#vocalostoryteller

Vanesa Baerga (Puerto Rico)

·      ¿Por qué quisiste formar parte del VSW en español?

 Yo llevo unos años escribiendo artículos para varios periódicos y revistas en Chicago y Puerto Rico, y justo este verano estaba buscando oportunidades para desarrollar historias en video y explorar otras plataformas. En eso vi la oportunidad de poder desarrollar historias para radio y no dudé en solicitar.

·      Describe tu historia en 20 segundos.

Mi historia es sobre La Respuesta, una revista en línea sobre la diáspora puertorriqueña y las comunidades puertorriqueñas en Estados Unidosy con esto una breve explicación histórica de estas comunidades a EEUU y su proceso de migración que es diferente al resto de los migrantes en EEUU.

·      ¿Por qué decidiste contar esta historia?

Decidí contar la historia de la migración puertorriqueña usando como ejemplo esta revista y su propósito, lo que documenta y cuán inivisibilizados están los puertorriqueños en los medios tradicionales de este país y el desconocimiento de las circunstancias particulares de este grupo por parte del resto de la población porque me pareció un tema vigente. Este tema tiene una vigencia particular en este momento histórico en que los medios tradicionales ya no son los que dictan únicamente cómo la gente se informa, sino que surgen iniciativas independientes como esta para informar desde una perspectiva comunitaria sobre las realidades de grupos como este. Ya cualquier persona que quiera encontrar información crítica sobre las particularidades y el día a día de esta población la puede encontrar en un solo lugar, o en varios, pero lo importante es que la información está al alcance del que la quiera encontrar. 

·      Describe tu experiencia en el VSW. ¿Qué fue lo que más aprendiste durante este taller?

We are very excited to present the stories from our first ever storytelling workshop en español! Stay tuned for more details on the final audio stories crafted by a group of hardworking and creative young people who rescue the voices of the Latinos/Latin American community in Chicago through diverse themes.

One of the fondest memories of my childhood is sitting with my cousins around my grandmother, usually at lunch or dinner time, and listening to her tall a story as we ate. Some where funny, other scary, like the one about La Llorona. They were insightful and entertaining nonetheless. Maybe I owe her the fact that I now look to tell stories, whether from the depths of my own twisted, imagination or from the dark yet colorful world that I inhabit.

When I was about fourteen years old, I read the blockbuster-like exploits that Mark Millar and Brian Hitch put on the Ultimates. My first encounter with a fascinating medium called comic books, and the combination of pictures and words, captivated me immediately. I became fervent reader of Millar and Hitch, as well of other contemporaries like Grant Morrison, John Romita Jr, and Mike Mignola, to name a few. The history of the medium led me to works from past decades and I became something of an erudite on sequential art and it's dynamic use of visual storytelling. Yes, I was a comic book geek. I wanted to do it too.

I dabbled in short fiction as well. I penned a short story for my school's newspaper, publish on occasion of Halloween. When I read that crude attempt at horror these days, I laugh at my naive but ambitious Gothic tale of a young werewolf accidentally killing his horny girlfriend. Stroker, Lovecraft and Quiroga would surely piss themselves laughing if they read it.

I eventually realized there was better, or so I think, medium for me to express my angst, my dreams, my nightmares. It is called film. I ran amok with a mini DV camera during my senior year in high school, capturing every aspect of the exciting life of high school teenagers. Perhaps is my innate nature and acquired criticism, but I feel the youth today over-documents their life. There is no selective process of material worth archiving anymore, no self-criticism. Maybe I'm just a snob.

I wanted to do this filmmaking thing right. So I went to film school in Mexico. My stance at that institution was bittersweet. There were intelligent professors, some who shine a light on me, but the founder of the school proved to be a cretin, to say the least, and I left it. I tried, sure, to enter other schools, but my attempts were futile.

I studied by myself. I watched movies every night, wrote scripts and theories, read memoirs by outstanding filmmakers and studies my bright analyst. I knew that if I wanted to become a decent visual storyteller and learn the technique and art of cinematic language, I had to continue my schooling at any cost.

I found myself back in Chicago and not one bit disillusioned. I've shot a few short fiction films, recorded musical performances with local bands, and now I'm working on pseudo documentary about my community. I'm also writing a collection of horror stories (haven't let go of that) and a short novela. I still want to do graphic novels, writing and drawing all of it myself, if necessary.

And here I am now, discovering a new, powerful and exciting medium to tell stories. Radio. As a member of Vocalo's Storytelling Wokshop, I'm preparing a story about the hard reality my neighborhood is going thru. I'm confident on the significance this piece will have if done right. And that's the only way I plan to do it. I feel both nervous and thrilled of what this new form of storytelling has for me.

This is me telling you I am a natural born storyteller expanding his horizons, ever hungry for the real and unreal, the harsh reality and the absurd surrealism. I am a modern day tlacuilo.