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Journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, years_active = 1978 – present , era = , employer = , organization = , known_for = , notable_works = , style = , movement = , opponents = , boards = , spouse = , partner = , children = , parents = , mother = , father = , relatives = , family = , callsign = , awards = Maria Moors Cabot Award

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

Ortega y Gasset Award

Princess of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...

, website = , module = , module2 = , module3 = , module4 = , module5 = , module6 = , signature = , signature_size = , signature_alt = , footnotes = Alma Guillermoprieto (born Alma Estela Guillermo Prieto, 1949) is a Mexican journalist. She has written extensively about

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

for the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and American press, especially ''The New Yorker'' and ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''. Her writings have also been widely disseminated within the

Spanish-speaking Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere). In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...

world and she has published eight books in both English and Spanish, and been translated into several more languages. Guillermoprieto began her career as a dancer (later the subject of two of her books: ''Samba'', 1990, and ''Dancing with Cuba'', 2004), before turning to journalism in 1978 and soon breaking the story of the 1981 El Mozote massacre by the army in El Salvador. In English, she has published two books collecting her

long-form journalism Long-form journalism is a branch of journalism dedicated to longer articles with larger amounts of content. Typically, this will be between 1,000 and 20,000 words. Long-form articles often take the form of creative nonfiction or narrative journa ...

on Latin America: ''The Heart That Bleeds'' (1994) and ''Looking for History'' (2001). She has also published three books collecting and translating her English reporting into Spanish. She has won a

(1995), a

(2001), and a

(2018), among other honors.

Early life

Alma Estela Guillermo Prieto was born in 1949 in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. In her teens, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with her mother. She studied

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

with

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

until 1969 when he recommended her for a job teaching at the Cuban National Schools of the Arts in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. She spent six months there. From 1962 to 1973, she was a professional dancer.

Journalism career

In 1978, she started her journalism career as a stringer for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', where she covered the

Nicaraguan Revolution The Nicaraguan Revolution ( es, Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista, link=no) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation F ...

. In 1981 she moved to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and in January 1982, Guillermoprieto, then based in Mexico City, was one of two journalists (the other was Raymond Bonner of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'') who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December, 1981. With great hardship and at great personal risk, she was smuggled in by FMLN rebels to visit the site approximately a month after the massacre took place. When the story broke simultaneously in the ''Post'' and ''Times'' on January 27, 1982, it was dismissed as propaganda by the

Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

administration. Subsequently, however, the details of the massacre as first reported by Guillermoprieto and Bonner were verified, with widespread repercussions. Guillermoprieto was promoted to staff writer at the Post, where she worked for two years before winning an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1985, funding research and writing about changes in rural life under the policies of the European Economic Community. She next became a

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

correspondent for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

,'' until 1987 when she left to write a book. Her first book, ''Samba'' (1990), was an account of a season studying at a samba school in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. It was nominated for a

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". Also in 1990, Guillermoprieto won a

Maria Moors Cabot Prize The Maria Moors Cabot Prizes are the oldest international awards in the field of journalism. They are presented each fall by the Trustees of Columbia University to journalists in the Western hemisphere who are viewed as having made a significant co ...

, honoring her contributions to press freedom and inter-American understanding in the Western hemisphere. During the 1990s, she worked as a freelance writer, contributing long reported articles on Latin American culture and politics for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and ''

'', including on the Colombian civil war, the

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Commun ...

during the

Internal conflict in Peru The internal conflict in Peru is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path. The conflict began on 17 May 1980, and from 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its ow ...

, the aftermath of the "

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 as ...

" in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, and post-

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C� ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. Thirteen of these pieces were bundled in the book ''The Heart That Bleeds'' (1994), now considered a classic portrait of the politics and culture of Latin America during the "lost decade" (it was published in Spanish as ''Al pie de un volcán te escribo — Crónicas latinoamericanas'' in 1995). In 1993, she published an article in ''The New Yorker'' on Pablo Escobar; this article, "Exit El Patron," was referenced in the Netflix series " Narcos". In April 1995, at the request of

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

, Guillermoprieto taught the inaugural workshop at the Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, an institute for promoting journalism that was established by García Márquez in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. She has since held more workshops for young journalists throughout the continent. That same year, Guillermoprieto also received a

. In 2001, she was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. That year, she published a second anthology of articles, ''Looking for History: Latin America'', collecting pieces on Cuba, Mexico and Colombia written for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The New York Review of Books''. In a review for '' Foreign Affairs'', Kenneth Maxwell wrote, "Guillermoprieto is well recognized for her evocative, intimate style and her sympathetic but critical insights into Latin American affairs. These skills are all on display again here…clearly a writer at the top of her form." In 2001, she also published a three-part series in ''

'' on the Colombian drug trade. The series won a

for foreign reporting. She also published a collection of articles in Spanish on the Mexican crisis, ''El año en que no fuimos felices''. In 2004, Guillermoprieto published a memoir, ''Dancing with Cuba'', which revolved around the time she spent living in Cuba in her early twenties. In a review for ''The New York Times'',

Katha Pollitt Katha Pollitt (born October 14, 1949) is an American poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. Her writing focuses on political and social issues from a left-leaning perspective, including abo ...

praised the nuance Guillermoprieto brought to the book, as well as "sly humor, curiosity and knowledge." An excerpt from it was published in 2003 in ''

''. In the fall of 2008, Guillermoprieto joined the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, as a Tinker Visiting Professor. In 2017, she won the Ortega y Gasset Award for her career in journalism. In 2018, she won the Princesa de Asturias Award in Communication and Humanities, Spain's most prestigious award for authors.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

Guillermoprieto article archive
from ''

''
"Alma Guillermoprieto"
''BOMB'' 87/Spring 2004, Esther Allen * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guillermoprieto, Alma 1949 births Living people American female dancers American women journalists Dancers from New York (state) George Polk Award recipients Hispanic and Latino American women journalists MacArthur Fellows Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican journalists National Geographic people National Art Schools (Cuba) faculty