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You were born yesterday, and you will die tomorrow.
For such a brief being, who gave you life?
To live so little are you bright,
and to be nothing are you fresh?
If your vain beauty deceived you,
very soon you will see it faded,
because it is hidden in your beauty
the chance to die an early death.
(Fragment of A una Rosa, by Luis de Góngora, 1561-1627)
Laura de Chiclana begins her presentation, at the 10th El Diario Alcántara International Journalism Congress, at the headquarters of the University of Malaga, about her life in Ukraine, in a video call in a room, similar to that of a student. In the case of a schoolboy, he makes a video call because he misses his friend. In Laura’s case, her “friend” is her home country, it is her life. Life that she has done without for more than a year due to vocation.
The public listens in silence to the atrocities that she says she experienced: murders, projectiles, collapses… “All that for what?” dwells in the heads of everyone present. She, without knowing it, gives the answer with the sparkle in her eyes. Laura lives by and for her profession, being a war correspondent.
Passion moves any living soul to the deepest place, regardless of the consequences. Passion is an impetuous feeling, capable of subjugating the will and driving reason crazy. Laura, guided by her passion, tells how she is still there despite her experiences. She recounts the death of her friends and colleagues. She details her growing fear. Still, she doesn’t give up.
Nor did she give up when, in the past, the journalist was rejected in multiple media for being from Seville. She tells how they did not consider her “fit” to do live shows. They did not consider her suitable to work in a Catalan company for the same reason (she specifies that, thanks to a Catalan company, she can work in Ukraine). Laura is an example of persistence and courage.
Courage has many faces, brave is not the one who is not afraid but the one who faces it. This is the case with the correspondent. She teaches the assistants her “modus operandi”, her armor. She details how this is placed just before starting to broadcast. Although sometimes, like in that live anxiety attack, it breaks.
It is human to break, to not be able to take it anymore. War is inhuman, and Laura knows it. She knows her fear, her tears know it (which she avoids showing in front of the affected citizens), her family knows it (they hope she returns to Spain healthy like May water). She knows about her bulletproof vest and her correspondent’s security team. She knows her insurance from Reporter Without Borders.
Laura makes it clear that a war correspondent is aware of how ephemeral his existence can be. Of the danger of exercising. But he doesn’t care, because he sees it necessary to tell a truth. Give a voice to those who need it. Perhaps, we just need to learn to value that voice. He who strives for his values ??is not crazy, but he who judges from his comfortable indifference.
