendship to all types of voices. The moment you enter the club you’ll feel the love for the right word and become an invisible friend of our society, wherever you come from.

(1) “Some versions of Homer”. Las versiones homéricas.

José Contreras