"Coca Si, Cocaina No: Evo Morales' Coca Policy in Los Yungas, Bolivia"
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Time: 8:00pm - 9:30pm
Location: BUR 216
This event, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, features
Ruxandra Guidi and photographer Roberto Guerra from the Pulitzer Center on
Crisis Reporting.
The event will highlight the couple's work series of reports for print, radio
and television about the lives of coca farmers in Bolivia and the controversial
drug policy under president Evo Morales.
Their work can be found at:
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=54.
Individual bios are included below.
RUXANDRA GUIDI is an independent multimedia journalist who reports regularly
from the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Earlier in 2008, she worked on a series of reports for print, radio and
television about the lives of coca farmers in Los Yungas, Bolivia, and about
controversial drug policy under president Evo Morales. The reporting was made
possible by a grant from the Washington-based Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting.
Previously, she did reporting and production work for the BBC public radio news
program, The World. Her stories focused on Latin American politics, human
rights issues, rural communities, immigration, popular culture and music. She
filed reports from Miami, FL, Austin, TX, the US-Mexico border, Mexico,
Honduras and Turkey.
In 2003, she moved to Austin, TX, where she did production and reporting work
for NPR’s weekly show, Latino USA.
ROBERTO GUERRA is a native of San Antonio, TX, Roberto [Bear] Guerra holds a
degree from the University of Notre Dame in Cultural Anthropology.
After working for Amnesty International USA, and then teaching English in South
Korea, he worked with award-winning editorial photographer, Dan Winters, for
three years, while continuing to travel and photograph projects in Peru,
Mexico, and throughout the U.S.
He has been included in the prestigious annual book publication, American
Photography 21; and was featured in the documentary issue of Shots Magazine
(#92) for his work about San Antonio's Animal Control Facility. Additionally,
his photographs and photo essays have been published by Orion Magazine, the
Boston Globe Magazine, BBC's The World, World Vision Report, Texas Monthly,
Seed Magazine, The Sun, and others. He has also worked with NGO's including
Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Rescue Committee. Bear is
currently based in La Paz, Bolivia, where he lives and collaborates with his
wife, journalist Ruxandra Guidi.
ABOUT THE CENTER: The center was established in 2006 with the help of the Joseph
Pulitzer family. It uses traditional media to raise awareness about
underreported crisis around the world. Their work reaches into various aspects
of new media. The center's site is located here:
http://pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=73
