Uruguayan-Spanish journalist, editor, and blogger. Currently living in Chile, tweeting in English and Spanish under @silviavinas, and blogging on silviavinas.com
Latest posts by Silvia Viñas
‘Costa Ricans Are Fed Up’
A myriad of articles about the recent Costa Rican elections have proclaimed the country’s “turn to the left.” Perhaps some do this because it is simply too convenient to whip...
Mapping Conflicts Between Indigenous Peoples and Corporations in Latin America
Codpi (Coordination for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) has created a map to monitor projects that are affecting indigenous territories, as their website explains [es]: This map aims to collect...
Why You Should Stop Saying ‘Venezuelan Women are Beautiful’
The pressure to conform to an impossible standard of beauty was, and is, incredible. Why? Because if you do not nip, tuck, fill and blow-dry your way towards “beauty,” then...
Do You Have What it Takes to be a Mexican Newspaper Editor?
On PBS.org you can take “The Reportero Challenge”, a game inspired by the documentary Reportero which presents various scenarios that journalists and editors face in Mexico: You have been offered the...
El Salvador and Costa Rica to Hold Runoff Elections
El Salvador and Costa Rica held presidential elections yesterday, February 2, but both countries will define their president in a runoff vote. In El Salvador, “results show Salvador Sanchez Ceren...
Voting Day in El Salvador
Online news site El Faro has published a Storify post [es] with early citizen reports and reactions about today's presidential elections in El Salvador. They also have a special section...
Costa Ricans Go to the Polls to Elect a New President
Glenda Umaña, a Costa Rican journalist who is covering today's presidential elections, comments on Facebook [es] and Twitter: Ya me encontré en padrón electoral. Se me salen las lágrimas de...
Memes to Confront Impunity in Mexico
David Sasaki shares viral videos and social media memes from Mexico to show how “the meme has been embraced by a Mexican middle class as a tool to confront the...
According to Google Autocomplete ‘Colombia is Passion’ and ‘Mexico is Culture’
Colombian blogger Javier Moreno typed “[Name of country] is” on Google search to see auto-complete suggestions for each country in Latin America and Europe. He modeled his experiment after the...
Ecuador's Indigenous People: “We believe in development that respects Mother Earth”
“The Government is appropriating our spiritual values of the Amazon region, it’s seeking to deconceptualize our cultural concepts”, says [Carlos Pérez, President of ECUARUNARI (Confederation of Kichwa Peoples of Ecuador)]....
Putting Faces on the Mysterious Disease Killing Nicaraguan Sugar Cane Workers
A fatal disease is killing sugar cane workers in Nicaragua. Photojournalist Ed Kashi wants to raise awareness about this mysterious epidemic through a documentary project that is looking for funding.
Nicaraguan Micro-Fiction by Alberto Sánchez Arguello
Blogger Mildred Largaespada of 1001 Trópicos [es] writes about Alberto Sánchez Arguello, a Nicaraguan writer who shares his micro-stories through his Twitter account @7tojil [es]. “He is definitely an outstanding...
10 Documentaries on South American Music to Watch Online
Nick MacWilliam from the blog Sounds and Colours has compiled a list of 10 documentaries, “looking at all manner of musical styles and movements from the region, with films focused...
Gender-Based Violence Epidemic Hits Sex Workers in Honduras
Despite the fact that sex work is legal in Honduras, many groups and individuals view their actions as immoral. Those who murder sex workers believe they can literally treat these human...
Online Platform ‘Ojo al Voto’ Seeks to Lure Young Costa Rican Voters
The interactive platform Ojo al voto [es] wants to provide young voters with useful and straightforward information about the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Costa Rica, scheduled for February...
Hydroelectric Projects in Panama: “Promised Development But Created Disaster”
Although dam developers and governments insist that local communities benefit from these projects, the reality on the ground in Panama suggests the opposite: communities are plunged further into poverty, environments...
Candidates Face Off in First Presidential Debate in El Salvador
Tim's El Salvador Blog summarizes the first presidential debate ever held in El Salvador: The three leading presidential candidates Norman Quijano (ARENA), Salvador Sánchez Cerén (FMLN), and Antonio Saca (Unidad),...
Colombians March in Support of Dismissed Bogotá Mayor
Supporters marched in Bogotá and in other major cities to support Mayor Gustavo Petro, who was dismissed from his duties by Colombia's Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado and banned from...
Latin America's Black Metal Fans, Punks and Otakus
Santiago, Lima, Mexico City and Oaxaca have been some of the cities in which photographer Carla Mc-Kay has photographed punks, thrashers, transvestites, black metal fans, new waves and otakus, recording...
El Salvador Prepares for Upcoming Presidential Election
Salvadorans will go to the polls on February 2, 2014, to elect a new president. Jorge Kawas in PulsAmerica explains: Polls show that the election will be a close call...
