Learn about the exciting story of six Peruvian reporters who recorded the horrors of war

In the line of fire, with bullets whistling near their ears or bombs exploding around them, a group of women has recorded the horrors of war insanity for decades. Although for many being a war correspondent is still a purely male territory, the truth is that journalistic work in these circumstances far exceeds gender stereotypes. Examples of female courage and tenacity exist throughout the world and, of course, also in Peru. It is precisely with the intention of making visible the work of six Peruvian reporters that “Women in Conflict” has just been published. book by Christiane Félip written after two years of arduous research.

The French author based in Peru says that chance brought her two passions, literature and history, together. While reading “The Man Who Loved Dogs” by Leonardo Padura, he learned that the protagonist and murderer of León Trotsky had Marina Ginestá as a companion, who lived in Barcelona and was a war reporter from a very young age. That was the starting point. “I began to investigate and realized to what extent women in this profession were so little talked about. And if they only talked about the Americans, French or Italians, but not about the Latin Americans”. Félip had just finished a novel and really wanted to venture into the chronicle. Follow the trail of Patricia Castro Obando, Vera Lentz, María Luisa Martínez, Mónica Seoane, Mariana Sánchez Aizcorbe and Morgana Vargas Llosa, reporters or photojournalists who covered conflicts in the Middle East, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Central America and Peru, became a full-time job since 2018.

After having heard their stories, how do you define the work of these six women?

Like a job with extraordinary professionalism. I admire their courage, their ethics, the way in which they have reported because they have been able to bear witness to the horror with great dignity, both in terms of images and through writing. Perhaps the fact that they are women made them target the civilian population more than the act of war itself. Except for Mariana (Sánchez Aizcorbe), they all focused much more on people. , although as we know one cannot be objective in its entirety, one can be objective when telling the facts but it is true that each one has their point of view.

Is this more social and human look, for you, the main difference between women and men when covering a war?

In an article by the Spanish reporter Ana del Paso, who writes for the newspapers El Mundo and El País, she said that women report from a gender point of view. It may be, because, for example, Morgana Vargas Llosa said that she was very interested in taking photos of the children. Perhaps it is also a matter of character. What I have noticed and read is that contrary to what one tends to think, women conflict reporters are not few. , because they are on their own, they have to pay for everything, they themselves have to get a bulletproof vest, for example. Also, these vests are made for men, they weigh a lot.

Difficulties additional to the work itself.

Without them, Pol Pot, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the Peruvian internal conflict would not be known. Of the six interviewed, it is the photojournalists -because the image impacts more and is easily transmitted-, who are best known. Names like Vera Lentz or Morgana Vargas Llosa are no strangers, but hardly anyone knows the reporters. When they gave me their names I started asking friends and acquaintances if they knew about them and the answer was always the same, no. It made me angry and I told myself that it was necessary that the work of these women be made known. It is not fair that they are not known, that no book mentions them. That is the goal of this book.

Ignorance of the work these journalists have done is symptomatic of our society, especially if we take into account that all the journalists they interview have received international awards.

They are extremely discreet women, they are so committed to their work that the prizes do not matter to them. His mission was to make known what was happening, what others did not want to see in many cases. However, due to the ease with which they agreed to be part of this project, I realized that they needed someone to listen to them. As they did with the people who were in the middle of the war, who thanked them for having contacted and listened to them. I perceive that and because in some way they realize that their work is not fully known and recognized.

It would be interesting if this recognition also comes from those who still consider that the coverage of armed conflicts is not for women.

I hope so. And not only from journalists like Juan Gargurevich or Gustavo Gorriti, who have already read the book and know what is behind all this work. But it happens that for society in general, even for many women in particular, this is an eminently male task. There is still a lot of that mentality left.

Within the specific conversations with them, of what they saw or recorded, was there anything else that surprised you?

The emotion. When recounting some episodes of their report they stopped. I have tried to show this in the narration of the book. There was a silence. It was obvious that they were living again what they had witnessed. There have been very emotional moments that they have tried to take with some calm, but 10 or 15 years after they occurred they continue to have a strong emotional impact. In two cases they even told me that they couldn’t continue, but at the same time they thanked me for having somehow opened those wounds that ultimately hurt more if they are not talked about.

THE DATA: “Women in conflict” is on sale at the Placeres Compulsivos and El Virrey bookstores. Also through the social networks of Crocodile Editions.