1975

It was November 1975 and, just as I did every morning, I was preparing the daily editor’s meeting at El Sur where I was managing editor. The assistant came in and brought me a telegram, the quickest way of international communication at the time, and I read a short note signed by Jimmy Canel, general manager of the IAPA. The English text stated that I had been awarded the IAPA-Jules Dubois scholarship and should use it the following year.

I never imagined that the news in that telegram would have such a tremendous impact on my life. I left Chile, I studied in California and Minnesota, and when I was about to return home with my PHD the IAPA called me to work for six months at its Miami headquarters.

The six months have turned into 30 years, and, from a provincial journalist I became Executive Director of the IAPA home office, ironically named Jules Dubois. The work has been rewarding, challenging and has allowed me to contribute to what I most believe in and to what Garcia Marquez called the best profession in the world.

She spent her year in Panama studying and participating in the Fund’s reporting program as well as conducting research into the diaspora of West Indian blacks. She was a member on the staff of the Congressional Monitor, Washington, D.C. She reports that the scholarship opened many job possibilities, but, perhaps more important, she “found” herself in Panama. Living abroad for the fi rst time, she said, “made me more self reliant and resourceful”.