Alma Guillermoprieto
Alma Guillermoprieto
Alma Guillermoprietois a Mexican journalist who has written extensively about Latin America for the British and American press. Her writings have also been widely disseminated within the Spanish-speaking world...
NationalityMexican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth27 May 1949
CountryMexico
doe language given
One does, after all, take on many of the givens of a society when one takes on its language.
skills gloves language
The best translators slip into the glove of a text and then turn it inside out into another language, and the whole thing comes out looking like a brand-new glove again. I'm completely in awe of this skill, since I happen to be both bilingual and a writer, but nevertheless a lousy translator.
dream dreaming english few language living months moved six spanish whatever
And in fact, I dream in whatever language I'm living in. So that, you know, after six months of being in the States, I started dreaming in English again. And when I moved back to Mexico, after a few months, I started dreaming in Spanish again.
absolutely efforts hours involves money self severe telephone thankless
Translation is a notoriously thankless profession: there is absolutely no money in it; it involves a severe submersion of the self into another; the hours are long and you get about as much recognition for your efforts as the telephone repairman.
memories writing long
Well, one of the things I discovered in the course of looking back and writing about what I saw in my memory is that I was a closely observant person long before I became a reporter.
thinking talking two
Talking in one language and talking in another, I think inevitably, produce two different personalities, as far as I've seen in other people. I assume it does the same for me.
california one-day next
What I wonder is what would happen in California, say, if all the Mexicans left from one day to the next?
mind may details
I may not have a practical mind, but it's very fixated on concrete things. I like detail.
kids way delinquency
For the kids, who in their lives have never known the slightest power, delinquency is a way of looking for power.
enemy magic essentials
An essential part of the magic involves turning everyone into an enemy, to ward off surprises.
wise wise-sayings fool
Peron had a wise saying. In politics, you can recover from anything except looking like a fool.
integrity healthy democracy
Investigative reporting is the bone structure without which the journalistic body collapses. The Center for Public Integrity's constant and consistently enterprising investigative work is an invaluable contribution not only to journalism, but to society and to a healthy democracy
thinking years long
I realized that I had traveled to Havana during what now seems like the childhood of the Cuban Revolution, if you think that Fidel has now been in power for 44 extremely long years. I started looking at the revolution as history, and not as part of the daily news.
home garden mexican
And, of course, millions of us cross the border to work in US homes and gardens and factories and carpentry shops and restaurants, and if you go to a restaurant pretty much anywhere in the United States, the chances are that the dishes will be washed by a Mexican.