Chimbote is a city located to the north of Peruvian capital of Lima, and which can be reached in six hours by land. Those who have walked its streets recall its perennial smell of fish, as well as what some say might say is the apparent rudeness of the people. However, it would be wrong to stay with this first impression. While Chimbote has traditionally been a fishing village, this does not take away from the fact that it is also a land of writers and poets. There is a blog that is devoted to the writers and literature called: Marea Cultural [es], which along with another blog called La Ignorancia Mata [es], has become a pair of blogs that currently informs its readers to what is happening in the fields of culture and technology both in Chimbote and the rest of the world.

Photo of Chimbote by Edgar Asencios and used under a Creative Commons license. Click on photo to see a larger version.

The Lima blog La Fortaleza de la Soledad [es] published a post about those responsible for these blogs:

Augusto Rubio Acosta y Milton Rojas vienen desde la rica ciudad de Chimbote a darnos un ejemplo laudatorio de que aún hay mucho por hacer. Augusto y Milton no se han contagiado de la apatía capitalina, recorren el Perú en busca de las voces, mayores y jóvenes, de nuestro ambiente cultural, demostrando que es mucho más saludable “hacer” que el mero acto de “quejarse”, sacándole el jugo a la herramienta por excelencia de la promoción, Internet.

And in the blog Círculo D.M. [es] from Holland, Rómulo Meléndez interviewed Augusto Rubio about the project Marea Cultural and other topics, here are some excerpts:

El proyecto MAREA CULTURAL nace en 2003 en Chimbote (Perú), … surgió primero como el programa radial que conducía en la desaparecida Radio Universidad San Pedro. Después, en 2004 el programa se mudó a Radio Santo Domingo, donde estuvimos al aire hasta el mes de mayo de este año. En el camino surgió la idea de publicar revistas y libros de literatura (publicamos cinco números de la revista “Mundo cachina” y dos libros), … Surgió también el Blog MAREA CULTURAL, nuestro programa de TV en un canal local (2008), una experiencia en prensa popular con la creación del primer periódico mural cultural callejero de Chimbote (surgida en 2005 y aún vigente),

Nuestra fuerte presencia en redes sociales (gracias a la alianza estratégica establecida con Milton Rojas, de Viadescape.TV) obedece a la necesidad de estar más cerca de los jóvenes, ellos son los que van a cambiar la realidad cultural que hemos heredado”. … Desde enero de 2009, con la creación de mi página en Facebook he abandonado el correo electrónico tradicional. Ahora habito en Twitter, la forma de contactar a los autores es distinta. De igual forma la búsqueda de información de carácter literario o cultural ha cambiado. Antes visitaba páginas webs o blogs especializados, ahora eso me llega automáticamente vía Twitter y Facebook”.

Marea Cultural's Facebook page can be found here [es], as well as its Twitter account [es]. A brief account of the interviews conducted by the blog from among the more than 100 published include the writers Braulio Muñóz, Fernando Cueto (1 and 2) Marco Cueva (1 and 2), Iván Vásquez (1 and 2) and Dante Lecca. There are also interviews with cultural promoters, Silvia Diestra, Jaime Guzmán and Paulino Meléndez, as well as the singer Lucho Oliva and social activists Jorge Noriega (1 and 2).

Milton Rojas, in addition to working on Marea Cultural, is also responsible for the blog La Ignorancia Mata [es], which addresses Internet issues, cyberjournalism, and Viadescape.TV [es], in which he publishes the video interviews from Marea Cultural. It might appear that the projects are on the right track, including the quality of the content. However, this is what Rojas wrote:

desde que empecé con Viadescape y en particular con el blog “La ignorancia mata” en el 2005, muchas cosas para bien han ocurrido, cosas que jamas me imagine, aunque muchos de esos triunfos personales no han logrado cubrir la sensación de vacío que siento y lo que empezó siendo un proyecto personal e intransferible, ha comenzado a ser una iniciativa grupal y siento que a diferencia del pasado ya no estoy solo en esto, ya no es más mi cruzada personal, incluso buscando últimamente un modelo de negocio rentable al trabajo que realizamos,

And then later, he writes:

voy a la ruina económica de seguir invirtiendo en proyectos web que no me retornan rentabilidad, solo la satisfacción de hacer lo que me gusta y de liderar e inspirar a muchas personas que siguen lo que hacemos en Internet, pero de momento no hay marcha atrás, estamos decidimos a encontrarle vuelta al asunto muy pronto

And it can be difficult to complete the work that one enjoys without considering the economic factor or without having another job as backup. There are numerous initiatives and projects that have been left half-started in the country because of a lack of economic support or because of the unwillingness to conform to editorial standards. Many hope that the Marea Cultural project can find a way to solve their inconveniences and continue to provide cultural information.

These are other blogs from Chimbote, and within the same cultural wave, there is the blog Soy Como Agua y Fuego [es] written by Carmen Alejos, one of the cultural promoters from Chimbote. Her blog is dedicated mainly to the musical style of trova, as well as her weekly radio program. One can hear her thoughts in this video interview she did with Marea Cultural. However, this is a sample of social sensitivity demonstrated in her writings about Rural Women's Day:

Las mujeres son las encargadas de trasmitir los conocimientos ancestrales de generación en generación, logrando conservar los cultivos tradicionales e innovarlos, en su afán de garantizar la alimentación de las familias en sus comunidades. Lamentablemente los gobiernos de turno no implementan políticas que busquen un desarrollo sostenible de la agricultura, mucho menos fomentan el desarrollo de capacidades que permitan que las mujeres puedan compartir conocimientos y mejorar su calidad de vida. En algunas comunidades de la cuenca del Valle de Nepeña, las mujeres rurales han iniciado un proceso de concientización alrededor del tema ecológico impulsado desde sus familias. Este 15 de octubre es el Día de la Mujer Rural y desde este espacio queremos reconocer el trabajo de miles y miles de mujeres -muchas de ellas solas- que de sol a sol se esfuerzan para cultivar sus tierras, criar su ganado y construir una familia y una sociedad distinta. ¡Feliz Día Mamá!…

There is also the blog called Matríz Musical [es] by poet Denisse Vega, who was also interviewed by Marea Cultural, who writes about her literary production and posts about cultural activities. The blog Mujer: El Más Bello Arte [es] by Victoria Fuentes is dedicated to women's issues. A blog from the Social Justice Commission from the Diocese of Chimbote [es] writes about human rights by giving voice, via video interviews, to individuals that work in this field.

Other blogs from Chimbote include De Todo Un Poco 2.0 [es], which is dedicated to posting notes relating to the utilities, gadgets, movies, and other topics. The blog Law & Iuris [es] by a group of law students at the Los Ángeles University in Chimbote, write about legal issues. A musical blog called Herederos de Nada [es] y Escena Chimbote Rock [es] post about rock music and concerts in Chimbote, and other cities in Peru. Chimbote ♫♫ [es], on the other hand, deals with the promotion of various genres of music. Periodismo Responsable [es] was a blog that wrote about news in Chimbote, but it has not been updated in more than a year.

Another blog can be considered from Chimbote is called Mis Aventuras en Perú, maintained by Jane Silcock, a volunteer from the United States, who can be seen in this video interview by La Ignorancia Mata. Even though the title of the blog is in Spanish, the blog is written in English. She writes:

I can’t believe I am more than half way done with my volunteer experience. There are times that I never want to leave, and then moments where I miss all the familiar people, food, and music of yesterday. My time in Peru has definitely confirmed my passion and desire to dedicate my life to social justice work. I am also realizing now more than ever the beauty and importance of mass communication in helping to make change.

At Cecopros, the journalism NGO, I am currently working on TV news stories for local channels about the problems in small towns around Chimbote. We’ve done two so far, one about how an illegal city trash dump is causing nearby residents to have skin fungus and respiratory problems. The other is about misuse of government funds that should go to building water and pluming systems for those who don’t have access to water, but instead are being used, among other things, to build a 500,000 soles (about $170,000) park.

There are problems with environmental pollution in Chimbote, however, there are no blogs that deal with the issue. In YouTube, there are videos uploaded by various institutions that can attest tot he serious problems caused mainly by fishing activities. For example, the Natura Environmental Institute [es] based in Chimbote, deals with these issues, but do not have a blog.

Finally, this video that contains interviews with Chimbote residents who talk about their favorite dishes, and the video can also show various spots around the city. More Chimbote videos here.