Faride Zerán

A journalist that I admire a lot is Faride Zerán, she was my ethics teacher and journalistic treatments in the first semester of the career.

Faride is a journalist from the University of Chile. She was born in Puerto Natales in 1949. After the military coup she was exiled in Argentina and Venezuela. 

She was assistant director of Pluma y pincel, worked in the newspaper La Época and in the magazine Análisis. She was a literary critic on the television show El show de los libros and she was also a member of the Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN).

She was director of the Institute of Communication and Image between 2003 and 2010. Later in 2014 she was appointed Vice-rector of Extension and Communications of the University of Chile.

Faride won the National Journalism Award in 2007 and the Amanda Labarca Award in the year 2014. Her most important book is La Guerrilla Literaria.

I admire Faride profoundly since she was dedicated to the cultural area of ​​journalism which is an area that interests me a lot. She has many knowledge in this field, especially in literature. I also highly value her critical view of journalism. She is a great woman and a great journalist from who I learned a lot. 

About Feminism

I met feminism theoretically when I started attending the University in 2014. I learned feminist theory thanks to the debates that were given and thanks to my colleagues. At that time, feminism was not as widespread as it is today in Chile.

But I believe that my feminist formation began in my childhood when my mother told me that I had to study so that nobody would keep me economically. And also grew up with models of strong women: my mom, my grandmother and my sister. Although when I was a girl I did not have the concept of feminism in my head, if I had those ideas.

Now I consider myself feminist and it is a struggle that I take day by day. It has greatly affected my conception of seeing the world. I am able to perceive the sexist behaviors of people and the confrontation. Understanding feminism made me position myself in the world.

Movies and TV series

My favorite movie is Dancing in the Dark. It is a musical that is directed by Lars von Trier and starred by one of my favorite singers: Björk. The plot is very crude and the first time I saw her I felt a lot of anguish. I love the script, the performances and the songs.

Another film that I really like is A long way home (Lion). It premiered last year and was nominated for several Oscars. It's probably the most beautiful film I've ever seen in my life. It is about a child who was lost in India and was adopted by an Australian family. Years later he meets with his mother and sister in India, thanks to Google Earth. It is beautiful.

One series that I love is The Crown. It is about the life of Queen Elizabeth II since she was crowned. The production is amazing, the story is very exciting and the actors incredible. I recommend it. You can find it on Netflix.

My favorite picture

This is my favorite picture. In it I appear when I was a girl of four years. That day I had gone to Farellones to collect blackberries with my family. I think my mom took it.

It is my favorite photo because these family walks are one of my best memories of childhood. Something funny is that I could never gather berries, because I ate them to barely get them out of the bushes.

We went a large group to the plot of my uncle Pacho and we collected blackberries during the morning. Then we would eat roast beef. It was really very entertaining.

The last time we went, my family was attacked by a lot of bees. To me luckily nothing happened to me. It was tragic and comical at the same time.

We did not go back because of the fear we felt, but now the memory has become one of the best family anecdotes.

My favorite technological

My favorite technological object is my computer. I have it since 2013. My dad gave it to me when I finished school to use it for the university.

I use my computer to write homework for university, which is a lot since I study Journalism. I also use it to have fun . I download and watch movies and use social networks. I also download music.

I do not use my computer everyday. I usually take it only when I have to do homework for university. The technological object that I occupy daily is my smartphone.

I like it because it allows me to do various things simultaneously and it is very useful. On the other hand, I like it a lot since it serves me to store files.

Life without my computer would be practically impossible, since it is a tool that I need for my career.

Why did I choose this career?

When I was a girl I wanted to study literature because I loved reading and writing poetry. 
But I grew up, I realized that I had an interest in all the arts, especially in the cinema.

When I finished high school, I was undecided between studying Cinema and TV or Journalism. Finally I decided to study Cine, since I was very interested in that area.

I was in the career for three semesters, but then I realized that I did not want to make fiction films, but wanted to write about them. What interested me most of the career was the documentary area.

Then I started to study journalism, since I would like to write about culture, but I also feel interest in the political and scientific area.

I would like to work in the culture section of a writing medium or in a cultural corporation. At the moment I am very happy with this career. 

My life story

                                                                                                                                       

Valentina del Pilar Ortiz Herrera born in Santiago on October 11th 1995. Her parents are Bruna and Roberto and her brothers are Roberto, Angel and Paula. She studied her primary and secondary school in Lo Barnechea, at San Rafael School.

After the school, she studied Cinema and TV in the University of Chile during three semesters. But now she studies Journalism in the same institution. She would like to be a culture or science journalist.

Valentina´s hobbies are: watching movies, especially Chilean documentaries; read Russian and Japanese literature, and listen to live music. Her favorite band is The Beatles. Also she likes going out for walks with her friends, her mother and her dog.