"I will teach my son to shoot the same as to drive," says Juan Rosado, a Spaniard who has lived in the United States for years. He is one of the witnesses of the first episode of Spaniards in conflicts, the program presented by Almudena Ariza that delves into ten world problems through the experiences of those who live in those countries. The first episode, premiered yesterday at the BCN Film Fest, is dedicated to the problem of arms in the US.
Almudena Ariza, a TVE journalist, has spent more than half her life with a microphone in hand telling what is happening in the world. She has been a correspondent in Beijing, New York and Paris, and has covered catastrophes and world wars such as the one in Ukraine or Afghanistan. Now, she has wanted to collect the testimonies of Spaniards who live in conflict zones. "It's like fighting against a giant," says Carmen Espí, a high school teacher who has been teaching in public centers in the US for 30 years. Carmen, like other Spaniards who appear in the episode, tell the reporter what it is like to live in a country where there are more weapons than people.
In addition to weapons in the US, Spaniards in conflicts brings to the table a wide variety of topics, including homophobia in Poland, deforestation in the Amazon or violence in Mexico. In conversation with La Vanguardia, Ariza offered details about the program. This Wednesday the 26th will premiere on La 1, at 11:35 p.m.
More than half a lifetime counting the problems of the world from the front line. How would you describe these years?
Years of discovering, understanding, relativizing my own problems and being much more aware of the world we live in. Even today I have the feeling that I am learning and improving every day to connect with people and to fight against the challenges that journalism has now, such as misinformation or lack of credibility.
Why did you choose street reporting?
What interests me is telling things on the ground, being very close to the people who are affected by things that happen. I die in a newsroom, the street gives you everything.
Is the world worse than when it started?
It may give us that impression because what happens now is that we have a very high volume of information, and that means that what is news is always the dramatic and the negative. The journalist, in addition to reporting on a problem, has to be a source of action to improve it. I have learned that it is important not to stay only with the bad of a situation, but also to tell what solutions it can have.
Why did you prefer to tell what was happening outside instead of here?
From a very young age I saw myself traveling the world and discovering people very different from me and my environment. When I started with journalism I saw that it was possible to make a job out of it. I began to consider it when I saw Carmen Sarmiento, who for me has been one of the leading reporters in this country, covering wars and conflicts all over the world. She was the only woman I saw on TV doing these things.
Spaniards in conflicts shows ten conflicts in ten episodes. How did you choose them?
We wanted to have an overview of different conflicts in very different countries, because they are almost structural problems, such as the violence in Mexico or the arms problem in the US. We wanted to offer a wide range of topics, such as homophobia in Poland, and we have addressed environmental problems such as deforestation in the Amazon.
Has anyone been left out?
Yes, those who are missing have also been because it has not been easy to obtain visas. We have not done any war conflict, but I hope to be able to do it in a future edition. I would have liked to go to Iran, Syria or Ukraine, where I was already covering the war for three months, but it is not the same to go with a small team than with a larger one.
The first episode is dedicated to the problem of weapons in the US. In this episode he talks with Spaniards who live there with very different visions.
As in any conflict, it is interesting to hear different visions. Besides, American society is like that. When I covered the Trump campaign I saw all kinds of people, extremely intelligent and brilliant people, young people who defend an ideology that harms them... The same thing happens with weapons, you may not share the opinion of their defenders, but you understand that they think that way for their environment and their upbringing. I believe that from the understanding of the other's arguments you can start a dialogue to change things.
In this episode, he talks to a family that was at the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, where 59 people were killed at a country concert. Even they are not entirely against guns.
That family is an example of how the Spaniards who arrive in the United States are transformed. At first, the use of weapons seems outrageous, but in a society in which everyone has them, they end up saying: "I'm not going to be the only fool who doesn't have a weapon at home." Then you read that one in five families have had a death from gun violence.
Witnesses who are in favor of having weapons at home tell you that it is to defend yourself and your property.
There exists the law of the castle, where one has the right to protect his "fortress", but of course, there has to be a real threat. An African-American boy was recently shot in the head when he mistakenly entered a house to look for his brother. Faced with this clear case of racism, there are people who defend the attacker because he "had invaded his private property" from him.
He also talks to Carmen, a teacher at a public high school in Las Vegas. People like her live in constant fear.
Carmen is horrified, she has seen her students die and her classmates be attacked. The world of school shootings is brutal. I visited a university in Uvalde where a professor told me that the children came to class armed, since from the age of 18 they can enter with weapons. In Spain, a student can throw a chair at you, but the teachers there work knowing that there are armed people around them.
