Image courtesy of El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Florida
Talk about a story that hits home.
I first saw the headline while reading The Miami Herald online: a database of the 14,048 children between the ages of 6 and 17 who arrived in the US without their parents, who had sent them there to escape what was then the beginning of communism and the Castro regime in Cuba.
I was one of those children.
For me, it was February 28, 1962.I remember the day as if it was today. Not only was I unaccompanied, but I also was holding the hands of two children younger than me, a boy and a girl, one 11, one 7, whose parents were friends of my parents, and, since we were flying on the same Pan Am flight from Havana to Miami, I was charged by their tearful mom to please make sure they got to the other side safely. They did. I wonder what happened to them in their new country.
If their story is like mine, they became Americans, learned English well, and went on to blend in with the melting pot that is our United States of America. They probably had great success, assimilated quickly and received a fantastic formal education, started their families and became part of the Cuban American community—-perhaps one of the most successful groups of immigrants ever to arrive in the land of freedom and opportunity.
I was curious to see my name on the Operation Pedro Pan Database, and then I found me there.
Case # 12129.
That was me. Just simple facts. My name. My contact in the US: aunt Matilde Garcia. The address: 381 NW 4th Street, Miami, Florida.
Suddenly, tired as I was arriving last night in Delhi, India, I could not stop but enter the names of other Pedro Pans I met along the way. I could not sleep. I had to check the Herald’s data base out. Found dozens of names of friends. I also had to forward the entry to my four children all of whom were born in the United States, as were all 10 of my grandchildren. They had to see this four-line entry about a day that changed my life forever.
Then, it was February 28, 1962 again. The memories rushed back quickly and intact.
I remember going from the Miami airport to my uncle Hector’s barber shop, to say hello to him. He was giving a haircut to a tall man with blondish hair who was reading a newspaper, The Miami Herald.
As I looked at the newspaper the man was holding, it suddenly hit me: God, I don’t understand the language in that newspaper. This is the new challenge, in the new country.
Forty one years later, in 2003, I redesigned that newspaper.
The Herald’s Operation Pedro Pan Database offers the facts. It is a start in what may open the doors for the world to know more about the 14,048 biographies that followed those facts.
Remembering Feb. 28, 1962
On September 14, 2003, The Miami Herald launched its new look, a design that my firm Garcia Media and I had created, working with The Herald’s team for about 10 months. The editors asked me to write a piece on what it meant for me to redesign my hometown newspaper. I did. Here are excerpts from my story:
I stepped out of a Pan American Airways aircraft about 11 a.m. at an already congested Miami International Airport. From there I was immediately taken to my uncle’s barbershop, right at the corner of Le Jeune Road and Flagler Street. My Uncle Hector hugged me as he stepped from behind the barber’s chair at Hector’s Barber Shop, interrupting a haircut in progress.
I could not see the person getting his haircut, although I could tell that he had long legs, and was hiding behind a copy of a newspaper called The Miami Herald. That was the precise moment at which my eyes came in contact with The Herald for the first time. I stared momentarily at a sea of headlines and text in a language that I could not understand.
It was also my introduction to the United States, to the taste of root beer (which I thought was cough medicine disguised as a soda), to the Miami of the 1960s – which would become home – and, of course, to the rest of the “refugee rituals’’ of the time: getting processed at the Freedom Tower on Biscayne Boulevard, registering at Ada Merritt Junior High, and going to school eight hours a day not understanding a word anyone said (those were the days before bilingual education – call it the sink-or-swim school of English, for which I am thankful). Of course, it was also a grand introduction to growing up quickly, adapting to a new culture, and discovering the richness of the country I now call my own with pride.
So began my longterm relationship with The Herald, which I immediately realized would be the best English teacher someone could get, at a very reasonable price. I sat down daily to yesterday’s Herald, armed with a dictionary by my side, circling words and phrases that were new (it was not unusual to have 30 circles in one single article).
With time, there were fewer and fewer circles on the pages, while the circle of my American friends grew larger and larger. English began to sink in. I adapted to it; it agreed with me. The Herald not only taught me new words and phrases, it also introduced me to American culture, helping the process of assimilation. What joy it was the day that I was able to read, and comprehend, a story from beginning to end, one of life’s small victories that mean so much.
J-schools and new industry challenges: seeking information
I am delighted with the reaction elicited by my call for information on how J-schools adapt their curriculum to the new changes in our industry, and, particularly to teach storytelling techniques in a multi platform world. Many of you have written, including Randy Stano, of the University of Miami, who reports that “we are rewriting all of our curriculums. no one can seem to keep up with the changes.”
Also Leslie-Jean Thornton of Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who writes: “We’re pretty sure we’re on the right track here at the Cronkite School. There are more than a few of us teaching that. “
I am planning to talk to Leslie-Jean and Randy, as well as a dozen other academics who have written to me offering information. Stay tuned.
Here is the link to an informative article from Jeremy Gilbert, assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Jeremy, a rising academic star whom we had the pleasure of meeting at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies first as a Poynter Fellow, then as a faculty member, tells us about Medill’s Spring New Media Publishing Project, where students work with professionals to create tools that will help the industry cope with change:
Experimentation will help save journalism. Unfortunately, major news organizations’ business models are failing and research is one of the first things to go.
But journalism schools and students have the time and resources to experiment with solutions to the major disruptive changes rattling the industry. New approaches to information gathering and analysis are needed for journalism to flourish. We must build new tools for the creation and consumption of news.
For full article: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=162857
How are the J-schools training the next wave of storytellers?
I am exploring the question myself. As a former academic (is one ever a FORMER academic?) having taught at both Syracuse University and the University of South Florida for many years, as well as assorted stints and Master classes at a variety of universities worldwide, I am keen on finding out how the curricula of journalism schools adapts to the new realities of our industry. From writing to editing and visual presentation, the game has changed dramatically, and I am sure that the best and most avant garde professors out there are already incorporating multi platform storytelling into their courses.
Please let me know who you are. I would like to write a series of blogs on the subject, profile those colleges and universities who are doing it right, and talk to the professors and perhaps even the students in such programs.
Counting on you to help me here. If you are participating in the programs I describe here, or if you know someone who does, please let me know via email: mario@garcia-media.com
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TheMarioBlog posting #264