I promised you videos of interviews with my colleagues on the Yale World Fellows Program, and I like to think that I am a woman of my word. So yesterday I collared Paula Escobar-Chavarría, from Chile, to be my guinea-pig.

Paula is the Magazines Editor for El Mercurio, Chile’s foremost newspaper. She oversees six weekly publications, writes regular columns in magazines and newspapers, and is the author of four books. Her next book will focus on the leadership of the Chilean presidents during the country’s transition to democracy.

She also blogs regularly for the Huffington Post. Here are links to some of her recent articles (I’ve chosen from the English-language ones only), that will help give you an insight into Paula’s interests, life, and country:

After The Death Of Chilean Gay Daniel Zamudio: It Takes More Than Tolerance To Change Anti-Gay Culture In Latinamerica

Two Years After 8.8 Earthquake in Chile: Lessons from a Disaster

Quota Girls: The Other 99 Percent

Chilean Indignados: I’m Proud of Our Young Generation

The Chilean Miners, One Year After: Bitter Sweet Memories

Lucky To Be Part of the “New World”

Although I went through Santiago en route to Antarctica, and have extensive experience of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, I can’t claim to know all that much about Chile. The Wikipedia page is informative. The impression I get from Paula is that Chile is an exciting place to be at the moment, as the ripples of increasing prosperity spread from Brazil throughout the rest of Latin America.

What about you? What do you know about Chile? Have you been there? What is your perception of the country? Drop me a comment and let me know!

 

In case you’re interested in the technical details, I filmed my interview with Paula on an iPhone 4S, slotted into the back of an ALM mCAM Stabilizer Mount with Video Lens & Mic mounted on a small tripod. It was the first time I’d used it apart from a short test clip, and I was reasonably pleased with the results. Comments? Previous vlogs have been recorded directly onto my laptop, using the Photobooth application.

My next video blog will be me soloing it as I look back over the 2-week orientation phase of the World Fellows Program, and look forward to the start of the semester. Please feel free to give me feedback on these vlogs. It’s a new direction for me, so I am very open to (constructive!) criticism.

4 Comments

      • Hiya Roz, Yes, there used to be a like button on the left and several people who follow your blog used to use it. The share buttons are still there on the right for Facebook, Twitter and google. There is also a new button on the right that says “stars”. My computer and software are old and out of date so that could be the reason. The changes seem to have happened a little while after your new website was started. Keep up the great work. Cheers, Steve

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