Between 2020 and 2023, I wrote a story each Sunday for the weekend section of La Tercera newspaper, covering different beats according to the week’s contingency. Here is a selection of one of my best journalistic pieces about poverty and social inequality, which were published in the printed edition and the digital website of the newspaper.
Photo by La Tercera
12/04/2022
The search for the lost students.
After the pandemic, Chile is grappling with its worst dropout school crisis. The Ministry of Education's figures indicate that 50,000 students abandoned the education system this year and have set off alarm bells in some institutions. They are determined to bring back the chronically absent. Such is the case for a social worker I met at a school in La Reina, a commune of Santiago. I spent a day with her, looking for her students around the neighborhood. In her fieldwork, she has unearthed the underlying causes of absenteeism: substance abuse, mental health issues, neglect, and parents who never received an education.
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Photo by La Tercera
04/09/2023
Operating amid bullets: the everlasting calvary of San Ramón's armored hospital.
Located in one of Santiago's most dangerous neighborhoods, for years, the staff at Padre Hurtado Hospital have had to navigate their duties amidst a hail of bullets. The drug trafficking gangs that coexist near the hospital compelled the installation of a bulletproof barrier around it.
Despite being the sole healthcare facility in Latin America equipped with this bulletproof security, bales continue to rain down here. They wound its staff, claim patients' lives, and leave behind a bleak prognosis: that, despite all the measures taken, nothing ever changes in that place.
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Photo by La Tercera